Fraîche’s slim, flat packaging borrows from beauty codes, fitting as easily into a pocket as a Rhode lip tint. The wider category is adopting a similarly fashion-forward, sensual and sometimes provocative design language. Even names such as Bastét, Köppen, Orist and Fraîche sound more like fashion or fragrance houses than oral-care brands.
“Culture came first, science will make it stick, but aesthetics will drive the behavior change,” says McDonnell. These products are meant to be displayed, shared on social media and even flaunted — not relegated to the medicine cabinet. Their portability could also move oral care beyond the pharmacy aisle and into beauty and fashion retailers, checkout counters, gyms and coffee shops.
A new route into retail
For now, premium oral care remains on the fringes of dedicated beauty and wellness retail. Goop’s offering is limited to mouth tape, while Violet Grey and Ulta carry OLAS mouthwash. Credo has a broader assortment, mostly from oral brand Cocolab.
Instead, the category is finding a home at upmarket lifestyle grocers such as Erewhon and Happier Grocery.
Perhaps more tellingly, premium oral care is appearing at fashion and luxury retailers. Köppen is stocked at Revolve and FWRD (in addition to lifestyle grocer Laurel Supply), while Selahatin can be found at Holt Renfrew, Selfridges, Dover Street Market, Luisa Via Roma, Printemps New York and FWRD.
Trudy Arnold, head of beauty and home at Revolve and FWRD, says the retailers began noticing the shift in 2024, as interest expanded beyond toothpaste and whitening into tongue scraping, mouth rinses, oil pulling, electric toothbrushes and ingredient-conscious formulas.
“For Revolve, oral care must offer performance and cultural relevance; for FWRD, the lens is discovery, craftsmanship and an elevated experience,” Arnold says. “Ultimately, across both brands, we’re looking for products that work, have a clear reason to exist and make an everyday routine feel more considered.”