“I had to find that niche, that core community of people who were trying to solve the same problems that I was and who were passionate about the solution. But if I hadn’t found that, I think it would be tough to try to keep promoting your product and your brand without actually knowing where it fits.” —Belinda Lau
Every toothpaste tube and toothbrush we've ever used might still be existing somewhere on this planet! Plastic dental care products are silent environmental destroyers, with each toothbrush lingering for about 500 years in landfills and oceans.
Belinda Lau, a biomedical engineer with 15 years in medical device innovation, co-founded Elims with her dentist husband to transform oral care through sustainable, science-backed products. Motivated by the environmental impact of traditional dental care and her background in medical technology, she developed a breakthrough toothpaste using nano-hydroxyapatite that delivers clinical effectiveness while dramatically reducing plastic waste.
Tune in as Justine and Belinda explore NASA's nano hydroxyapatite technology, sustainable oral care packaging, TerraCycle's recycling innovation, clean ingredient alternatives to fluoride, bootstrapping a CPG business, growing business as a couple, flavor development strategies, dental professional insights, plus much more.
Meet Belinda:
With a background in biomedical and material science engineering and over 20 years of experience in the medical device industry, Belinda brings deep science and heart to every product. Inspired by a mission to create better-for-you, planet-friendly health care, she leads ELIMS with purpose, innovation, and impact. Belinda was named to the Forbes Next 1000 list and recognized by the Los Angeles Times as a Visionary CEO for her leadership in driving innovation and impact in sustainable consumer health.
Connect with NextGen Purpose:
Episode Highlights:
02:24 ELIMS: Bridging Sustainability and Dental Health
09:07 Nano Hydroxyapatite: An Alternative to Fluoride Developed by NASA
16:44 TerraCycling: Sustainability Beyond Product
24:29 Flavor Innovation: Making Toothpaste Fun Again
36:42 Power Couple Entrepreneurship
45:21 Funding Mistakes
Resources:
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Belinda Liau: (02:25):
Thank you so much, Justine. I'm so happy to
be here.
Justine Reichman: (02:29):
I'm excited for our community to get to know
you, to learn a little bit aboutyour product, where it comes
(03:37):
from, what inspires you, and howit differentiates? I think
there's a lot of things to coverfrom how it works to
sustainability and what you'retrying to achieve. So before we
get going, would you mind justexplaining to our listeners and
our viewers a little bit aboutwhat your product is?
Belinda Liau: (03:57):
Yeah. We're a biotech dentist crafted
sustainable oral care brand. Andwhen we started the business
back in 2019, the cross sectionbetween oral care and
sustainability wasn't there. Sowhat we saw in the market were
products that were clinicallyback, everything that you would
(04:19):
see on a target shelf, right?And we thought, okay, those
products produced a lot of likevirgin plastic that people are
throwing away constantly.There's some statistics out
there that say that for everytoothbrush you've ever used,
it's out there for 500 years.And every toothpaste tube that
you've ever used, it issomewhere degrading in a
(04:41):
landfill somewhere for 500years. And so when we saw those
stats, we thought, oral care issomething that everyone on the
planet has to do. Soessentially, every few months,
you're throwing away a tube oftoothpaste that's not
recyclable, a toothbrush, flosspicks. All of these things are
practically made out of plastic.So we thought, well, why isn't
(05:01):
there some intersection betweensomething that works to clean
your teeth, and then also someupgrade on the sustainability
side of things? And so on thesustainability side, we saw
these like bamboo toothbrushes,floss picks and tablet
toothpaste. And when we talk todental professionals, they would
(05:22):
tell us, people who use thosetypes of products would come
into their offices with moreproblems. So that was our aha
moment. When we wereinterviewing dental
professionals, we said, how canwe bridge the gap here? Because
obviously, the beauty communityand personal care products are
going towards cleaneringredients, more sustainable
(05:46):
packaging. But it somehow didn'thit the oral care industry just
until recently, and we feelproud that we were starting the
conversation aboutsustainability and the oral care
industry. We started lookingalso into the ingredients and
how they're sourced. If you readthe back of your toothpaste
(06:07):
tube, chances are you don't knowwhat most of those things are.
They're very long chemicallynames because they that's
exactly what they are. And so wethought, is there something that
we can do, given our backgroundswhich I'll get into in a second,
and sort of elevate the oralcare industry to get it to
cleaner better for youingredients, and safer to
(06:31):
swallow? These things are goinginto your mouth so they should
be better for you. But alsolevel up the sustainability side
in terms of the sourcing of thematerials, the packaging, the
ingredients, all of that stuff.And so that's what we're trying
to do. My background is, I'mactually a biomedical engineer,
and I spent over 15 yearsworking in the medical device
(06:54):
industry building all kinds ofmedical devices, from insulin
pumps, to spinal implants, toglucose sensors. And when I was
in that industry, I visit a lotof hospitals and meet with a lot
of clinicians patients in theirhomes, and a lot of medical
products are in these sterileplastic packaging. I always
(07:16):
would ask, why does it have tobe this material? Why can't it
be recyclable? Why does it haveto be virgin plastic? And
everyone say, oh, it's becauseyou have to keep these medical
products sterile. And I havequite challenged on that over
the years. And then on the otherside of things, my husband, he's
a dentist, and he's been adentist for almost 25 years.
(07:37):
When I would come home and tellhim about all the trash and
waste I would see in the medicaldevice industry, he would say,
well, you should see the dentaloffice. We just shrink wrap the
whole room just to go in andpoke in someone's mouth for just
a few seconds just to check onthings. Then you have to take
off the gloves, the mask, all ofthe plastic wraps, the bibs and
(07:59):
that all that goes into thetrash. And so we were like, we
should do something about this.We've got three kids at home who
are using the floss picks andthrowing away their toothbrush
every couple weeks. I don't knowwhy kids just wear down their
toothbrushes to flat in just amatter of days. We just felt
(08:23):
like there was a gap in themarket of finding something that
was something that actually isclinically backed and worked for
you, but also just making thingsjust a little bit more earth
friendly.
Justine Reichman: (08:35):
Was your initial interest in developing
something more about thesustainability end, or more
about what's in the product?
Belinda Liau: (08:44):
It started with the question about
sustainability. That's how itstarted. So we started looking
at all of these products thatyou would see, like I said, in
the oral care aisle at Target.We would say, is there anything
we can do to make this betterfor the Earth? Can we use more
recycled materials, bio basedmaterials, just for the
(09:05):
packaging alone? There's a lotof easy, low hanging fruit that
can be done there. And then whenwe started digging into it and
talking to dental professionalsand also to consumers, we
realized that the wave of cleanbeauty that swept through in the
last couple decades was comingto oral care, and we wanted to
(09:26):
be at the forefront of thatconversation. And so we started
digging into the ingredients.For example, teeth whitening
products have, you can'tpronounce any of those
ingredients. And so we thought,okay, well, is there a way we
can make this actually foodgrade ingredients? Can we make
it simpler? Can we just bring itdown from 23 ingredients to just
(09:50):
a handful of ingredients? Andthe answer is, yes, you can do
those things. And so it juststarted with sustainability, but
then it went down these rabbitholes of like, what else can we
do? How else can we make thisstuff better, but still be as
clinically valid as the goldstandards that are out there
(10:11):
that we've seen, that we've beenusing for years at home? So
that's how it started, andthat's how it evolved.
Justine Reichman: (10:19):
If we dig into the ingredients, I believe
that I read and understood thatthere was an alternative to
fluoride that you were using. Isthat correct?
Belinda Liau: (10:28):
Yes. So the alternative to fluoride is
called Nano-hydroxyapatite, andit's a big mouthful word. It is
a mouthful where I wish therewas a cooler way to say, maybe
we can reform a marketing termfor it. But basically,
(10:50):
hydroxyapatite is what yourteeth and your bones are already
made up. So the dentin, what'sunderneath your tooth enamel, is
like over 70% that'shydroxyapatite. The surface of
your teeth, the part that youcan touch right here, that's 97%
hydroxyapatite. So what we didis we said, okay, can we use
(11:12):
this ingredient to just bathe itin what your tooth is already
made of? I didn't inventnano-hydroxyapatite. The story
behind it is the nano version ofhydroxyapatite was developed by
NASA back in the 1970s, and theydeveloped it because they were
(11:36):
finding that astronauts weregoing into space. And after
they're in there for a couplemonths, sometimes a couple
years, and after the gravityactually reduces their bone
density, including their teeth,so they were coming back with
weaker teeth, getting cavitiesand things like that. And you
can't see a dentist in space.Not yet, at least. So that the
(12:00):
idea was, can we strengthen thisthe teeth of the astronauts? Not
using fluoride, but usingsomething different and
something better? And yes, ittotally works. And so the reason
we haven't really seen a lot ofthis in the US until recently is
because NASA sold the patent toa Japanese toothpaste company
(12:21):
back in the 1980s. The patentwas 10 years and extended for
another few more years. And soin Japan and Korea, they have
been benefiting from thisamazing mineral for so long for
almost 50 years. It's justslowly coming to the US. So
there's amazing, huge bodies ofstudies around
(12:43):
nano-hydroxyapatite and how itworks. You can just Google it,
and you'll just see a litany ofpublications, white papers,
clinical studies that all showthat it works just as well as
fluoride if it's used at a 10%concentration in your
(13:04):
toothpaste. So that's what weuse. A lot of companies out
there, they use what we call themarketing amount. They'll use
anywhere from point 2% to 2%which will get you some
benefits, but it won't get youthat same protection as
fluoride, the gold standard,unless it's at a 10%
concentration.
Justine Reichman: (13:24):
Why are some people doing it at a lower level
versus YOU doing it at a moreeffective and higher level?
