Product Review: Compostable Dental Care from Oath Essentials

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It’s that time of year when many of us are floundering - or maybe completely foundering, depending on how it’s going - in our attempts to stay true to our New Year’s Resolutions. I didn’t make any specific goals this year, although I usually do make a few related to gardening and foraging. Did any of you readers make resolutions this year? If yours was to make more eco-friendly choices, allow me to offer you a little bit of inspiration. 

Oath Essentials approached me a while back to test out their low waste dental care products, and since I often do eco-friendly product reviews I thought sharing these with my readers would be a great fit. The fact that they are fellow Canadians, made me even happier to do the review. I feel that this is a good place to remind my readers that since I don’t want this blog to be overrun with sponsored content, I make a point of only reviewing products that I have personal experience with and only make recommendations that I really feel I can stand behind.

Oath Essentials takes pride in the transparency of their information, and they are right to do so. This is not just someone jumping on the eco-conscious trend and starting a company with vague platitudes about saving the Earth. Every product has detailed background information on sourcing and manufacturing. They also make a point of getting any certifications available to them, even going as far as sourcing FSC certified Kraft paper for the packaging materials. Detailed instructions on how to best dispose of each product are also given. A great example is the information on how to use pliers to remove the nylon bristles from the bamboo toothbrush handles. Many bamboo toothbrush suppliers seem to be intentionally vague about what to do when it’s time to switch out your toothbrush. Some just vaguely state “compostable” on the package, and ignore the fact that the bristles are still plastic. A few mention to “remove the bristles before composting”, and leave it at that. I think that Oath Essentials has the right idea in explaining in such detail. I would imagine that a lot of bamboo toothbrushes either end up in the compost with their bristles intact, or just thrown in the garbage if their owners are unsure of or too lazy to figure out how to dispose of them properly.

When my package of test products arrived in the mail I was so glad to find that the packaging was truly all paper. This has sadly not been the case with every “zero waste” product I’ve been sent to review. I received a multicolour pack of four toothbrushes, and a couple packs of the compostable silk dental floss. Oath Essentials also surprised me by throwing in a selection of their stainless steel straws, and while they aren’t officially part of this review I liked them so much I felt they deserved a mention as well. 

I like to get the negative points out of the way first in my reviews, but happily in this case there aren’t very many to report, and they aren’t very consequential issues. With the toothbrushes my only negative is more of a personal preference. I tend to prefer a slightly larger area of bristles in my toothbrushes. I don’t know if I brush too intensely, but I found that these show wear a little faster than I’m used to with toothbrushes that have a larger head. When it comes to the dental floss, my only area of concern was that I think the little tab that cuts the floss off for you on the lid could have a better angle. The motion for pulling out the floss and cutting it off was less fluid than I am used to with other dispensers. 

Like I said, very small details. No fundamental flaws here!

Now onto the good stuff. One thing I absolutely love is the option to sign up for a toothbrush subscription! My life is hectic, and I find shopping for recurring purchase like this eliminates a lot of stress, so that is something I would absolutely sign up for. The fact that you also get a discount by doing so is an added bonus. The price point on these is also much better than some of the others. The fact that I can order without worrying about an exchange rate really helps! I really like the shape and contour of the handle of the brushes, and that you can get a pack with multiple bristle colours (great for telling whose toothbrush is whose). While I personally found the bristle head a little on the small side, it’s perfect for little kid sizes mouths, and the soft bristles are perfect for family members of every age. The bristles are nylon, so they have to go in the garbage instead of the compost, but I appreciate that they are high quality bristles that are the same ones recommended by dentists, and that are used in conventional toothbrushes. Dental hygiene is important, and I am glad that Oath Essentials believes this too! One day I’m sure someone will invent bristles that do a great job of cleaning teeth, and are compostable. 

What the dental floss refills look like without the stainless steel canister.

