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Lenny Kravitz Wants to Sell You…Toothpaste?

His brand, Twice, sells fluoride paste, fluorescent yellow brushes, floss, whitening tools and an interesting oral wellness rinse.

twice products on a shelf Courtesy

By Evan Malachosky

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Most celebrity brand partnerships don’t make a ton of sense. Sure, LeBron loves tequila, but what does he know about tequila? Same with Michael Jordan. And Ryan Reynolds — does he really know that much about gin, or cellular networks?

Each time someone famous assumes the position of owner, chief executive officer or creative director for an unexpected brand, I replay a famous quote from the ever-venerable Kanye West in my head: “Look at [Lady] Gaga, she’s the creative director of Polaroid,” West said during a BBC1 interview in 2013. (She served as the camera brand’s chief creative brain from 2010 until 2014.) “I like some of the Gaga songs, but what the fuck does she know about cameras?”

To be fair to Gaga — born Stefani Germanotta — her position didn’t require an expertise in camera technology. Instead, she served as an ambassador, someone capable of conveying each product’s essence. And the products that debuted during her tenure were, by all means, fun and futuristic for their tume. Sometimes, celebrity brand partnerships are less about lucrative endorsement deals and more about two creative parties making change together.

twice whitening tool being applied on the front teeth
The whitening pen doesn’t rely on a new applicator. It just isn’t as abrasive as other solutions.
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That’s what the founding partnership between oral wellness brand Twice and prolific singer, songwriter, rocker and famous cat father Lenny Kravitz is all about. Twice — which was technically founded in 2018 by Kravitz’ dentist, Dr. Jonathan Levine, and his two sons, Cody and Julian — relaunched this year with all-new branding, a few new products and Kravitz on its board.

Kravitz is the chief creative officer, a title that ties him to the product’s packaging and impact, not formula development or flavor profile. The musician and actor is there to advocate for the brand’s mission, which is to move past superficial concerns like bad breath and coffee stains and address oral wellness as a whole.

You’re meant to use all of Twice’s products in tandem: the toothbrush and toothpaste first, of course, but then the floss, immunity rinse and whitening tool, too. Together, they’re less detrimental to your mouth’s ability to self-cleanse and heal.

“Our oral microbiome is the second largest microbiome in the body. It’s time for hygiene products to go beyond surface level benefits of just fresh breath and deliver a holistic system for a balanced mouth, body and soul,” Twice chief brand officer Cody Levine says.

twice oral wellness rinse
The rinse, like the rest of the line, comes in a bright yellow bottle.
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twice oral wellness rinse being sprayed
You don’t have to dose this mouth wash into a tiny cut. You can spray it directly into your mouth.
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It’s true; the mouth is the second-most-complex microbiotic system in the body, behind the stomach. That’s why Twice uses natural ingredients, instead of harsh oils, solvents and strippers. This preference for plant-based elements doesn’t make the Oral Wellness Toothpaste or Oral Wellness Immunity Rinse taste funny or tingle any differently than your typical oral hygiene products, but it does leave your mouth feeling less eviscerated.

Alcohols in normal mouthwashes dry the mouth out, accelerating the growth of bacteria that cause bad breath and gum disease. The alcohol-free rinse, on the other hand, is nano-emulsified — a process that decreases the size of several components to improve delivery — and uses nano-silver, baking soda, hydrogen peroxide, zinc, coconut oil and spirulina to target only the bad bacteria, leaving good bacteria behind to balance the mouth’s microbiome.

twice toothpaste on a table with a toothbrush
Twice’s toothpaste comes in four all-natural flavors,
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There are other all-natural innovations at play in the toothpaste, which comes in four flavors: Calming Lavender Vanilla Mint, Cooling Spearmint Eucalyptus, Invigorating Wintergreen Peppermint and Charcoal Icy Mint. Each features antioxidant vitamins A and E, as well as aloe vera and nano-hydroxyapatite. Together, they help strengthen your teeth’s enamel, fight gum disease and reduce tooth sensitivity.

The floss is also the first, at least to my knowledge, to be coated in baking soda, which sounds like a disgusting final touch but is barely noticeable in practice. It helps deodorize and whiten the teeth deep into their nooks and crannies.

The Swiss-made toothbrush — called the Oral Wellness Manual Toothbrush — is, well, just a toothbrush. The whitening pen works like most whitening pens, but without the sensitivity that comes with them. All-natural ingredients like eucalyptus and cinnamon aren’t as active as those used in fast-acting whitening pens, which is why Twice’s is a touch-up-every day type of tool, not an overnight fix.

The Twice toothpaste, meanwhile is tasty, and leaves the mouth clean in a comfortable way. It’s minty, but I could quickly transition from morning grooming routine to breakfast without the toothpaste taste lingering too long.

The most impressive product from Twice’s relaunched catalog is the immunity rinse, which I found myself using far more often than I ever have traditional mouthwash. It’s slightly herbal, a little bit cocktail-ish to the taste and the color of freshwater algae, not the neon green or bright blue or even eye-popping purple most people are accustomed to. It’s stronger than most mouthwashes, and sprayed into your mouth instead of poured into a tiny cup or sipped straight from the bottle. (If the recommended three or four pumps straight up prove too intense, you can dilute it with equal parts water.)

twice toothbrushes in a pile
The 10% pledge is far more significant than the 1% commitment most brands make.
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Beyond those products, Kravitz has revealed it was the brand’s commitment to charitable initiatives that convinced him to join Twice as its chief creative officer. The brand has pledged 10 percent of its profits to GLO Good Foundation, a nonprofit run by Dr. Levine that offers top-notch dental care to patients in under-resourced communities.

The opportunity to provide real support to the Bahamas at scale intrigued the artist, because he lives on the island and spent much of his adolescence there. Whatever they could do to help, Twice agreed to, Kravitz said — no matter how much money it required.

“Immediately we got into putting this mission together, buying the equipment, getting all the things down there that we needed to set up a clinic. And doc came down with, I don’t remember the first year, it was 30 or so top doctors. And we served the people and it was the most amazing experience to see people getting their oral health, getting their smile back…” Kravitz told Fast Company. “Through all of this the idea came to start a line of products that would be superior and that would be something we could use to help raise money to continue doing these missions.”

As such, when you buy Twice’s products, you’re directly supporting the GLO Good Foundation‘s mission. The connection isn’t some distant transaction the two parties settle on once a year. They’re intertwined, two gears working toward the same goal: universal oral health.

Twice Oral Wellness Products:

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