Belinda Liau: (13:30):
It's cost. We sell our products at the same
price, but they're paying 80%less, maybe 90% less, and so
they get more margin, and theydon't have to disclose it.
Because the FDA has not requiredus to disclose the percentage. I
just feel like the guilty arealways nervous so they hide
(13:54):
things. And so we put it on ourpackaging, we put it on our
website so everyone clearlyknows that 10%, at least for
hydroxyapatite, is the goldstandard.
Justine Reichman: (14:05):
So does that mean? Are you suffering
financial aid? Is it a challengefor the company to be making
money while your margins are alittle bit lower, less than
these other companies? How isthat going to impact how you
drive the future of thebusiness?
Belinda Liau: (14:25):
Yeah, that's a good question. I think for us,
it really hangs on volume. Sowhen we started producing these
products at the beginning of thebusiness, we were just buying
the lowest amount, the MOQs. Andso obviously, the margin wasn't
as good as we wanted to be. Butwe've been in business for
almost four years now, and we'vebeen able to scale. And so we
(14:47):
get better pricing as we havelarger volume. That's how we've
been doing better. Also ourproduct works and people really
like it. We've sold hundreds ofthousands of tubes of
toothpaste. And dentalprofessionals love it because of
that 10% concentration. We don'tpay into marketing. I haven't,
(15:07):
to this day, I have not paid fora single paid ad since the
beginning of the business,because the product kind of
hangs on itself. We were growingslower, I would say, compared to
some of these otherorganizations that have a bit
more margin. But we're fine.We're here. We're still here in
the CPG space. To have abusiness that past the three
(15:28):
year mark is amazing. It's veryrare. We're like, okay, we got a
good product going. We just haveto keep a flow, make sure that
we're talking to dentalprofessionals because dental
professionals are really, I hateto say that there are sales
reps, but they are the ones whoare really championing our
products. I got an email lastweek from someone that I had
(15:52):
met, very similar to thispodcast, and she emailed me. She
said, oh, my God, I just went tothe dentist and took my son to
the dentist, the dentistrecommended your product to him.
I was like, I just felt like Iwon the Academy Award. I was
like, okay, that's all I needfor organic marketing to work
this word of mouth of someonewho I barely know, a dentist
(16:13):
that I've never met to recommendour products so we know that our
products are working.
Justine Reichman: (16:18):
That's amazing. The third party pitch
is always the best anyway,right? And none of us you're
advocating, this is thetoothpaste you should use. We
all believe our dentists, right?I don't want them to fill into
my teeth. I want them to becleaner, and I trust that they
know what they're recommending.
Belinda Liau: (16:34):
Yes. I think they really love it because of the
biocompatibility element withfluoride. I'm sure you've seen a
lot of news about fluoriderecently about the conversation
around fluoride and kids IQs,and so it's very top of mind for
people to find an alternativethat actually works. And I
(16:55):
particularly love hydroxyapatitebecause of the biocompatibility
element. All our products, allour ingredients are safe to
swallow. They're food gradeingredients. And so my husband
who's a dentist, he jokes to hispatients that you can slather it
on some toast in the morning andeat it for breakfast. It's that
great. It's totally safe.Especially for kids where
(17:18):
there's concerns about fluoridepoisoning and overdose, it's
such a great alternative.
Justine Reichman: (17:25):
it sounds like it. I mean, it sounds like
a perfect solution. Not onlydoes it have better ingredients,
and nowadays, as we look atthings that we put into our
body, we all want everything tobe very transparent, and we want
to know what it is. Why would itbe any different for our mouth?
Belinda Liau: (17:40):
Exactly, in fact, I would go a step further and
say that basically, your yourproduct, the products that you
put in your mouth, are goingstraight into your bloodstream
because of the gum line. Sothat's when, when? Why? When you
floss and when you brush yourteeth, sometimes maybe your gums
may bleed. And so why wouldn'tyou be putting cleaner
(18:01):
ingredients into your mouth thatyou potentially could swallow,
but is 100% going into yourbloodstream through your gum
lines. So that's why we reallylook for ways to elevate your
products that we've alreadygrown up with. But can we make
it better? Can we make it moregrown up?
Justine Reichman: (18:18):
I think it's a great solution. I love the
fact that it's clean. I love thefact that you're sustainable. I
want to go back to the packagingfor a minute and talk about what
it's made of. I believe, I thinkI read sugar cane. Is that
right? If you could tell us alittle bit about that and how
you made those choices?
Belinda Liau: (18:40):
With our packaging, we've tried a bunch
of different things. One of theproducts, the tube types we've
used is a sugar cane ethanolbase. So basically what happens
is when sugar is made, you takethe sugar cane and wring out all
of the juice, all of the goodstuff, and then the husks are
basically just thrown away andcomposted, burned or whatnot.
(19:02):
But because the demand for sugaris so high, there's just a lot
of these husks just being thrownaway. What happens is they take
these husks and basically makeit into a fine powder. And when
in its powder form, it actuallymimics very similar to poly
ethanol and all of these otherkinds of plastic materials, so
it's a substitute for it. So youcan make basically the very
(19:27):
similar look and feel ofplastic, but with a sugar cane
base. So we call that a biobased material. It's a great
material for sort of upcyclingthe husk, but recycling it on
the back end is a bit morecomplicated because most
communities, most countriesdon't have a way to recycle bio
(19:50):
based materials yet. They'reused to things that your yogurt
cups are made of, or your milkjugs, and so it complicates the
recycling facilities a littlebit. We're monitoring all of
that stuff. What we do is weactually take back any oral care
products that you have at homethat are used and empty, and we
(20:12):
recycle them with TerraCycle.And that's a free service to all
customers. You don't have to bea customer of ours. You don't
even have to send us ourproducts back. You can send us
any oral care products that youhave at home, and we will
recycle them with TerraCycle.Just to close the loop on
recycling for oral careproducts, because most of it is
(20:32):
mixed nylon and plastic. We wantto make sure that it's getting
into the right hands, and we payfor that service. And so we've
played with sugar canematerials. We obviously have
used a lot of PCR, which is thepost consumer recycled
materials. That one's reallygreat too because we're actually
promoting recyclability bypurchasing recycled plastics.
(20:56):
And there is a way to recyclethem on the back end too, so
we're monitoring a lot of thesedifferent dynamics in the
packaging industry to see whatis possibly a better outcome.
There's also what they call monomaterials, which is like one
material that is typicallyeasier to recycle in recycling
(21:16):
facilities. So there's a bitmore options out there. And the
exciting part for me is since westarted in 2019, I've seen so
much innovation in packaging inthis space from sugar cane to
better PCR, more reliable PCRmaterials to even just paper
pulp materials. Just the thingsthat you can do with different
(21:38):
sort of byproducts that don'treally have some value, but
taking it and making it intosomething interesting and useful
for consumers at home. I justlove how this space is evolving.
Justine Reichman: (21:53):
I know we were talking about the
TerraCycle that you're using.And as you're sitting there
saying, well, you'll accept anyproducts and you'll recycle
them. Did I hear that right?
This is quite an interesting partnership you
Belinda Liau: (22:03):
Yes, yes, absolutely. We'll take any brand
of oral care products. We taketoothbrushes, toothbrush heads
if you use an electrictoothbrush. We take toothpaste
tubes, floss containers, teethwhitening pens, any of that
stuff. Paper, you can generallyrecycle at home. But usually,
it's any mixed material ofplastics that you would see in a
(22:27):
toothpaste tube or a toothbrushthat are generally just thrown
away and not recyclable. So wetake those back, and then we
work with TerraCycle to makethem into things like backpacks,
play structures and things.
have with them.
Actually, they offer this to almost every
(22:49):
company, but nobody really takesup on it. We just feel like it's
such a great way to close theloop on a products that you use
almost every day of your life,but find a way to have a good
way to just put it back into therecycling network.
Justine Reichman: (23:10):
When we talk about recycling, and we talk
about clean beauty, and we talkabout all these things, there's
been a lot of conversation aboutwhat is actually recyclable. I
don't know if there's a lot ofthings around, if it's smaller
than the size of a lipstick,even though it says it's
recyclable it, they don'tactually take that.
Belinda Liau: (23:27):
They don't at home. Usually, it has to be the
size of a milk jug for them toactually take that and recycle
it. Even the yogurt cups,they're too small. Usually,
those end up in landfillsanyways. So we looked at that,
we said, okay, toothpaste tubes,toothbrushes, they're small. But
(23:49):
if we can pull them apart, thencan we make it into something
and then just promote therecycling loop, and basically
encouraging people to recycle sothat we can reuse these products
and see them again in ourproduct lines?
Justine Reichman: (24:08):
I think it's amazing. And I think the way
that you've structured it sothat you've created a better
product with better ingredientsthat are more effective where
there are studies that issustainable, I guess I have a
have to ask, how does it taste?
Belinda Liau: (24:25):
The toothpaste? I think it tastes great. We have
two flavors. We have a lavendervanilla mint and a pineapple
orange mint. And one of them,the lavender was designed by me.
And the other one, the pineappleorange was designed by my
husband. And the reason isbecause I'm a very busy mom, I'm
(24:48):
running a business, got threekids, all kinds of stuff going
on, and so at by the end of theday, I'm exhausted. We put the
kids to bed, and my husbandpours me a glass of, I take two
sips and I'm passed out on thecouch. And then my husband, his
serotonin levels are up atnight, so he's up doing stuff.
(25:08):
And so before he goes to bed, hewakes me up from the couch and
he goes, Bell, Bell, wake up.You got to go to bed. And he go,
I go up to our bedroom. And he'slike, well, you need to brush
your teeth. Don't be gross. He'sa dentist so I'm like, okay. And
I'll brush my teeth. Butusually, these super minty burst
toothpaste, they're energizing,they wake me up. And now I'm
(25:30):
awake, and now I'm mad because Iwant to just go to sleep and
just have a chill night. But I'mnot. I'm awake, and it's hard
for me to go back to sleep.Sleep is key when you're a mom.
