Waken Toothpaste Review: Why Its Our Go To | Pick Ethical
Continuing our household mission to swap our everyday essentials for eco-friendly alternatives, we began exploring the more sustainable kinds of toothpaste that were available.
We’ve tried a few eco-friendly brands in our household, and we’ve finally stuck with Waken as our go-to, which has prompted me to review why Waken toothpaste is our favourite eco-friendly toothpaste.
I’m really impressed by its refreshing flavour, which left my teeth and breath feeling fresh and clean, as well as its consistency – which is similar to most other toothpastes. With its completely recyclable packaging, natural ingredients, and most importantly budget-friendly price this product has become a household staple!
One particularly nice thing about the tube design is that the lid is flat which means it can stand up straight on side of my basin. It sounds petty, but it looks much more neat than laying the toothpaste down flat on the side of my bathroom basin!
The toothpaste is like any other toothpaste you’d be used to, which is good!
The tube is also a little smaller than most at 75ml, making it more handy to put in your travel wash bag.
On the other hand, you perhaps are getting slightly less for your money compared to a standard tube of toothpaste. In comparison a standard tube of Colgate Total is 100ml.
I won’t go into specific detail about all the ingredients, but I will mention this toothpaste isn’t made of 100% natural ingredients. Sodium saccharin, for example, is an artificial sweetener.
However, I did look up the safety of all the ingredients and there are no nasties in there.
Aqua, Sorbitol, Hydrated Silica, Glycerin, Lauryl Glucoside, Xanthan Gum, Aroma, Disodium Pyrophosphate, Tetrapotassium Pyrophosphate, Sodium Fluoride, Sodium Saccharin, Allantoin.
One of the most important ingredients in this list is fluoride. Fluoride is a naturally occurring mineral and a key ingredient in toothpaste because it helps prevent tooth decay by strengthening the tooth enamel and reducing the amount of acid produced by bacteria on the teeth.
If you were hoping that Waken would be fluoride-free unfortunately all of their toothpastes contain this ingredient.
You’ll see on the website that the toothpaste is ‘SLS-free’. I’ll quickly elaborate on what it means.
SLS is Sodium Lauryl Sulfate which is used in a lot of cleaning and personal care products like shampoo. It is essentially the ingredient that turns liquids into foam.
SLS can be obtained from petroleum, or plants like palm and coconut. SLS derived from petroleum supports the use of fossil fuels and from palm: deforestation. On top of that, SLS is considered toxic to aquatic life, and can even cause skin irritation to us. It’s not nice stuff.
Not only is the toothpaste tube made from recycled aluminium, but it’s also able to be recycled endlessly when you’re finished with it. You won’t need to open and clean out the tube either, you can just treat it like you would with general aluminium recycling.
It does have a plastic cap that can be recycled but you’ll need to remove it first.
The packaging itself is made of cardboard from FSC sources, so that can either go in your compost to add a bit of brown material or can be put in your recycling bin.
The tube’s design is striking and if I’m honest, it looks quite sleek. I’m a little ashamed to say I’m a bit proud of my bathroom, and the aluminium tube gives the toothpaste a premium feel to it.
You might have noticed this metal Tube Squeezer I’m using – this is so useful for making sure you get every last drop out of the tube before you throw it away! It’s especially useful with these aluminium tubes as they can be squeezed really tightly.
You can find them on Waken’s website, or there are several available on Amazon.
Overall, I’m impressed with the sustainable packaging of the Waken Spearmint Toothpaste. It’s a step towards more sustainability, and I’m happy to support a company that shares that value.
If you’ve ever made the mistake of buying Arm & Hammer you’ll know that some flavours of toothpaste taste foul. Waken, on the other hand, is very pleasant!
The spearmint flavour that I’ve tried is refreshing, it’s not too strong and it’s just the right amount of mint that you’d want for a toothpaste.
I suspect if you like a strong-tasting toothpaste this might be a taste a bit weak for you, but personally, I’m content with my toothpaste tasting either quite strong or weak so Waken suits me fine.
One important thing to raise that will differ from conventional toothpaste is that Waken does not foam up as much as conventional toothpaste, but I personally don’t mind this.
It still does a great job of cleaning my teeth and leaving my breath smelling fresh.
It may surprise you to know that many leading toothpastes are not actually vegan! They can contain animal-derived ingredients like glycerin, propolis, and certain flavourings and colourings.
I’m not vegan myself but as someone who values vegan and cruelty-free products, it’s good to see that Waken toothpaste is certified vegan-friendly. It contains no animal-derived ingredients and has not been tested on animals.
Almost always, good quality things cost more money. Incredibly that’s not the case with Waken’s toothpastes.
Currently, the Spearmint toothpaste is an affordable £2 per tube on Amazon, with an RRP of £4.50 on the Waken website. For comparison, I’ve looked up the price compared the UK’s four other most bought toothpastes (yes that research exists if you’re interested!):
| Brand | Price on Amazon (Dec 2023) |
|---|---|
| Waken Spearmint Toothpaste | £2 |
| Colgate Total | £1.65 |
| Oral-B | £2.05 |
| Sensodyne | £2.49 |
| Aquafresh | £2.06 |
The price for Waken is very competitive compared to the leading toothpaste brands.
This is a nice surprise given that a lot of natural and sustainable alternatives are priced higher than the most popular products on the market.
Waken is without a doubt my favourite sustainable toothpaste brand. It’s a like for like swap for regular toothpaste that’s recyclable, uses natural ingredients, and importantly is really low-priced!
🌱 Vegan-friendly🙌 100% recyclable packaging🇬🇧 British Business
💧 Natural Flavouring