Humble Toothbrushes Review
Reviewed by Margaret Mann
I have had the toothbrushes for almost 2 weeks now, and I feel that this has been long enough to give a balanced opinion.
The Humble Company was established in Sweden in 2013 and was founded by dentist Noel Abdayem. The company pride themselves on helping less fortunate children in parts of the world without access to good oral care providing dental hygiene products without depleting natural resources. Every purchase from them (they also manufacture other eco products) goes towards helping fund projects for children in need.
The toothbrushes (2 of them) arrived in a paper package inside a cardboard box which is a pleasant change from all of the plastic that seems to accompany products these days. The toothbrushes are made of bamboo and advertised as being 100% recyclable, organic, vegan and cruelty free. The bristles are however nylon, and the care and disposal information on the paper packaging suggests that the bristles are removed by pliers or that the head of the brush be cut off prior to disposal. Whether people would be willing to do that for recycling the product I’m not so sure! The packaging states that the brush would turn to soil in the compost bin after a couple of months. Personally, I would continue to use the brush after it had reached the end of its dental life for cleaning awkward areas (in the bathroom etc.) getting even more use out of it before disposing of it as stated.
The bamboo (Moso-Bamboo) used for these brushes are said to be “panda friendly” as pandas don’t eat this species of bamboo – its leaves don’t grow until it reaches 5 metres and apparently pandas will only eat what they can reach!
The brushes were labelled as adult soft, and I chose the one with yellow bristles and my husband the one with dark blue. The brush was quite comfy to hold and although the bristles were rather soft, they seemed to clean my teeth well. I’m used to my electric toothbrush so it did feel different cleaning my teeth with a manual brush.
The brush did feel quite unusual in my mouth once wet and if I’m perfectly honest the bamboo felt like wood against my teeth and set them on edge! That was just my opinion (I’ve always had a bit of a thing about having wood in my mouth, ice lollies were always a bit of a challenge!) but my husband loved his brush and said that his teeth felt really nice and clean. He agreed with me that it was comfortable to hold and got to the back of his mouth easily.
The brush dries quickly and didn’t seem to deteriorate after cleaning/rinsing it in water. It did go a bit lighter in colour but was none the worse for it.
The idea of the Humble Brush is an admirable one with its eco credentials, but personally I wouldn’t want to change from my electric brush to this or any other manual brush. I do have solar panels to generate my electricity though so it’s not all that bad! My husband enjoyed using his brush and would possibly change to a Humble Brush, perhaps choosing one with medium bristles as he prefers a firmer brush.
Rating: 4/5
RRP: £4
For more information visit thehumble.co. Available to buy from www.boots.com.