So I said, can we make a flavoror a formulation that actually
helps you go to bed. You brushyour teeth and it's very chill,
(25:50):
so the lavender and the sweetvanilla, it calms you. We put
chamomile in there just to giveyou a chill, soft vibe so that
you can transition from whateveryou're doing the day. Even if
you are abruptly woken up. Youcan brush your teeth, go to bed
and continue to sleeppeacefully. So that was our
first flavor. And the secondflavor, really, my husband
(26:12):
designed because he wanted tofeel zesty and awake. And it's
got a little bit more mintflavor, and it's a bit more
fruit forward. And so that oneis so funny. People say that it
tastes like a cactus cooler. Ifyou've ever had one of those,
like a bubbly drink. I had it.It actually does taste just like
(26:32):
our toothpaste. It's so funny. Inever had one before, but my
husband designed the formulajust to make it taste like
something that he loves. Sothose are two flavors. And then
we have a kids line coming outthat has no mint, and a lot of
natural flavors with noartificial flavors, and no
(26:53):
artificial dyes.
Justine Reichman: (26:55):
As you're saying this, I'm thinking it's
kind of like when you went tothe dentist when you were a kid
and they gave you choices of theflavors. Remember that?
Belinda Liau: (27:02):
Yeah. The bubble gum, the grape.
Justine Reichman: (27:07):
Exactly. More in line with that, I feel like
it's the traditional toothpaste.
Belinda Liau: (27:13):
We do plan on having a mint going for it,
because our customers have beenasking us for a plain mint,
which I'm happy to do. But Ijust love taking something that
you already know, which istoothpaste. Everyone uses it,
and just making it a little bitmore upgraded, a little bit more
luxurious, so that's why we havethese two fun flavors.
Justine Reichman: (27:34):
They sound fun. They do. I think you can
even get a kid to try thepineapple on.
Belinda Liau: (27:40):
My kids use both our flavors. They use the
lavender at night, and they usethe pineapple in the morning.
Justine Reichman: (27:46):
You can get kids to use it?
Belinda Liau: (27:49):
There are the pickiest palettes, actually, for
our kids line. They are the oneswho chose the flavors. We had
gone back and forth on differentflavors and flavor profiles, and
we just picked whatever theychose. So they've got the
pickiest palettes on the planet,so we were happy to oblige.
Justine Reichman: (28:07):
Do you remember that life serial
commercial? I might be datingmyself where they're like, Mikey
likes it?
Belinda Liau: (28:14):
Yeah, exactly. I can see the our social media
already with them, designing theproduct and little lab coats,
and then the kid designed andkid approved. There's three of
them, and they all agree.Designed by kids, and approved
(28:38):
by kids. That's all you realize.I think. For parents, that's all
you all that matters. We'll gofor it.
Justine Reichman: (28:45):
I want to go back a little bit, because I
know that you were doing otherthings for 15 years in the
space. And now, here you are asan entrepreneur. Your husband, a
dentist, a lot of dentists areentrepreneurs because they have
their own practices. Is thisyour first foray into, quote
(29:08):
unquote, a CPG product as anentrepreneur?
Belinda Liau: (29:11):
Yes. I wouldn't say that I've been around
business my entire life. Myparents were born and raised in
Burma in Southeast Asia, andthey immigrated to North America
with literally nothing. Theyjust had a suitcase and $14 in
their pockets. And they wereable to raise a family by
(29:32):
starting businesses. So I grewup in our family gift shop since
I was two years old, dusting theshelves, packaging, doing
inventory management, writingthe signs, which is marketing.
Doing the counting the money atthe end of the day, which is
bookkeeping. I was exposed toall of that. Literally, every
(29:52):
summer vacation, wintervacation, weekend, I was in the
shop working until I graduatedand went to college. So I had
been around. My parents startedmany businesses in their
lifetime, so I was able to seewhat that was at like on the
front lines. But as anentrepreneur myself, definitely,
(30:13):
this is my first ownership intobuilding a startup and a
company, and definitely my firsttime in a CPG space. As a
biomedical engineer, we alwaysworked with products that were
sold through hospitals ordistributors. And so building a
CPG product, and also building aproduct and a brand from scratch
(30:35):
is new to me. And I think themost surprising thing I found
about this journey wasdeveloping something that didn't
exist. So that's a brand newbrand product, a brand new
company, and getting to thatproduct market fit was
definitely a new experience forme, because I had always worked
(30:58):
for Fortune 500 companies thathad already established brands.
And so anything that they wouldmake, it would be going towards
a market that they've alreadyhad some footprint in, usually.
And so for me to come into oralcare is not quite medical
devices. It's in the healthcareindustry, but it is different
(31:19):
from some of the otherindustries that had been part
of. Plus just building a brandand getting to that product
market fit. I just remember thatfirst year being so tough,
because how does anyone knowwe're here? How does anyone know
we exist? What you have to dojust to get awareness that we
(31:40):
exist in this world? It was avery tough thing. Because early
on, I didn't know if we weren'tmaking sales because it wasn't
the product. Was it the brand?Was it where we were selling or
where we're not selling/ Or wasit something else completely?
Was it the price? You just don'tknow. And so we started to hit
(32:01):
product market fit luckily atthe end of that first year, and
we knew it because people weretalking about us organically. We
were getting press hits on allthis stuff without paying for
any of that stuff. And so Ithought, okay, yeah, it's
starting to work. But I reallyhad to find that niche that that
core community of people whowere basically trying to solve
(32:23):
the same problems that I was,and who was passionate about the
solution. But if I hadn't foundthat, I think it would be just
really tough to to try to keeppromoting your product and your
brand without actually knowingwhere it fits that product
market fit gap. It was a toughlearning for me in the very
beginnings. But once we got it,we knew, okay, the product
(32:43):
works. People like the product.The price was somewhat
acceptable, even though maybe alittle bit high. The promotion,
we didn't really have anypromotion. Whatever we were
doing, the branding and all thatstuff was working, and it was
just a matter of getting moredistribution.
Justine Reichman: (32:58):
You mentioned a couple times that you're a
little bit more expensive. Howhas that been received by the
public and by your customers?
Belinda Liau: (33:08):
The benchmark for toothpaste is the Crests and
Colgate of the world, and sothose ingredients are just
significantly less expensive.Flora is very cheap. Probably
even just 1% of whatnano-hydroxyapatite costs. And
so we were nervous about, whereshould we price our products?
(33:29):
But honestly in the last fewyears, what we found is
competitors have come into themarket, and they're priced even
higher than us because of that.So we were initially on the
higher side of things for anano-hydroxyapatite product. But
right now, we're just in themiddle. We offer a clinically
backed product of one that'sdeveloped by professionals, but
(33:51):
the pricing is in the middle forthis particular category of
toothpaste. And just recently in2025 nano-hydroxyapatite
toothpaste have outranked everyother toothpaste on Amazon. On
Amazon, the number onetoothpaste are
nano-hydroxyapatite toothpaste.So all those the Crests and
(34:12):
Colgate that dominated the fieldfor so long, they are no longer
number one on Amazon, which isthe number one search engine and
the number one marketplace. Ijust found that to be so
interesting. At a much higherprice point, three, four times
what Crest, Colgate andSensodyne are selling for. But
(34:32):
here comes these smaller brandsthat are taking share from these
huge companies. I just see thatas a telltale signal for us that
we're moving in the rightdirection. Honestly, the price,
yes. Is it higher? Yes, but wedon't actually get a ton of
(34:53):
complaints about it. People whounderstand the ingredients and
what we're trying to do, and thesustainability and the mission,
all of our products areclinically tested, I think they
understand that they're gettinga lot of value. We focus on
showing what the value of theproduct is. And I think just
(35:16):
talking to you, I can see inyour face and your reactions
that there's so much more tojust your average toothpaste.
And so educating our customersand having them understand that
this does help, it gets rid ofyour sensitivity, it helps
rebuild your enamel that youlose every single day, and it
does it in a way that is so muchbetter for you. When we talk
(35:40):
about that to our customers, wesaid, we've sold hundreds of
thousands of tubes at this pricepoint, and so we feel like we're
moving the right direction. Do Iwant to drop the price of entry?
I would love to do that. If wecan get to scale and we can keep
our margins, I would love tobring that price down so that we
can get to a broader audience.
Justine Reichman: (36:00):
I think that sounds amazing. And obviously, I
don't want to say when you getthere, it will also make it more
accessible for others that maybecouldn't afford it, which I
think is really important too atthe right time. So my other
question to you is, though,these other products that we're
seeing, that you're talkingabout that maybe have lower
(36:21):
percentages of thenano-hydroxyapatite, how do they
compare with their effortsaround sustainability?
Belinda Liau: (36:38):
They have no sustainability. They just use
virgin plastic, same as theother brands out there.
Justine Reichman: (36:48):
Is it focused around the ingredient, and
having a superior product andusing more of the
nano-hydroxyapatite? You're alsoa sustainable product, so you're
mindful of the planet> What Ifind so amazing is you don't
stop there. You don't stop andsay, okay, take care of it
(37:09):
yourself. Maybe you can'trecycle it. You found a
solution, you created apartnership. And now, you invite
everybody to send it back to youso that you can recycle it. I
don't know that that happens toooften. I don't know too many
people that take thatresponsibility. I think
Nespresso, you can drop off yourlittle pods there, right? I
(37:31):
don't want to take that awayfrom them. But you go a step
further and say, hey, we'll takeanybody's oral products too.
