We're so excited to share our conversation with Belinda Lau and Dr. Casey Lau, the co-founders of ELIMS, a sustainable, science-backed oral care brand. Enjoy!
ELIMS makes delicious toothpaste. What's different about it compared to everything else on the market?
There certainly is no shortage of toothpaste options out there! So, we had to make ours really special.
We started talking to dentists and dental hygienists, and they all said the same thing, “we don’t have data behind it but it just seems like our patients who use natural toothpaste come in with more dental problems”. YIKES.
That’s why we formulated our toothpaste with 10% nano-hydroxyapatite, the only naturally-derived and clinically backed alternative to fluoride. And at 10% concentration, it is clinically and scientifically proven to remineralize enamel as well as standard fluoride. We also use other clincal ingredients like xylitol and baking soda, for extra cleaning power. Our toothpaste is always sustainable and packaged in tubes made of sugarcane – not virgin plastic.
And our unique flavor blends add fun to a not so fun task (brushing your teeth)!
https://elims.co/collections/toothpastes
How did you come up with the idea for this brand, and why?
One day, Belinda was stuck in LA traffic (a pretty common scene!) and she was listening to a podcast about social impact. In that moment, she knew she had to do the same with her life, and combine her experience as a biomedical engineer with some kind of social entrepreneurship. But what could an engineer do with social impact?
That’s when it came to her: Sustainable and science backed oral care!
She ran home and told her husband, Dr. Casey, who is a dentist, and he loved the idea. For years, they have both felt so bad about the amount of oral care products that are thrown away both at home with their three kids and at Casey’s dental office.
Sustainable oral care for the win!
What are your professional backgrounds and how did that play into this brand?
Dr. Casey Lau has been a board certified dentist for over 20 years with a thriving practice in Los Angeles, CA, and Belinda Lau is a biomedical engineer who spent 15 years building life changing medical devices.
This is why it is so important that our ELIMS products actually work, are backed by science and are truly sustainable (absolutely no green washing!).
You just came out with an eco-friendly toothbrush. Tell us about that!
We just launched our bamboo electric toothbrush head that is compatible with Philips Sonicare toothbrushes! This was Dr. Casey’s genius.
We spent 1.5 years trying to develop a biodegradable toothbrush because there are over 1 billion toothbrushes that are thrown away in the US every year and they are not recyclable or biodegradable. Basically, they go straight to landfill, which breaks everyone’s hearts.
Essentially everyone on the planet has to brush their teeth, so if we could get this right, we could make a meaningful impact in reducing waste in your oral care routine. We tried many different materials over the years and found a happy balance with bamboo (naturally biodegradable) and plant-based castor oil for the bristles. We don’t use virgin plastic that is made of petroleum and fossil fuels, which is important to us and very harmful to the planet.
But neither one of us wanted to give up our Sonicare toothbrushes at home! So, we thought: we should make a replacement head for this brush! We’ve been using our bamboo toothbrush heads with our Sonicare base at home for 10 months now, and love it! It cleans teeth just as well as Sonicare brushes and looks so sleek on our bathroom counter. Plus it takes the guilt out of throwing away plastic brushes!
https://elims.co/collections/toothbrushes
Where can our oral care community learn more about you?
Find us at www.elims.co and https://www.instagram.com/elims.oralcare/