Hands up who’s kept their camera firmly in the ‘off’ position while on a Zoom call, preferring to show up to digital meetings as a blank square rather than face their online appearance. You’re not alone and one of our biggest bugbears is our teeth, with over half the UK admitting we’re unhappy with our smiles.
“A staggering nine out of ten of our customers come to us feeling insecure about their smile and want to feel more confident when smiling,” says Natalie Quail, co-founder and CEO of at-home teeth whitening brand SmileTime . “We are seeing the insecurity around how customers feel about their smile can have a real impact on people’s self-esteem and mental health – especially as everyone’s smile is now at the forefront of numerous daily Zoom calls.”
SmileTime, which launched in 2019 and has since whitened over 700,000 teeth worldwide, wants to address our confidence issues surrounding our smiles with at-home teeth whitening solutions from £15.99 that transform oral care into self-care, encouraging us to take 15 minutes to ourselves each day to overhaul our smiles, whether you slot it into a quiet 15 minutes during the working day, while making dinner or during a relaxing soak in the bath. “I never felt confident until I had my teeth whitened as a teenager,” Natalie tells us. “I believe that feeling confident about my smile was the gateway to feeling confident in other areas of my life, be it dating, job interviews or public speaking.”
SmileTime’s Instagram is a place of grin-inducing positivity; alongside beaming selfies of impressed white-teethed smiling customers there are inspirational quotes (“This is your Monday morning reminder that you can handle whatever this week throws at you” and “Success doesn’t come from what you do occasionally it comes from what you do consistently.”)
Knowing that in-clinic teeth whitening can be expensive, time-consuming and at-time painful, Natalie set about rectifying this with SmileTime, which she says is a premium yet affordable, pain-free way to whiten your teeth from home. The efficiency of SmileTime is one of the main things that draws people, including Made in Chelsea’s Liv Bentley, to the brand. “I know too well the frustrations that many working women face - trying to juggle self-care with all of our other priorities,” says Natalie. “It can feel like an impossible task at the best of times – let alone with the pressures of a pandemic to contend with.”
SmileTime’s reviews speak for themselves with positive feedback rolling in on reviews site TrustPilot. “Everything about the product is incredible,” one reviewer wrote. “This is the best teeth whitening products I have used. I’ve used strips, toothpaste and the SmileTime teeth whitening kit has made the biggest difference,” while another said, “Wow this is the best teeth whitening kit.”