The dental floss is also great, and something I am going to continue buying even after using up what I was sent for this review. A standout feature of this is that after you run out of the floss you can buy refills to use inside your stainless steel container. The floss is made from silk that is harvested in such a way that no worms were harmed. While this may be a problem for some vegans (I’m not sure what the verdict is on harvesting silk from abandoned cocoons, maybe some of my vegan readers can chime in on the comments and let me know how they might navigate this issue), it ensures that the floss is compostable. I often find myself running into this kind of issue with zero-waste products. Often to make a vegan version of something we are forced into using plastic, but then the resulting thing isn’t compostable. My preference is always to choose what will break down naturally, but I understand were vegans are coming from too. Sometimes there aren’t easy answers! The silk is spun into floss, and then is coated in a natural wax derived from plants, and the end result is very durable and stands up well to stubborn popcorn kernels and the like. I have to admit that I was more used to artificially minty floss than I realized, so the absence was a little weird to begin with, but I quickly got used to it. One side benefit of having unflavoured dental floss on hand is that now I have the perfect thing to cut my next batch of cinnamon rolls!

I did end up making cinnamon rolls after writing this review, and I was right - this is the just the tool for the job!

If you can’t already tell, I am happy to say I highly recommend Oath Essentials and their products, and I hope you’ve found my insights helpful. If you are looking for more details you’ll enjoy poking around their online shop where this is a wealth of information.

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This review was sponsored by Oath Essentials. I was paid for my time, as well as given free products to test. All opinions stated - positive or negative - are my own.

Happy New Year!

For the past couple years I’ve spend a considerable amount of December hand making and writing our family holiday cards. I bought supplies and made a plan for this year as well, but about halfway through the month I realized I would never be done in time, and besides that there were so many other things calling my attention. Learning to let go and prioritizing has been a theme of our year since Baby Forager made her appearance nearly four weeks ahead of schedule (and thankfully with no serious complications).

All of that said, I missed sending the cards for the point of connection they create. So many of our friends are spread out all over the world and sending a tangible note to show how much we value them was a big part of why I made a point of sending out cards each year. It’s a small gesture, but one I felt was important to continue in some way. A dear friend I know shared her Christmas letter on her blog, and it suddenly clicked that I could, and should do something similar!

As I alluded to earlier, this year has been quite an adjustment now that our little family has grown by one. We also spent the year settling into our new rented apartment. That was quite a big change that brought some great things (a planned, intentional living space, not just a randomly configured basement retrofitted as a suite!) and some challenges (where to put all the plants and the massive piano?). In a lot of ways we still feel like we’re settling in since there has been so much change in such a short amount of time.

Along with the new baby, and newish house, this year also brought a newly minted Master’s degree for Mr. Forager. He’s been working toward this goal for the past five years so having that finished is a huge weight off all our minds! We’re so proud of him, and he’s looking forward to having more time to work on some other projects that have been sidelined these past years (new Abram’s Epilogue album is in the works!).

Little Forager is enjoying his last year at home before heading off to school next fall. I was warned how quickly littles grow up, but I still can’t quite believe it! In some ways we’re so ready for the change, but in others not at all!

As for me I’m looking forward to more music teaching, and obviously working further on this blog. It’s been a great year of exploring my city and the surrounding area, and I’m excited for even more amazing adventures next year!

A Very Amateur Mycologist

Each January I set aside some time to create a list of gardening and foraging related goals to help focus my year. The list of goals for 2019 included a focus on mushrooms, and lucky for me this was one of the best years possible for it!

Mushroom covered tree in in the Houston Trail in Langley, BC.

Up until this year my experience with wild mushrooms included only what I’ve purchased in farmers markets and gourmet grocery stores. I’ve seen mushrooms growing along trails and in the garden, but never spent a large amount of time observing them or learning very much about them.

The overall weather this year was comparatively wet and mild. We had almost no wildfire smoke this summer so it was perfect for outside adventures, and in the fall it seemed like there were mushrooms popping up everywhere no matter where I looked.

Above: Some unknowns - maybe russula species? Unidentified Agaricus, and a Suillus brevipes (“Short Stemmed Slippery Jack”).

Now that people know I’m interested in wild mushroom hunting I have significantly more articles about fatal mushroom poisonings forwarded to my inbox. Others have actually expressed interest in learning more themselves, and because of that I thought I’d summarize what I’ve learned this season.

Cultivated oyster mushrooms from the Bonneau Family Farm at the Kamloops Farmers’ Market.

Some of the best learning experiences I’ve had were through being a part of the Mushroom Identification Group on Facebook. At this time of year it’s great because there aren’t a lot of mushrooms to be found when the snow starts falling, but there are members in that group from all over the world posting daily, so there is lots of opportunity to study. There are some real experts on that group so it’s a good way to get your feet wet and learn some characteristics to pay attention to when you do get a chance to get outside and see some live specimens.

