Your Toothpaste is Getting a Glow Up

Bastét believes oral care is having more than just a skincare moment. 

For years now, skincare has gotten a major science-backed makeover. Consumers know to ask about peptides, ceramides, and clinically backed actives before adding anything to cart.

But oral care? Most of us are still buying Crest on sale at Walmart!

What we’re starting to see, though (mainly on IG), is a bunch of new brands that market their toothpaste like a skin serum you'd buy at Sephora. And among them is a Canadian oral care brand called Bastét, whose hero ingredient is 10% nano-hydroxyapatite, a biomimetic mineral that's chemically identical to the enamel your teeth are made of.

The co-founder, Alexandra Baker (who runs the company with her partner, Matthieu Savoie), made it clear to me that the idea for Bastét wasn't born from chasing this new trend in the slightest.

"My family has a difficult history with oral health. My parents both went through serious dental trauma, and it made me diligent about my own routine from a young age. Even so, my results never matched my effort," she said. "Around the same time, I went through a severe eczema flare that turned me into a relentless researcher of everything inflammatory versus anti-inflammatory in my life. When I finally applied that same scrutiny to my toothpaste, I realized it was the one thing I hadn't audited."

That realization sparked years of research, and eventually the creation of Bastét’s first launch, a French Mint Toothpaste. 

We've all clearly seen the beauty category expand into wellness over the past couple of years, with consumers thinking more about hormones, gut health, longevity, and inflammation than ever before.

So, do we think oral health deserves a seat at this table too? 

"The mouth being separate from the rest of the body is one of the biggest misconceptions," Alexandra shared with me. "We've spent years learning about the gut microbiome and, more recently, the skin microbiome, but the oral microbiome is still treated like it only matters for cavities and bad breath."

Brands like Bastét, therefore, need to build quite a bit of awareness around this topic and educate consumers on how spending more on their toothpaste is worth it. 

Personally, I wasn’t super familiar with nano-hydroxyapatite, but apparently it’s starting to become more well-known in the beauty space as an alternative to fluoride. 

Bastét formulates with 10% pure nano-hydroxyapatite, a concentration Alexandra says is intentionally backed by clinical research. She also points to one misconception she hopes consumers begin to understand: 

"A lot of brands market a percentage that looks impressive on paper, but what's often left out is that the nano-hydroxyapatite is first suspended in an aqueous solution. Once that's formulated into the toothpaste, the real active concentration ends up much lower than the headline number suggests."

I commend Bastét for not just having a hero ingredient to stand out but also being meticulous about sourcing the right particle size, shape, and concentration to maximize efficacy. That’s how it should be, especially with more premium products!

But if working for a skincare manufacturer has taught me anything, it’s that the science doesn’t really matter if no one wants to use your product. The experience and ritual (though I despise the over-use of this term) is everything.

And Alexandra seems aware of this: "We never treated those as a trade-off," she shared with me. "Every active ingredient earns its place clinically first. But we also knew that if brushing felt like medicine, people wouldn't stick with it long enough to see the benefit."

That's why Bastét developed the triple-mint system, cucumber distillate, creamy texture, and overall sensory experience alongside the active ingredients. You need to create something people genuinely look forward to using twice a day, or your product will flop (just keeping it real here)!

And like any premium beauty SKU, the brand needs to position the product as a special part of your day. "I hope brushing stops feeling like a chore they're rushing through and starts feeling like the two minutes in their day that are just for them—closer to how people treat their skincare routine than how they treat their toothpaste," Alexandra shared. 

I do think at a time when many consumers are spending more intentionally, premium oral care seems like a surprising category to get into, but Alexandra feels the opposite.

"When people pull back spending, they don't stop buying things that make them feel good—they get more selective about which categories deserve that spend," she said. 

But let’s be real - a tube of toothpaste that lasts a couple of months occupies a very different price equation than many prestige beauty purchases in consumers' minds.

So, you let me know: If skincare spent the last decade teaching consumers to think more deeply about barrier health and microbiomes, is oral care really next?