In the past decade, skincare went through a quiet revolution. Not just in aesthetics - though the minimalist design shift was real - but in how products are made, labelled, and thought about. Ingredient transparency became expected. The microbiome entered the mainstream. Consumers started reading INCI lists and asking questions that major brands had never had to answer before.
Oral care, broadly speaking, didn’t.
Walk into any supermarket and the toothpaste aisle looks almost identical to how it did twenty years ago. The same blue and white tubes. The same three or four brands. The same claims about whitening, protection, freshness - made in broadly the same way.
The question is why. And the answer has a few parts.
The legacy problem
The global toothpaste market is dominated by three companies: Colgate-Palmolive, GSK (now Haleon), and Procter & Gamble. Between them, they hold the vast majority of shelf space in most markets. They’re formidably good at distribution, regulatory compliance, and consumer trust built over decades.
What they’re not incentivised to do is ask whether SLS is the best foaming agent, or whether synthetic whitening pigments are necessary, or whether a product designed to be used twice a day should perhaps be more carefully considered for its long-term effect on the oral microbiome. The existing formulas work, they’re approved, they sell. The business case for fundamental reformulation is weak.
The smaller challenger brands that began to emerge - tablets, charcoal powders, pastes in aluminium tubes - were mostly design-first or sustainability-first rather than science-first. They looked different, which captured a segment of the market that was ready for something new. But the formulation thinking didn’t always keep pace with the aesthetic.
The microbiome moment
What’s genuinely new in the past five years is the science. The oral microbiome - the community of 700-plus bacterial species that live in your mouth - is increasingly understood as a system to be supported rather than simply sterilised. Research has linked oral microbiome dysbiosis to conditions that extend well beyond dental health: cardiovascular disease, diabetes, cognitive decline, pregnancy complications.
This is the science that conventional oral care hasn’t caught up with. Products designed to kill bacteria as aggressively as possible, using alcohol rinses and broad-spectrum antimicrobials, were built on a simpler model. The current science suggests that model is incomplete.
The ingredient conversation
A parallel shift has been happening in consumer awareness. The same people who learned to look for parabens, sulphates, and synthetic fragrance in their skincare products have started applying the same scrutiny to toothpaste. And what they’re finding - SLS, titanium dioxide, sodium saccharin, PEG compounds, synthetic dyes - is prompting the kind of questions that incumbent brands are structurally resistant to answering.
This isn’t a conspiracy. Most of these ingredients are safe for most people in normal use. But ‘safe enough’ and ‘what you’d actively choose’ are different standards, and a growing number of people are applying the latter.
What conscious oral care actually looks like
It’s not about charcoal, oil pulling, or rejecting dentistry. It’s about applying the same thoughtfulness to the products you put in your mouth twice a day that you might apply to what you put on your skin or what you eat.
In practice, that means: reading ingredient lists. Choosing products where every ingredient earns its place. Preferring formulations that support the oral microbiome rather than simply attempting to eliminate it. Packaging that doesn’t create unnecessary plastic waste. Products that work, that feel good to use, and that you’re proud to have on your shelf.
It’s a higher bar. We think it’s the right one.
I set you a challenge - to have a look and see if there is one swap within your daily routine where you could make a conscious, better choice.
Beth x
Founder of Laro
→ Laro was built on the belief that oral care should be held to the same standard as the rest of your routine. Explore the range.
→ Explore the rest of our Word Of Mouth blog for more ingredients deep dives.