Belinda Liau: (37:37):
Yep, we will. And it doesn't actually cost us that
much more. It doesn't take toomuch more effort. And we just
offer. We're open door. Youdon't even have to buy any
products from us. We'll send youa free label. You just pack it
into any box that you got athome, and we'll take care of the
rest. I just feel like it's justkind of the right thing to do.
(38:01):
My kids are very young.They'reless than 12 years old, and
they've got a whole future aheadof them. And all the news about
microplastics, the oceans, ourfood and all of this stuff is
very scary. I got rid of mostplastics in my kitchen. It's all
gone. I cook with stainlesssteel and all that stuff. If
(38:22):
it's not that hard, then whyaren't other people doing it? It
costs money, and we're happy todo that. We feel like it's the
right thing to do. But for otherpeople, their priorities, their
business priorities aredifferent. Well, maybe you're
going to make movement here.Once we start advertising, if we
(38:44):
ever do that, then I thinkthat'll be a key message for us,
and the key differentiator. It'sreally sad to see in the oral
care space just how easy it isto use even more recycled
materials, and people don't doit. And then that makes me a
little sad, but we're here. Wecontinue to invest a portion of
our revenue back into R&D, whichincludes the packaging, which
(39:08):
includes the materials. So we'reconstantly innovating. We're
finding more studies, moreingredients that work even
better, to add calcium andphosphates to the surface of
your teeth, to get rid ofsensitivity, to all do all the
things that we need to do tokeep our teeth healthy. Because
let's face it, on our bodies,your teeth are the only things
(39:31):
that don't heal themselves. Yougotta give it everything you
got, and you only have one set.I always tell people that your
goal is to be the hottestgrandparent at the old folks
home with real teeth. At the endof our days, that is our goal.
Justine Reichman: (39:55):
I know that you do this with your husband,
so you guys work together. I'dlove to know a little bit about
that. How is it to work withyour husband?
Belinda Liau: (40:06):
It's interesting. It's actually really good. We
complement each other very well.I always say, with every
partnership, there's alwaysbrains and beauty. And
obviously, I'm the brains, andhe's the beauty. He's got the
lab coat, and we put them allover our marketing materials.
(40:28):
But joking aside, it's actuallyworking pretty well. We've got a
pretty good dynamic at home. Wesplit our duties pretty evenly.
He takes care of a lot of thebills and house stuff, and I
take care of mostly the kids.There's not a ton of overlap.
And so the same thing we do, thesame thing in business. So in
business, he's got his lane, Ihave my lane. We agree just like
(40:51):
a married couple that any bigdecisions, any strategic
decisions, any financialdecisions are done together. We
said, okay, we set a certainamount of money. If the decision
costs us more than this, thentogether, we have to make the
decision. And it actually worksreally well. He's part of all of
(41:11):
the strategy, all of theformulations. He's interesting
because he is still a full timedentist. He has his clinic here
in Northridge, California. Iwork in the business during the
day. And then when he comes homeat night, we're making dinner,
or we're cleaning up the dishes,and we're talking through some
(41:34):
of the stuff that I've donethroughout the day. He's not
working on a day to day, and sohe comes at it from a very
strategic level, he comes in amuch higher level, and he points
out the things that I sometimesmiss. Like you said, he's very
entrepreneur himself because heowned his own dental practice
(41:55):
for over 20 years, so heunderstands loans and financing,
and inventory management, andtime management, and people
management, and all those corethings that make a business. So
he understands those things, andI've actually learned a lot of
stuff about business from him,to be really honest. So it
actually works really nicely. Hegives me most of the decision
(42:19):
making power and all of thatstuff. But he also knows that I
do my research very deeply. I'ma total nerd and engineer, so I
do my research. And I come tohim and I say, hey, I researched
all this stuff. Here areoptions, option A, option B. And
then, we look at it together,and then we decide together
which option to go with. So itactually works quite
(42:39):
beautifully. And then he comesin with that clinical side of
things. I come in withmarketing, product development
side of things. When you have astartup, if you're going to have
a co founder, it really helps tohave complementary skill sets.
And we have that here. Any skillsets we don't have, we have a
(43:00):
ton of mentors and advisors thatwe call and lean on whenever we
need some advice about somethingneither one of us know about. So
we've created a cool littleecosystem in terms of the
startup of how to get thefeedback we need and still grow,
and we still respect each other.We still want to hang out with
(43:22):
each other even after the kidsare gone to bed and we're
chatting about business andstuff. We're very used to having
a busy life, and so having thestartup as our fourth baby, it's
kind of cool. It's kind of coolto have to share that. I also
learned about his industry, inoral care, in dentistry. So it's
(43:44):
actually been really, reallyfun, and it's been really a
rewarding experience workingwith him.
Justine Reichman: (43:48):
Were there any recommendations you might
make for other founders that aredeciding to work with their
husband, wife or partner?
Belinda Liau: (43:58):
Yes. I would say, very similar to us, just have
clear roles of who's doing what,and make sure that all the big
decisions are made together. Ithink that's really the key. I
think obviously, if you'rehusbanda and wife, you already
trust each other. So there's notthat hurdle. But talking through
(44:22):
things before they become anissue, and making sure you're
communicating, making sure thatany big decisions are done
together, I think that's themost important part of working
with your spouse.
Justine Reichman: (44:34):
What would your spouse say about you in
terms of what it's like to workwith you?
You said something before that I agree
Belinda Liau: (44:38):
I think he would say the same things. He would
with, and I actually practice isthat, we have our own set of
say that he's more of like theclinical guy. And he always
skills, and what we're good atdoing, and what we like to do.
says, oh, I'm just the dorkydentist. But he really is. He's
very smart in business. And sohe would say that, I'm more of
the researcher, the R&D person,more of the marketing person in
But surrounding yourself withthose mentors and those advisors
(45:02):
the business. And so I think hewould say very similarly, that
that can give you anotherperspective, more information is
we work well together because wehave very different and
distinct, but also importantroles to keep the business
really key to success. Because Ican't be an expert in
growing.
everything. You can't be anexpert in everything. But making
(45:27):
sure that you have those peopleand then listening to them, not
just having them and talking tothem, but hearing their advice,
(45:50):
I think, is really the key.
Yes. I'll tell you this really short story,
Justine. I have this advisor.He's the CEO and Founder of a
major hair care brand, massivehair care brand. he's in every
Sephora on the planet. I met himthrough business school. Early
on, we thought, okay, should weraise funds for our business?
And I thought, I didn't know. Ithought every CPG business just
(46:14):
goes and raises money, which isnot true. We're totally
bootstrapped, even to this day.So I went to him first. I said,
Justine Reichman: (46:21):
So Belinda, thank you so much for joining me
oh, I'm putting together thispitch deck, and I'm putting
together a valuation, doing allthe fancy pitching and all that
stuff. And I went to him first.I know he can afford it. So I
said, would you invest in ourbusiness? Because he had been
advising us for a few years. Andhe turned to me and said,
(46:41):
Belinda, if I give you money, Iwould be doing you a disservice.
Because he actually created hisbrand 100% by himself. He to
this day, he owns 100% of hiscompany. He said, you would gain
so much more by keepingownership of your business.
Plus, you won't actually learnhow to solve your own problems
if you just throw money at it.So first, you're going to go
(47:05):
spend your time raising fundswithout running the business.
Because raising funds is a fulltime job. And then once you get
the money, you're just going tothrow money at the problems. So
he said, how will you learn howto do all of the stuff and teach
other people how to solve theproblems if you don't try to do
(47:25):
it yourself? At least try. Andhe said, I would do you a
disservice if I gave you anyfunding. And at first, I was
taken aback. I thought, okay,here's someone who has known my
business, who has seen me grow,who has given me advice for
years, and I'm sitting here athis kitchen table and he's
telling me he won't even give mea couple $1,000. I was blown
(47:49):
away, but I quickly realizedthat he was 100% right. I could
have easily not listened to him.I could have said, okay, thanks.
You don't know what you'retalking about. I'm gonna find
another advisor. But I took hisadvice to heart. I said, okay,
he's got something here. So Itook his advice. We still to
this day have not raised anyfunds. It's really interesting
(48:13):
how the business has grownwithout with me solving most of
the problems. I got reallyscrappy. I did a lot of things
on my own. I reached out todifferent advisors and experts
in the things I didn'tunderstand. A lot of people
helped me out on their good timeand their expertise. And we're
still here, many, many yearslater. I can't say that this is
(48:36):
a success story yet. But so far,his advice, once you take it and
understand what they're tryingto teach you, it actually has
paid off. And I text him all thetime and say, oh, my God, look
all the stuff that we've done.And he's like, you see. You
still own 100% of your business.And he was right.
today. It was great to have youhere. I love all the
(49:02):
information. I'm excited tochange toothpaste myself. I'm
just curious if you could justshare with our community, if
people wanted to go get yourproduct, where would they find
it?
Belinda Liau: (49:14):
Oh, yes, absolutely. So we're definitely
If there's anybody that waslistening or tuning in today
on Amazon. We're on Walmart.We're on a couple beauty
boutiques. One that I love iscalled Beauty Care Choices. If
that wanted to connect with you,maybe for collaborations or
you're here in Los Angeles, wehave a shop here in Century City
innovations, what's the best wayto connect with you?
Mall, which is the biggest mallhere in LA at a store called
Atlas. And then, of course, youcan just come to our website,
(49:36):
and we can ship you anything youwant.
LinkedIn is the best way. I'vegot a nice little community
there. So if anyone wants toreach out to me, LinkedIn is the
best place.
Justine Reichman: (49:55):
Okay, thank you so much for tuning in. So
(50:26):
Belinda, for those listeners andviewers that were tuning in
today that are part of thiscommunity, that are excited
about what you're doing and wantto try the product, is there a
discount you're going to beoffering them?
