Wednesday, August 27, 2008
New product Wednesday, at Dallas-area stores: Crest Nature’s Expressions mint + green tea extract toothpaste
Green tea infiltrates yet-another category of consumer products.
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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Pavel Lishin, says:
This sounds kind of disgusting.
Verified
1 year, 3 months agoLink to this comment | Suggest removal
Teresa Gubbins, says:
i accidentally ate it at first. the green tea part somehow superseded my awareness that it was toothpaste and i was thinking of it as jello or something. awful
Staff
1 year, 3 months agoLink to this comment | Suggest removal
James Scott, says:
I don't mind when companies try to enter a new market with a new product - but if you're going to do it, don't just slap a new label on the same old crap you sell and call it 'natural'. I don't think they understand one of the concepts behind Tom's is that it doesn't taste like you're eating a piece of candy before going to bed.
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1 year, 3 months agoLink to this comment | Suggest removal
Collin Gouldin, says:
does it contain fluoride?
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1 year, 3 months agoLink to this comment | Suggest removal
John McClelland, says:
Can they make it any harder to decide what toothpaste to buy? It gets too complicated when I have to stare for a good 10 minutes making a decision on toothpaste when I could be using that time in the ice cream aisle.
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1 year, 3 months agoLink to this comment | Suggest removal
Teresa Gubbins, says:
well said, john mcclelland. BRAVO.
collin, yes to the fluoride. on the side of the box, it says "A trusted Crest formula now with <em>natural</em> peppermint, <em>natural</em> anise, <em>natural</em> menthol, and <em>natural</em> green tea extract (also contains artificial ingredients)."
this was what cracked me up. their big effort to make it sound so NATURAL. but "trusted Crest formula" is a nice way of saying that it's essentially the same old stuff they always use (exactly as James Scott says) ... ingredients include sorbitol, hydrated silica, tetrasodium pyrophosphate, sodium lauryl sulfate, disodium pyrophosphate, xanthum gum, and then the various carbomers, poloxamers, and dyes we all treasure in all of our consumer products
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1 year, 3 months agoLink to this comment | Suggest removal
Jason Rice, says:
My default statement for this many wonderful trends in a single formulation:
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1 year, 3 months agoLink to this comment | Suggest removal
sisterhazel, says:
Jason, only if it's a tomato tortilla wrap.
I have reverted to going into the discount stores and buying those long sheets of toothbrushes, kind of like the lollipops in the cellophane wrappers, all connected. (but i buy no toothpaste there, rumor has it there is antifreeze in the stuff!)
Anonymous
1 year, 3 months agoLink to this comment | Suggest removal
Brett Hoerner, says:
does it contain fluoride?
Green teas contain a high amount of fluoride, uh, naturally. So if you're afraid of fluoride you won't be doing yourself any service by going to even the most hardcore hippie commune and consuming green tea that hasn't been touched by the dirty hands of science.
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1 year, 3 months agoLink to this comment | Suggest removal
Collin Gouldin, says:
Brett, good point (although i think they probably add more of it in with their "trusted crest formula")<br> Green tea also contains a bit of aluminum...
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1 year, 3 months agoLink to this comment | Suggest removal
Lisa Lawrence Merritt, says:
"My default statement for this many wonderful trends in a single formulation"
Heavy on the "single formulation" part.
All Crest toothpaste is the same damn stuff regardless of the package- all they do is change the flavor or color.
People are stupid.
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1 year, 3 months agoLink to this comment | Suggest removal
Alex Bentley, says:
Lisa, did you <a href="http://www.pegasusnews.com/news/2008/aug/27/census-bureau-report-determines-most-affluent-city/#c33336">get up on the wrong side of the bed</a> this morning? :)
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1 year, 3 months agoLink to this comment | Suggest removal
Lisa Lawrence Merritt, says:
TemperPedic isn't all it's cracked up to be.
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1 year, 3 months agoLink to this comment | Suggest removal
Pavel Lishin, says:
But... it's made out of space-age materials.
(Which, I think, means that those materials expired like 40 years ago.)
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1 year, 3 months agoLink to this comment | Suggest removal
Scott, says:
I thought that was a slug creeping across the foreground.
Anonymous
1 year, 3 months agoLink to this comment | Suggest removal
jpiowa, says:
Try it, you might like it. My husband and I love the taste - not super sweet like other drug store brands, like I'm eating candy. (Since it is not so sweet, it may take 2-3 uses to appreciate the lack of sugar rush.) You only need to use half as much, so a tube lasts longer, not so foamy so you don't have it running down your chin, and the gunk on your teeth gets brushed away.
Tom's of Maine's website says they put 5 of the sme items in their tp that you criticized Crest's Green Tea for: sorbital, xanthan gum (both made from corn), sodium lauryl sulfate, hydrated silica, and poloxamers. The di- and tetra sodiums are also used in chicken nuggets and soy-based meat alternatives, so you're probably injesting that already, getting your tartar removed while eating those items, too. Crest's writers don't say the tea adds any health benefits, and do say it contains artifical stuff. By your own definition, so does Tom's.
The posts and the article above seem like unresearched, unfair bashing... I'm just sayin'... It does what you buy a tp to do, with a more grown-up flavor. My family likes the flavor a lot, it has the good points I mention above,and it is at a lower price point than Tom's (whose Stewardship I applaud but can't always afford). Please give the product a second, unbiased, try. Sincerely,
Anonymous
1 year, 1 month agoLink to this comment | Suggest removal