Wednesday, August 27, 2008

New product Wednesday, at Dallas-area stores: Crest Nature’s Expressions mint + green tea extract toothpaste

By Teresa Gubbins

The weekly New Product feature is ostensibly about food, which would rule out something like toothpaste. However, Crest Nature's Expressions mint + green tea extract toothpaste does contain green tea extract -- which is a food ingredient, sortof, even if the product is not edible.

"Nature's Expressions" -- a product line which includes two other flavors, lemon mint and peppermint oil -- is aimed to compete with famed natural-toothpaste maker Tom's of Maine, which has come into Crest's sights since it was purchased in 2006 by Crest's #1 competitor, Colgate-Palmolive.

Nature's Expressions mint + green tea starts off ambitiously with its happy list of natural ingredients, but folds halfway through with its admission that it contains artificial ingredients. And although green tea is said to have health benefits, it seems a stretch that they could be absorbed by brushing your teeth.

As for flavor, green tea is sometimes described as "grassy" and "fresh". But this toothpaste is mostly minty, although it's spearmint, which is way less minty than its more intense cousin peppermint.

Remember when there used to be just two kinds of toothpaste: Crest versus Colgate? Is the proliferation of "choices" on the toothpaste aisle not insane? Crest has 14 categories of toothpaste on its Web site, from "pro-health" to "tartar protection" to "baking soda". MAYBE the one "for sensitive teeth" offers actual value. But how are you supposed to choose between "cavity protection" and "whitening"? If you choose "whitening", does that make you a superficial sucker who doesn't care about getting cavities?

Toothbrushes have gotten similarly nutso, forcing consumers to make silly choices between models such as the "CrossAction Vitalizer PLUS", the "Deep Clean", and the "Breath Refresher" (with a "built-in tongue cleaner", whoa). And they're all bizarrely designed, with ridges and curves and kiddie colors. In the end, does anyone want anything more than a piece of plastic with bristles? But if that's all they offered, then they couldn't charge $4 and up.

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