Belinda Liau: (50:37):
Justine, I love this audience. I've been a
longtime listener of yourpodcast for many years, so I
would love to offer all of thosein your audience a 20% discount
to our website. Just type in"ESSENTIALINGREDIENTS", and you
get 20% off.
Justine Reichman: (50:51):
Awesome. Belinda, thank you so much. I
want to thank our listeners andour community for tuning in
today. It's always fun to get toknow new people, new products
that are paving the way forbetter for you things in the
world, whether it's around ourhealth, our wellness, or the
planet.
Belinda Liau: (51:07):
Thank you so much, Justine, it's been an
absolute honor.
Justine Reichman: (51:09):
Thank you. So those folks tuning in today on
the podcast, don't forget thatyou can also tune into our
videocast on YouTube. And if youare watching the video and want
to tune into the podcast, followus and subscribe to our channel
at Essential Ingredients, whichis on Spotify, iTunes, wherever
you listen. We'd love to connectand continue the conversation on
(51:32):
Instagram atessential.ingredients, so we'll
see you again next week.
Thank you so much, Justine. I'm so happy to
be here.
Justine Reichman: (02:29):
I'm excited for our community to get to know
you, to learn a little bit aboutyour product, where it comes
(03:37):
from, what inspires you, and howit differentiates? I think
there's a lot of things to coverfrom how it works to
sustainability and what you'retrying to achieve. So before we
get going, would you mind justexplaining to our listeners and
our viewers a little bit aboutwhat your product is?
Belinda Liau: (03:57):
Yeah. We're a biotech dentist crafted
sustainable oral care brand. Andwhen we started the business
back in 2019, the cross sectionbetween oral care and
sustainability wasn't there. Sowhat we saw in the market were
products that were clinicallyback, everything that you would
(04:19):
see on a target shelf, right?And we thought, okay, those
products produced a lot of likevirgin plastic that people are
throwing away constantly.There's some statistics out
there that say that for everytoothbrush you've ever used,
it's out there for 500 years.And every toothpaste tube that
you've ever used, it issomewhere degrading in a
(04:41):
landfill somewhere for 500years. And so when we saw those
stats, we thought, oral care issomething that everyone on the
planet has to do. Soessentially, every few months,
you're throwing away a tube oftoothpaste that's not
recyclable, a toothbrush, flosspicks. All of these things are
practically made out of plastic.So we thought, well, why isn't
(05:01):
there some intersection betweensomething that works to clean
your teeth, and then also someupgrade on the sustainability
side of things? And so on thesustainability side, we saw
these like bamboo toothbrushes,floss picks and tablet
toothpaste. And when we talk todental professionals, they would
(05:22):
tell us, people who use thosetypes of products would come
into their offices with moreproblems. So that was our aha
moment. When we wereinterviewing dental
professionals, we said, how canwe bridge the gap here? Because
obviously, the beauty communityand personal care products are
going towards cleaneringredients, more sustainable
(05:46):
packaging. But it somehow didn'thit the oral care industry just
until recently, and we feelproud that we were starting the
conversation aboutsustainability and the oral care
industry. We started lookingalso into the ingredients and
how they're sourced. If you readthe back of your toothpaste
(06:07):
tube, chances are you don't knowwhat most of those things are.
They're very long chemicallynames because they that's
exactly what they are. And so wethought, is there something that
we can do, given our backgroundswhich I'll get into in a second,
and sort of elevate the oralcare industry to get it to
cleaner better for youingredients, and safer to
(06:31):
swallow? These things are goinginto your mouth so they should
be better for you. But alsolevel up the sustainability side
in terms of the sourcing of thematerials, the packaging, the
ingredients, all of that stuff.And so that's what we're trying
to do. My background is, I'mactually a biomedical engineer,
and I spent over 15 yearsworking in the medical device
(06:54):
industry building all kinds ofmedical devices, from insulin
pumps, to spinal implants, toglucose sensors. And when I was
in that industry, I visit a lotof hospitals and meet with a lot
of clinicians patients in theirhomes, and a lot of medical
products are in these sterileplastic packaging. I always
(07:16):
would ask, why does it have tobe this material? Why can't it
be recyclable? Why does it haveto be virgin plastic? And
everyone say, oh, it's becauseyou have to keep these medical
products sterile. And I havequite challenged on that over
the years. And then on the otherside of things, my husband, he's
a dentist, and he's been adentist for almost 25 years.
(07:37):
When I would come home and tellhim about all the trash and
waste I would see in the medicaldevice industry, he would say,
well, you should see the dentaloffice. We just shrink wrap the
whole room just to go in andpoke in someone's mouth for just
a few seconds just to check onthings. Then you have to take
off the gloves, the mask, all ofthe plastic wraps, the bibs and
(07:59):
that all that goes into thetrash. And so we were like, we
should do something about this.We've got three kids at home who
are using the floss picks andthrowing away their toothbrush
every couple weeks. I don't knowwhy kids just wear down their
toothbrushes to flat in just amatter of days. We just felt
(08:23):
like there was a gap in themarket of finding something that
was something that actually isclinically backed and worked for
you, but also just making thingsjust a little bit more earth
friendly.
Justine Reichman: (08:35):
Was your initial interest in developing
something more about thesustainability end, or more
about what's in the product?
Belinda Liau: (08:44):
It started with the question about
sustainability. That's how itstarted. So we started looking
at all of these products thatyou would see, like I said, in
the oral care aisle at Target.We would say, is there anything
we can do to make this betterfor the Earth? Can we use more
recycled materials, bio basedmaterials, just for the
(09:05):
packaging alone? There's a lotof easy, low hanging fruit that
can be done there. And then whenwe started digging into it and
talking to dental professionalsand also to consumers, we
realized that the wave of cleanbeauty that swept through in the
last couple decades was comingto oral care, and we wanted to
(09:26):
be at the forefront of thatconversation. And so we started
digging into the ingredients.For example, teeth whitening
products have, you can'tpronounce any of those
ingredients. And so we thought,okay, well, is there a way we
can make this actually foodgrade ingredients? Can we make
it simpler? Can we just bring itdown from 23 ingredients to just
(09:50):
a handful of ingredients? Andthe answer is, yes, you can do
those things. And so it juststarted with sustainability, but
then it went down these rabbitholes of like, what else can we
do? How else can we make thisstuff better, but still be as
clinically valid as the goldstandards that are out there
(10:11):
that we've seen, that we've beenusing for years at home? So
that's how it started, andthat's how it evolved.
Justine Reichman: (10:19):
If we dig into the ingredients, I believe
that I read and understood thatthere was an alternative to
fluoride that you were using. Isthat correct?
Belinda Liau: (10:28):
Yes. So the alternative to fluoride is
called Nano-hydroxyapatite, andit's a big mouthful word. It is
a mouthful where I wish therewas a cooler way to say, maybe
we can reform a marketing termfor it. But basically,
(10:50):
hydroxyapatite is what yourteeth and your bones are already
made up. So the dentin, what'sunderneath your tooth enamel, is
like over 70% that'shydroxyapatite. The surface of
your teeth, the part that youcan touch right here, that's 97%
hydroxyapatite. So what we didis we said, okay, can we use
(11:12):
this ingredient to just bathe itin what your tooth is already
made of? I didn't inventnano-hydroxyapatite. The story
behind it is the nano version ofhydroxyapatite was developed by
NASA back in the 1970s, and theydeveloped it because they were
(11:36):
finding that astronauts weregoing into space. And after
they're in there for a couplemonths, sometimes a couple
years, and after the gravityactually reduces their bone
density, including their teeth,so they were coming back with
weaker teeth, getting cavitiesand things like that. And you
can't see a dentist in space.Not yet, at least. So that the
(12:00):
idea was, can we strengthen thisthe teeth of the astronauts? Not
using fluoride, but usingsomething different and
something better? And yes, ittotally works. And so the reason
we haven't really seen a lot ofthis in the US until recently is
because NASA sold the patent toa Japanese toothpaste company
(12:21):
back in the 1980s. The patentwas 10 years and extended for
another few more years. And soin Japan and Korea, they have
been benefiting from thisamazing mineral for so long for
almost 50 years. It's justslowly coming to the US. So
there's amazing, huge bodies ofstudies around
(12:43):
nano-hydroxyapatite and how itworks. You can just Google it,
and you'll just see a litany ofpublications, white papers,
clinical studies that all showthat it works just as well as
fluoride if it's used at a 10%concentration in your
(13:04):
toothpaste. So that's what weuse. A lot of companies out
there, they use what we call themarketing amount. They'll use
anywhere from point 2% to 2%which will get you some
benefits, but it won't get youthat same protection as
fluoride, the gold standard,unless it's at a 10%
concentration.
Justine Reichman: (13:24):
Why are some people doing it at a lower level
versus YOU doing it at a moreeffective and higher level?
Belinda Liau: (13:30):
It's cost. We sell our products at the same
price, but they're paying 80%less, maybe 90% less, and so
they get more margin, and theydon't have to disclose it.
Because the FDA has not requiredus to disclose the percentage. I
just feel like the guilty arealways nervous so they hide
(13:54):
things. And so we put it on ourpackaging, we put it on our
website so everyone clearlyknows that 10%, at least for
hydroxyapatite, is the goldstandard.
Justine Reichman: (14:05):
So does that mean? Are you suffering
financial aid? Is it a challengefor the company to be making
money while your margins are alittle bit lower, less than
these other companies? How isthat going to impact how you
drive the future of thebusiness?