I also recommend a field guide. Published and officially vetted ones by experienced mycologists are best, but I wouldn’t rule out some trustworthy online sources too. It seems there is still a lot that remains to be discovered in kingdom fungi, and the publication process is a slow one, so some online resources might even be more up to date.

Above: two unknown. Trametes versicolor (“Turkey Tail”), and possibly some type of coral mushroom.

One thing I had hoped to do this year was to find someone experienced to go mushroom hunting with. It seems like that will have to wait for another season. I almost got a chance to go pick shaggy parasol mushrooms with a friend, but the weather and schedules didn’t allow for it. There’s always next year though!

The other thing that has been immensely helpful has just been getting outside and finding and closely observing all the mushrooms I can. My friends in hiking groups always laugh at me because I’m always stopping to pick up whatever fungi I find and taking photos. There is no danger of handling any mushroom. Even the most fatally toxic ones can be handled, and even tasted without issue. All mycotoxins require digestion to cause any harm to a human.

I’ve learned that if you’re taking photos for identification purposes you want to make sure you get one from underneath so the gills are visible, and it sometimes helps to see a cross section. Taking a note of the location you found it and the substrate it was growing on can be important for identification as well, especially if you are posting to the Facebook group or asking someone to help you figure out what you’ve found. There are even some mushrooms where the smell and taste can provide clues. There are some mushrooms that are so difficult to puzzle out that a microscope is necessary, but don’t let that intimidate you. There is so much to learn and experience just by being outside and observing what you find.

Baby mushrooms forming on a fallen log on the Houston Trail in Langley, BC. Does anyone know if that leafy plant is western wild ginger?

One of the best things of all was bringing Little Forager along on some mushroom hunting walks this fall. He’s growing up so fast and walked the entire trail loop (almost) by himself! It’s just so amazing to watch him grow and a real privilege to help him discover the world!

Little Forager triumphantly holds a russula mushroom he found that was bigger than his face. He promptly smashed it to bits which is fine because then the spores get released really well and hopefully even more grow next year!

First Growing Season on the Balcony

At this point in the year most gardening tasks are complete - although I have to admit to having quite a bit of clean-up chores left - and I thought it would be nice to write a little bit about my experience this year with a balcony garden.

I wrote a post earlier in the season about how I was going about garden planning for such a small space, and here on the other side of things I’ve learned a lot. This post will just be about the general experience of the balcony - I’ll be writing up some harvest totals in a few weeks for those of you who are interested.

There are a lot of considerations when it comes to growing on a balcony. One thing I didn’t imagine ahead of time was that I’d end up with quite a pest problem. Without the natural ecosystem I’d encouraged in my previous gardens I found myself reaching for the insecticidal soap more frequently than I might like. My other main concern was keeping everything watered enough. My south facing balcony is very hot, and there is a large overhang which means it is almost completely dry as well. Not being able to rely on rain to keep my plants alive took a lot of adjustment. Not everything thrived as I got used to that, but I’ll chalk that up to learning experience.

There were a few surprises along the way. One was that because of the heat I had success with a different variety of crops than I was used to. The last garden was cool and shady on a north facing slope, so things like cucumbers never really took off there. Here I was able to pick quite a few off my two climbing plants. The heat also meant that my seasons were quite extended. My lime and olive trees were thriving outside even in the early spring and I just brought them inside yesterday. Allowing them to have access to outside longer really helped them. I’m hoping I can be more on top of their care through the winter and that they both get a good start next year. Maybe I’ll even get some limes again!

I’ve also - surprisingly - enjoyed the space constraint this year. I often bite off more than I can chew when I’m working on projects, and this year I was glad to have less to garden and more time to focus on my growing family. Life as a family of four brings a whole lot more chaos, not to mention that Mr. Forager also finished up his masters degree this summer and started a new role at work. It’s been a very full year!

I also wanted to create some space for our family to use outside. We moved things around a few times, but ultimately found space for a small bistro table and a propane grill. There’s some space for Little Forager to drive his toy cars, and even Baby Forager has enjoyed wiggling on a blanket outside.

We’ve all enjoyed having the balcony as a little extra space seeing as our apartment is so tiny. A surprising amount of wildlife has visited the garden - including pollinators like swallowtail butterflies - as well as birds and chipmunks. I wasn’t expecting this seeing as we’re surrounded by concrete parking lot, but to quote Jurassic Park, ‘life finds a way’.

