Nick Smart

I don't talk about the brand very much because I like to treat this account as a safe space to talk about oral health... BUT, I have been working on a new product for the last year and a half... and it's ready. We have a few tucked away to give away for our top creators but I begged @CalvinandNOBS to let me give some away to the X family. What is it? It's a microbiome balancer disguised as a breath mint. It looks and tastes like a breath mint but it's much more. Why did I make it? There is so much time for things to go wrong during the day between your morning and evening routine, and I found a cool way to make it an opportunity for things to go right. Ok so what does it actually do though? We call the formula FloraShift, and the name is very intentional. So many of us are walking around with an imbalance. The same type that can make you have IBS, acid reflux, a yeast infection can also happen in the mouth. This presents as bad breath, gum disease, cavities. We're even finding oral bacteria implicated in cancer, dementia and heart attacks. Oral dysbiosis causes a LOT of problems. Now, a mint won't solve that by itself but it *can* help nudge you in the right direction. FloraShift a symphony of ingredients chosen with the goal of restoring balance... encouraging the commensal and symbiotic bacteria, while curbing harmful bacteria. Not just thinking about what we can get rid of (like most products that just sterilize). Thinking about what we actually want to thrive: Xylitol: Starves cavity causing bacteria, stimulates saliva Beta-cyclodextrin: Plant-starch that will trap odor but more importantly impacts bacterial communication (quorum-quenching activity), interfering with bacterial chemical signaling. That communication can coordinate behaviors like biofilm formation. Basically a signal jammer for the bad bacteria. Magnesium citrate: Competition within the biofilm. Helping the bacteria we want hold their ground, and makes it harder for the pathogenic bacteria to hold on. L-arginine: Put useful bacteria to work. Certain mouth bacteria use it to produce acid-neutralizing compounds. Research also shows effects on biofilm structure and competition between health-associated and cavity-associated bacteria. Potassium bicarbonate: Buffer acid directly. A separate approach to acidity that doesn't depend on bacteria processing an ingredient first. It complements the bacterial route behind arginine. Potassium nitrate: The oral/systemic connection. Provides nitrate that certain mouth bacteria convert into nitrite, part of a pathway your body uses to make nitric oxide. Nitrate is also being studied for its effects on oral microbial communities. Zinc acetate: Odor chemistry and biofilm activity. Binds sulfur compounds involved in bad breath rather than just covering them up. Zinc also has laboratory evidence for antimicrobial and anti-biofilm activity. Peppermint + spearmint oils: More than the mint taste. They bring the flavor and aroma, but also have laboratory research behind their antimicrobial and anti-biofilm effects. So when I say FloraShift, I'm talking about the whole approach...What bacteria eat. How they communicate. How they compete. The biofilms they live in. The compounds they produce. That's what we @nobsroutines wanted to account for when making this. Not just some generic probiotic and calling it a day. Anyway, I have 20ish (maybe more) to give away. All I ask is that you comment with something that has helped your oral health, or even a problem you're currently struggling with. A share would be cool but not a requirement.