Belinda Liau: (14:25):
Yeah, that's a good question. I think for us,
it really hangs on volume. Sowhen we started producing these
products at the beginning of thebusiness, we were just buying
the lowest amount, the MOQs. Andso obviously, the margin wasn't
as good as we wanted to be. Butwe've been in business for
almost four years now, and we'vebeen able to scale. And so we
(14:47):
get better pricing as we havelarger volume. That's how we've
been doing better. Also ourproduct works and people really
like it. We've sold hundreds ofthousands of tubes of
toothpaste. And dentalprofessionals love it because of
that 10% concentration. We don'tpay into marketing. I haven't,
(15:07):
to this day, I have not paid fora single paid ad since the
beginning of the business,because the product kind of
hangs on itself. We were growingslower, I would say, compared to
some of these otherorganizations that have a bit
more margin. But we're fine.We're here. We're still here in
the CPG space. To have abusiness that past the three
(15:28):
year mark is amazing. It's veryrare. We're like, okay, we got a
good product going. We just haveto keep a flow, make sure that
we're talking to dentalprofessionals because dental
professionals are really, I hateto say that there are sales
reps, but they are the ones whoare really championing our
products. I got an email lastweek from someone that I had
(15:52):
met, very similar to thispodcast, and she emailed me. She
said, oh, my God, I just went tothe dentist and took my son to
the dentist, the dentistrecommended your product to him.
I was like, I just felt like Iwon the Academy Award. I was
like, okay, that's all I needfor organic marketing to work
this word of mouth of someonewho I barely know, a dentist
(16:13):
that I've never met to recommendour products so we know that our
products are working.
Justine Reichman: (16:18):
That's amazing. The third party pitch
is always the best anyway,right? And none of us you're
advocating, this is thetoothpaste you should use. We
all believe our dentists, right?I don't want them to fill into
my teeth. I want them to becleaner, and I trust that they
know what they're recommending.
Belinda Liau: (16:34):
Yes. I think they really love it because of the
biocompatibility element withfluoride. I'm sure you've seen a
lot of news about fluoriderecently about the conversation
around fluoride and kids IQs,and so it's very top of mind for
people to find an alternativethat actually works. And I
(16:55):
particularly love hydroxyapatitebecause of the biocompatibility
element. All our products, allour ingredients are safe to
swallow. They're food gradeingredients. And so my husband
who's a dentist, he jokes to hispatients that you can slather it
on some toast in the morning andeat it for breakfast. It's that
great. It's totally safe.Especially for kids where
(17:18):
there's concerns about fluoridepoisoning and overdose, it's
such a great alternative.
Justine Reichman: (17:25):
it sounds like it. I mean, it sounds like
a perfect solution. Not onlydoes it have better ingredients,
and nowadays, as we look atthings that we put into our
body, we all want everything tobe very transparent, and we want
to know what it is. Why would itbe any different for our mouth?
Belinda Liau: (17:40):
Exactly, in fact, I would go a step further and
say that basically, your yourproduct, the products that you
put in your mouth, are goingstraight into your bloodstream
because of the gum line. Sothat's when, when? Why? When you
floss and when you brush yourteeth, sometimes maybe your gums
may bleed. And so why wouldn'tyou be putting cleaner
(18:01):
ingredients into your mouth thatyou potentially could swallow,
but is 100% going into yourbloodstream through your gum
lines. So that's why we reallylook for ways to elevate your
products that we've alreadygrown up with. But can we make
it better? Can we make it moregrown up?
Justine Reichman: (18:18):
I think it's a great solution. I love the
fact that it's clean. I love thefact that you're sustainable. I
want to go back to the packagingfor a minute and talk about what
it's made of. I believe, I thinkI read sugar cane. Is that
right? If you could tell us alittle bit about that and how
you made those choices?
Belinda Liau: (18:40):
With our packaging, we've tried a bunch
of different things. One of theproducts, the tube types we've
used is a sugar cane ethanolbase. So basically what happens
is when sugar is made, you takethe sugar cane and wring out all
of the juice, all of the goodstuff, and then the husks are
basically just thrown away andcomposted, burned or whatnot.
(19:02):
But because the demand for sugaris so high, there's just a lot
of these husks just being thrownaway. What happens is they take
these husks and basically makeit into a fine powder. And when
in its powder form, it actuallymimics very similar to poly
ethanol and all of these otherkinds of plastic materials, so
it's a substitute for it. So youcan make basically the very
(19:27):
similar look and feel ofplastic, but with a sugar cane
base. So we call that a biobased material. It's a great
material for sort of upcyclingthe husk, but recycling it on
the back end is a bit morecomplicated because most
communities, most countriesdon't have a way to recycle bio
(19:50):
based materials yet. They'reused to things that your yogurt
cups are made of, or your milkjugs, and so it complicates the
recycling facilities a littlebit. We're monitoring all of
that stuff. What we do is weactually take back any oral care
products that you have at homethat are used and empty, and we
(20:12):
recycle them with TerraCycle.And that's a free service to all
customers. You don't have to bea customer of ours. You don't
even have to send us ourproducts back. You can send us
any oral care products that youhave at home, and we will
recycle them with TerraCycle.Just to close the loop on
recycling for oral careproducts, because most of it is
(20:32):
mixed nylon and plastic. We wantto make sure that it's getting
into the right hands, and we payfor that service. And so we've
played with sugar canematerials. We obviously have
used a lot of PCR, which is thepost consumer recycled
materials. That one's reallygreat too because we're actually
promoting recyclability bypurchasing recycled plastics.
(20:56):
And there is a way to recyclethem on the back end too, so
we're monitoring a lot of thesedifferent dynamics in the
packaging industry to see whatis possibly a better outcome.
There's also what they call monomaterials, which is like one
material that is typicallyeasier to recycle in recycling
(21:16):
facilities. So there's a bitmore options out there. And the
exciting part for me is since westarted in 2019, I've seen so
much innovation in packaging inthis space from sugar cane to
better PCR, more reliable PCRmaterials to even just paper
pulp materials. Just the thingsthat you can do with different
(21:38):
sort of byproducts that don'treally have some value, but
taking it and making it intosomething interesting and useful
for consumers at home. I justlove how this space is evolving.
Justine Reichman: (21:53):
I know we were talking about the
TerraCycle that you're using.And as you're sitting there
saying, well, you'll accept anyproducts and you'll recycle
them. Did I hear that right?
This is quite an interesting partnership you
Belinda Liau: (22:03):
Yes, yes, absolutely. We'll take any brand
of oral care products. We taketoothbrushes, toothbrush heads
if you use an electrictoothbrush. We take toothpaste
tubes, floss containers, teethwhitening pens, any of that
stuff. Paper, you can generallyrecycle at home. But usually,
it's any mixed material ofplastics that you would see in a
(22:27):
toothpaste tube or a toothbrushthat are generally just thrown
away and not recyclable. So wetake those back, and then we
work with TerraCycle to makethem into things like backpacks,
play structures and things.
have with them.
Actually, they offer this to almost every
(22:49):
company, but nobody really takesup on it. We just feel like it's
such a great way to close theloop on a products that you use
almost every day of your life,but find a way to have a good
way to just put it back into therecycling network.
Justine Reichman: (23:10):
When we talk about recycling, and we talk
about clean beauty, and we talkabout all these things, there's
been a lot of conversation aboutwhat is actually recyclable. I
don't know if there's a lot ofthings around, if it's smaller
than the size of a lipstick,even though it says it's
recyclable it, they don'tactually take that.
Belinda Liau: (23:27):
They don't at home. Usually, it has to be the
size of a milk jug for them toactually take that and recycle
it. Even the yogurt cups,they're too small. Usually,
those end up in landfillsanyways. So we looked at that,
we said, okay, toothpaste tubes,toothbrushes, they're small. But
(23:49):
if we can pull them apart, thencan we make it into something
and then just promote therecycling loop, and basically
encouraging people to recycle sothat we can reuse these products
and see them again in ourproduct lines?
Justine Reichman: (24:08):
I think it's amazing. And I think the way
that you've structured it sothat you've created a better
product with better ingredientsthat are more effective where
there are studies that issustainable, I guess I have a
have to ask, how does it taste?
Belinda Liau: (24:25):
The toothpaste? I think it tastes great. We have
two flavors. We have a lavendervanilla mint and a pineapple
orange mint. And one of them,the lavender was designed by me.
And the other one, the pineappleorange was designed by my
husband. And the reason isbecause I'm a very busy mom, I'm
(24:48):
running a business, got threekids, all kinds of stuff going
on, and so at by the end of theday, I'm exhausted. We put the
kids to bed, and my husbandpours me a glass of, I take two
sips and I'm passed out on thecouch. And then my husband, his
serotonin levels are up atnight, so he's up doing stuff.
(25:08):
And so before he goes to bed, hewakes me up from the couch and
he goes, Bell, Bell, wake up.You got to go to bed. And he go,
I go up to our bedroom. And he'slike, well, you need to brush
your teeth. Don't be gross. He'sa dentist so I'm like, okay. And
I'll brush my teeth. Butusually, these super minty burst
toothpaste, they're energizing,they wake me up. And now I'm
(25:30):
awake, and now I'm mad because Iwant to just go to sleep and
just have a chill night. But I'mnot. I'm awake, and it's hard
for me to go back to sleep.Sleep is key when you're a mom.
So I said, can we make a flavoror a formulation that actually
helps you go to bed. You brushyour teeth and it's very chill,
(25:50):
so the lavender and the sweetvanilla, it calms you. We put
chamomile in there just to giveyou a chill, soft vibe so that
you can transition from whateveryou're doing the day. Even if
you are abruptly woken up. Youcan brush your teeth, go to bed
and continue to sleeppeacefully. So that was our
first flavor. And the secondflavor, really, my husband
(26:12):
designed because he wanted tofeel zesty and awake. And it's
got a little bit more mintflavor, and it's a bit more
fruit forward. And so that oneis so funny. People say that it
tastes like a cactus cooler. Ifyou've ever had one of those,
like a bubbly drink. I had it.It actually does taste just like
(26:32):
our toothpaste. It's so funny. Inever had one before, but my
husband designed the formulajust to make it taste like
something that he loves. Sothose are two flavors. And then
we have a kids line coming outthat has no mint, and a lot of
natural flavors with noartificial flavors, and no
(26:53):
artificial dyes.