Product Review: Zero Waste Cartel’s Bamboo Toothbrushes

Hello again, lovely blog readers! It’s been a hot minute since I’ve written anything on here, and I lay the blame squarely on these two beautiful distractions:

Quite a while back I was gifted some bamboo toothbrushes and a bamboo travel toothbrush case from Zero Waste Cartel, and now that it’s been a few months of my family and I using them I thought I’d better pop on here and let you know how we like them. Spoiler alert: with some caveats - we really liked them!

I’ve tried a few brands of bamboo toothbrushes before, and they’ve all had their positive qualities as well as their drawbacks, so let me get the negatives out of the way first.

The main issue I find common to zero waste and eco friendly products is cost, and these toothbrushes are unfortunately no exception. Although - as of writing this - this pack of 10 brushes I was gifted is currently on a 50% off sale, but the normal price is $41.00, and that doesn’t include shipping. I did see on their website that if your order is over $75 the shipping is free, but it wasn’t clear if that would apply to international orders or not. For me buying things from the USA comes with the added challenge of the exchange rate. If I were to buy these toothbrushes, they would cost me $54.16 before taxes and shipping (which would all also have the exchange rate applied to it). Some people might be able to afford to spend more than $5 per toothbrush, but that’s not my reality at the moment.

I do want to reiterate that this cost issue isn’t specific to Zero Waste Cartel, so don’t necessarily take this to be a negative point aimed specifically at them. Unfortunately, there are loads no of eco products that are out of my family’s reach financially. I hope that as plastic becomes less common, that some of these alternatives can come down in price so that everyone can afford to be good to the planet.

I do have to say that if the cost wasn’t an issue I would absolutely buy these toothbrushes, because I think they are great! I also had a look at the rest of the products on the website, and it certainly would be easy to spend enough to qualify for free shipping since so many of the products looked useful and well constructed. Zero Waste Cartel has been very thoughtful about their approach to packaging, and I love the little quips all over it like ‘open to save the planet’! They also donate to tree planting organizations with each purchase, and it lets you know that right on the front of the box. This is truly a product you can feel good about buying.

The only plastic involved here is the nylon bristles. When I asked if they were working on a completely biodegradable version, I was assured that they were hopeful one would be developed, but that in the meantime they are going with the bristle that is most recommended by dentists. I am happy with this answer because dental health is so important - I remember hearing that good dental hygiene could add four years to your life! I’m glad they are considering the quality of their product as well as wether or not it is eco-friendly. Sometimes health concerns trump whether or not you can compost something, in my opinion.

You can also make sure these bristles see their share of use because after you switch to a new one, you can still use that old toothbrush for cleaning! I always keep an old one in with the rest of my cleaning brushes. They are really great for cleaning jewelry and other delicate pieces too, since they are a soft nylon.

I also really like the travel toothbrush holder (also made of bamboo). Since receiving the brushes and writing this review I’ve actually had the chance to use it a lot and take it on a few trips. I was initially concerned about mould. I know there are claims that bamboo has anti-bacterial qualities and whatnot, but I still wasn’t convinced that putting a wet piece of wood in a dark, semi enclosed space was going to go well. I’m happy to say that I was completely wrong, and have had no issues at all with mould or anything funky like that.

These toothbrushes have worked well for all three members of my family who need them (Baby Forager still has no teeth). They are very durable - we’ve been using the same ones for a couple months now and are just starting to feel the need to switch to new ones. One super tiny drawback is that since we are all using the same package, we’ve had to use a sharpie and make little marks on them to tell who’s is who’s, but we’ve done this for every brand of bamboo toothbrush we’ve tried. I noticed that there are specific kids toothbrushes for sale by Zero Waste Cartel, and while that would be nice, these brushes are on the smaller side compared to some other brands we’ve tried (smaller both in handle size and bristle area), so we’ve found using them for a pre-school aged child hasn’t been a problem.

All said, I absolutely would recommend these toothbrushes. For my family we will continue to buy what we can afford, but when it fits in the budget we do try to buy bamboo toothbrushes instead of conventional plastic ones. Zero Waste Cartel is definitely a company I would consider ordering in the future for any eco friendly product needs.

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Zero Waste Cartel provided me with a set of 10 bamboo toothbrushes and a bamboo travel case free of charge in exchange for this review. All thoughts and opinions expressed are my own.