Justine Reichman: (26:55):
As you're saying this, I'm thinking it's
kind of like when you went tothe dentist when you were a kid
and they gave you choices of theflavors. Remember that?
Belinda Liau: (27:02):
Yeah. The bubble gum, the grape.
Justine Reichman: (27:07):
Exactly. More in line with that, I feel like
it's the traditional toothpaste.
Belinda Liau: (27:13):
We do plan on having a mint going for it,
because our customers have beenasking us for a plain mint,
which I'm happy to do. But Ijust love taking something that
you already know, which istoothpaste. Everyone uses it,
and just making it a little bitmore upgraded, a little bit more
luxurious, so that's why we havethese two fun flavors.
Justine Reichman: (27:34):
They sound fun. They do. I think you can
even get a kid to try thepineapple on.
Belinda Liau: (27:40):
My kids use both our flavors. They use the
lavender at night, and they usethe pineapple in the morning.
Justine Reichman: (27:46):
You can get kids to use it?
Belinda Liau: (27:49):
There are the pickiest palettes, actually, for
our kids line. They are the oneswho chose the flavors. We had
gone back and forth on differentflavors and flavor profiles, and
we just picked whatever theychose. So they've got the
pickiest palettes on the planet,so we were happy to oblige.
Justine Reichman: (28:07):
Do you remember that life serial
commercial? I might be datingmyself where they're like, Mikey
likes it?
Belinda Liau: (28:14):
Yeah, exactly. I can see the our social media
already with them, designing theproduct and little lab coats,
and then the kid designed andkid approved. There's three of
them, and they all agree.Designed by kids, and approved
(28:38):
by kids. That's all you realize.I think. For parents, that's all
you all that matters. We'll gofor it.
Justine Reichman: (28:45):
I want to go back a little bit, because I
know that you were doing otherthings for 15 years in the
space. And now, here you are asan entrepreneur. Your husband, a
dentist, a lot of dentists areentrepreneurs because they have
their own practices. Is thisyour first foray into, quote
(29:08):
unquote, a CPG product as anentrepreneur?
Belinda Liau: (29:11):
Yes. I wouldn't say that I've been around
business my entire life. Myparents were born and raised in
Burma in Southeast Asia, andthey immigrated to North America
with literally nothing. Theyjust had a suitcase and $14 in
their pockets. And they wereable to raise a family by
(29:32):
starting businesses. So I grewup in our family gift shop since
I was two years old, dusting theshelves, packaging, doing
inventory management, writingthe signs, which is marketing.
Doing the counting the money atthe end of the day, which is
bookkeeping. I was exposed toall of that. Literally, every
(29:52):
summer vacation, wintervacation, weekend, I was in the
shop working until I graduatedand went to college. So I had
been around. My parents startedmany businesses in their
lifetime, so I was able to seewhat that was at like on the
front lines. But as anentrepreneur myself, definitely,
(30:13):
this is my first ownership intobuilding a startup and a
company, and definitely my firsttime in a CPG space. As a
biomedical engineer, we alwaysworked with products that were
sold through hospitals ordistributors. And so building a
CPG product, and also building aproduct and a brand from scratch
(30:35):
is new to me. And I think themost surprising thing I found
about this journey wasdeveloping something that didn't
exist. So that's a brand newbrand product, a brand new
company, and getting to thatproduct market fit was
definitely a new experience forme, because I had always worked
(30:58):
for Fortune 500 companies thathad already established brands.
And so anything that they wouldmake, it would be going towards
a market that they've alreadyhad some footprint in, usually.
And so for me to come into oralcare is not quite medical
devices. It's in the healthcareindustry, but it is different
(31:19):
from some of the otherindustries that had been part
of. Plus just building a brandand getting to that product
market fit. I just remember thatfirst year being so tough,
because how does anyone knowwe're here? How does anyone know
we exist? What you have to dojust to get awareness that we
(31:40):
exist in this world? It was avery tough thing. Because early
on, I didn't know if we weren'tmaking sales because it wasn't
the product. Was it the brand?Was it where we were selling or
where we're not selling/ Or wasit something else completely?
Was it the price? You just don'tknow. And so we started to hit
(32:01):
product market fit luckily atthe end of that first year, and
we knew it because people weretalking about us organically. We
were getting press hits on allthis stuff without paying for
any of that stuff. And so Ithought, okay, yeah, it's
starting to work. But I reallyhad to find that niche that that
core community of people whowere basically trying to solve
(32:23):
the same problems that I was,and who was passionate about the
solution. But if I hadn't foundthat, I think it would be just
really tough to to try to keeppromoting your product and your
brand without actually knowingwhere it fits that product
market fit gap. It was a toughlearning for me in the very
beginnings. But once we got it,we knew, okay, the product
(32:43):
works. People like the product.The price was somewhat
acceptable, even though maybe alittle bit high. The promotion,
we didn't really have anypromotion. Whatever we were
doing, the branding and all thatstuff was working, and it was
just a matter of getting moredistribution.
Justine Reichman: (32:58):
You mentioned a couple times that you're a
little bit more expensive. Howhas that been received by the
public and by your customers?
Belinda Liau: (33:08):
The benchmark for toothpaste is the Crests and
Colgate of the world, and sothose ingredients are just
significantly less expensive.Flora is very cheap. Probably
even just 1% of whatnano-hydroxyapatite costs. And
so we were nervous about, whereshould we price our products?
(33:29):
But honestly in the last fewyears, what we found is
competitors have come into themarket, and they're priced even
higher than us because of that.So we were initially on the
higher side of things for anano-hydroxyapatite product. But
right now, we're just in themiddle. We offer a clinically
backed product of one that'sdeveloped by professionals, but
(33:51):
the pricing is in the middle forthis particular category of
toothpaste. And just recently in2025 nano-hydroxyapatite
toothpaste have outranked everyother toothpaste on Amazon. On
Amazon, the number onetoothpaste are
nano-hydroxyapatite toothpaste.So all those the Crests and
(34:12):
Colgate that dominated the fieldfor so long, they are no longer
number one on Amazon, which isthe number one search engine and
the number one marketplace. Ijust found that to be so
interesting. At a much higherprice point, three, four times
what Crest, Colgate andSensodyne are selling for. But
(34:32):
here comes these smaller brandsthat are taking share from these
huge companies. I just see thatas a telltale signal for us that
we're moving in the rightdirection. Honestly, the price,
yes. Is it higher? Yes, but wedon't actually get a ton of
(34:53):
complaints about it. People whounderstand the ingredients and
what we're trying to do, and thesustainability and the mission,
all of our products areclinically tested, I think they
understand that they're gettinga lot of value. We focus on
showing what the value of theproduct is. And I think just
(35:16):
talking to you, I can see inyour face and your reactions
that there's so much more tojust your average toothpaste.
And so educating our customersand having them understand that
this does help, it gets rid ofyour sensitivity, it helps
rebuild your enamel that youlose every single day, and it
does it in a way that is so muchbetter for you. When we talk
(35:40):
about that to our customers, wesaid, we've sold hundreds of
thousands of tubes at this pricepoint, and so we feel like we're
moving the right direction. Do Iwant to drop the price of entry?
I would love to do that. If wecan get to scale and we can keep
our margins, I would love tobring that price down so that we
can get to a broader audience.
Justine Reichman: (36:00):
I think that sounds amazing. And obviously, I
don't want to say when you getthere, it will also make it more
accessible for others that maybecouldn't afford it, which I
think is really important too atthe right time. So my other
question to you is, though,these other products that we're
seeing, that you're talkingabout that maybe have lower
(36:21):
percentages of thenano-hydroxyapatite, how do they
compare with their effortsaround sustainability?
Belinda Liau: (36:38):
They have no sustainability. They just use
virgin plastic, same as theother brands out there.
Justine Reichman: (36:48):
Is it focused around the ingredient, and
having a superior product andusing more of the
nano-hydroxyapatite? You're alsoa sustainable product, so you're
mindful of the planet> What Ifind so amazing is you don't
stop there. You don't stop andsay, okay, take care of it
(37:09):
yourself. Maybe you can'trecycle it. You found a
solution, you created apartnership. And now, you invite
everybody to send it back to youso that you can recycle it. I
don't know that that happens toooften. I don't know too many
people that take thatresponsibility. I think
Nespresso, you can drop off yourlittle pods there, right? I
(37:31):
don't want to take that awayfrom them. But you go a step
further and say, hey, we'll takeanybody's oral products too.
Belinda Liau: (37:37):
Yep, we will. And it doesn't actually cost us that
much more. It doesn't take toomuch more effort. And we just
offer. We're open door. Youdon't even have to buy any
products from us. We'll send youa free label. You just pack it
into any box that you got athome, and we'll take care of the
rest. I just feel like it's justkind of the right thing to do.
(38:01):
My kids are very young.They'reless than 12 years old, and
they've got a whole future aheadof them. And all the news about
microplastics, the oceans, ourfood and all of this stuff is
very scary. I got rid of mostplastics in my kitchen. It's all
gone. I cook with stainlesssteel and all that stuff. If
(38:22):
it's not that hard, then whyaren't other people doing it? It
costs money, and we're happy todo that. We feel like it's the
right thing to do. But for otherpeople, their priorities, their
business priorities aredifferent. Well, maybe you're
going to make movement here.Once we start advertising, if we
(38:44):
ever do that, then I thinkthat'll be a key message for us,
and the key differentiator. It'sreally sad to see in the oral
care space just how easy it isto use even more recycled
materials, and people don't doit. And then that makes me a
little sad, but we're here. Wecontinue to invest a portion of
our revenue back into R&D, whichincludes the packaging, which
(39:08):
includes the materials. So we'reconstantly innovating. We're
finding more studies, moreingredients that work even
better, to add calcium andphosphates to the surface of
your teeth, to get rid ofsensitivity, to all do all the
things that we need to do tokeep our teeth healthy. Because
let's face it, on our bodies,your teeth are the only things
(39:31):
that don't heal themselves. Yougotta give it everything you
got, and you only have one set.I always tell people that your
goal is to be the hottestgrandparent at the old folks
home with real teeth. At the endof our days, that is our goal.
Justine Reichman: (39:55):
I know that you do this with your husband,
so you guys work together. I'dlove to know a little bit about
that. How is it to work withyour husband?
Belinda Liau: (40:06):
It's interesting. It's actually really good. We
complement each other very well.I always say, with every
partnership, there's alwaysbrains and beauty. And
obviously, I'm the brains, andhe's the beauty. He's got the
lab coat, and we put them allover our marketing materials.
(40:28):
But joking aside, it's actuallyworking pretty well. We've got a
pretty good dynamic at home. Wesplit our duties pretty evenly.
He takes care of a lot of thebills and house stuff, and I
take care of mostly the kids.There's not a ton of overlap.
And so the same thing we do, thesame thing in business. So in
business, he's got his lane, Ihave my lane. We agree just like
(40:51):
a married couple that any bigdecisions, any strategic
decisions, any financialdecisions are done together. We
said, okay, we set a certainamount of money. If the decision
costs us more than this, thentogether, we have to make the
decision. And it actually worksreally well. He's part of all of
(41:11):
the strategy, all of theformulations. He's interesting
because he is still a full timedentist. He has his clinic here
in Northridge, California. Iwork in the business during the
day. And then when he comes homeat night, we're making dinner,
or we're cleaning up the dishes,and we're talking through some
(41:34):
of the stuff that I've donethroughout the day. He's not
working on a day to day, and sohe comes at it from a very
strategic level, he comes in amuch higher level, and he points
out the things that I sometimesmiss. Like you said, he's very
entrepreneur himself because heowned his own dental practice
(41:55):
for over 20 years, so heunderstands loans and financing,
and inventory management, andtime management, and people
management, and all those corethings that make a business. So
he understands those things, andI've actually learned a lot of
stuff about business from him,to be really honest. So it
actually works really nicely. Hegives me most of the decision
(42:19):
making power and all of thatstuff. But he also knows that I
do my research very deeply. I'ma total nerd and engineer, so I
do my research. And I come tohim and I say, hey, I researched
all this stuff. Here areoptions, option A, option B. And
then, we look at it together,and then we decide together
which option to go with. So itactually works quite
(42:39):
beautifully. And then he comesin with that clinical side of
things. I come in withmarketing, product development
side of things. When you have astartup, if you're going to have
a co founder, it really helps tohave complementary skill sets.
And we have that here. Any skillsets we don't have, we have a
(43:00):
ton of mentors and advisors thatwe call and lean on whenever we
need some advice about somethingneither one of us know about. So
we've created a cool littleecosystem in terms of the
startup of how to get thefeedback we need and still grow,
and we still respect each other.We still want to hang out with
(43:22):
each other even after the kidsare gone to bed and we're
chatting about business andstuff. We're very used to having
a busy life, and so having thestartup as our fourth baby, it's
kind of cool. It's kind of coolto have to share that. I also
learned about his industry, inoral care, in dentistry. So it's
(43:44):
actually been really, reallyfun, and it's been really a
rewarding experience workingwith him.
Justine Reichman: (43:48):
Were there any recommendations you might
make for other founders that aredeciding to work with their
husband, wife or partner?
Belinda Liau: (43:58):
Yes. I would say, very similar to us, just have
clear roles of who's doing what,and make sure that all the big
decisions are made together. Ithink that's really the key. I
think obviously, if you'rehusbanda and wife, you already
trust each other. So there's notthat hurdle. But talking through
(44:22):
things before they become anissue, and making sure you're
communicating, making sure thatany big decisions are done
together, I think that's themost important part of working
with your spouse.
Justine Reichman: (44:34):
What would your spouse say about you in
terms of what it's like to workwith you?
You said something before that I agree
Belinda Liau: (44:38):
I think he would say the same things. He would
with, and I actually practice isthat, we have our own set of
say that he's more of like theclinical guy. And he always
skills, and what we're good atdoing, and what we like to do.
says, oh, I'm just the dorkydentist. But he really is. He's
very smart in business. And sohe would say that, I'm more of
the researcher, the R&D person,more of the marketing person in
But surrounding yourself withthose mentors and those advisors
(45:02):
the business. And so I think hewould say very similarly, that
that can give you anotherperspective, more information is
we work well together because wehave very different and
distinct, but also importantroles to keep the business
really key to success. Because Ican't be an expert in
growing.
everything. You can't be anexpert in everything. But making
(45:27):
sure that you have those peopleand then listening to them, not
just having them and talking tothem, but hearing their advice,
(45:50):
I think, is really the key.
Yes. I'll tell you this really short story,
Justine. I have this advisor.He's the CEO and Founder of a
major hair care brand, massivehair care brand. he's in every
Sephora on the planet. I met himthrough business school. Early
on, we thought, okay, should weraise funds for our business?
And I thought, I didn't know. Ithought every CPG business just
(46:14):
goes and raises money, which isnot true. We're totally
bootstrapped, even to this day.So I went to him first. I said,
Justine Reichman: (46:21):
So Belinda, thank you so much for joining me
oh, I'm putting together thispitch deck, and I'm putting
together a valuation, doing allthe fancy pitching and all that
stuff. And I went to him first.I know he can afford it. So I
said, would you invest in ourbusiness? Because he had been
advising us for a few years. Andhe turned to me and said,
(46:41):
Belinda, if I give you money, Iwould be doing you a disservice.
Because he actually created hisbrand 100% by himself. He to
this day, he owns 100% of hiscompany. He said, you would gain
so much more by keepingownership of your business.
Plus, you won't actually learnhow to solve your own problems
if you just throw money at it.So first, you're going to go
(47:05):
spend your time raising fundswithout running the business.
Because raising funds is a fulltime job. And then once you get
the money, you're just going tothrow money at the problems. So
he said, how will you learn howto do all of the stuff and teach
other people how to solve theproblems if you don't try to do
(47:25):
it yourself? At least try. Andhe said, I would do you a
disservice if I gave you anyfunding. And at first, I was
taken aback. I thought, okay,here's someone who has known my
business, who has seen me grow,who has given me advice for
years, and I'm sitting here athis kitchen table and he's
telling me he won't even give mea couple $1,000. I was blown
(47:49):
away, but I quickly realizedthat he was 100% right. I could
have easily not listened to him.I could have said, okay, thanks.
You don't know what you'retalking about. I'm gonna find
another advisor. But I took hisadvice to heart. I said, okay,
he's got something here. So Itook his advice. We still to
this day have not raised anyfunds. It's really interesting
(48:13):
how the business has grownwithout with me solving most of
the problems. I got reallyscrappy. I did a lot of things
on my own. I reached out todifferent advisors and experts
in the things I didn'tunderstand. A lot of people
helped me out on their good timeand their expertise. And we're
still here, many, many yearslater. I can't say that this is
(48:36):
a success story yet. But so far,his advice, once you take it and
understand what they're tryingto teach you, it actually has
paid off. And I text him all thetime and say, oh, my God, look
all the stuff that we've done.And he's like, you see. You
still own 100% of your business.And he was right.
today. It was great to have youhere. I love all the
(49:02):
information. I'm excited tochange toothpaste myself. I'm
just curious if you could justshare with our community, if
people wanted to go get yourproduct, where would they find
it?
Belinda Liau: (49:14):
Oh, yes, absolutely. So we're definitely
If there's anybody that waslistening or tuning in today
on Amazon. We're on Walmart.We're on a couple beauty
boutiques. One that I love iscalled Beauty Care Choices. If
that wanted to connect with you,maybe for collaborations or
you're here in Los Angeles, wehave a shop here in Century City
innovations, what's the best wayto connect with you?
Mall, which is the biggest mallhere in LA at a store called
Atlas. And then, of course, youcan just come to our website,
(49:36):
and we can ship you anything youwant.
LinkedIn is the best way. I'vegot a nice little community
there. So if anyone wants toreach out to me, LinkedIn is the
best place.
Justine Reichman: (49:55):
Okay, thank you so much for tuning in. So
(50:26):
Belinda, for those listeners andviewers that were tuning in
today that are part of thiscommunity, that are excited
about what you're doing and wantto try the product, is there a
discount you're going to beoffering them?
Belinda Liau: (50:37):
Justine, I love this audience. I've been a
longtime listener of yourpodcast for many years, so I
would love to offer all of thosein your audience a 20% discount
to our website. Just type in"ESSENTIALINGREDIENTS", and you
get 20% off.
Justine Reichman: (50:51):
Awesome. Belinda, thank you so much. I
want to thank our listeners andour community for tuning in
today. It's always fun to get toknow new people, new products
that are paving the way forbetter for you things in the
world, whether it's around ourhealth, our wellness, or the
planet.
Belinda Liau: (51:07):
Thank you so much, Justine, it's been an
absolute honor.
Justine Reichman: (51:09):
Thank you. So those folks tuning in today on
the podcast, don't forget thatyou can also tune into our
videocast on YouTube. And if youare watching the video and want
to tune into the podcast, followus and subscribe to our channel
at Essential Ingredients, whichis on Spotify, iTunes, wherever
you listen. We'd love to connectand continue the conversation on
(51:32):
Instagram atessential.ingredients, so we'll
see you again next week.
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