Coffee Cup Executive

I don’t know how to say this without feeling like I’ve reached “that age”, so I’m just going to come out and say it: I bought myself an electric toothbrush for my 2023 travel kit. I could not possibly feel less cool by confessing this is the thing I’m the most excited about. But I’m legitimately excited about this purchase!

Last year I learned a lot about oral hygiene and travel, specifically, whatever your habits are at home, they’re going to be a real challenge to maintain when you have to carry it all in a backpack. I rely on an electric toothbrush and a water flosser when I’m home. But when I travel, I favour a bamboo handle toothbrush and dental floss. Seems reasonable, right? I mean, most of us grew up with no fancy tools and we managed to get into adulthood with all our teeth in tact.

But here’s my thing: I love red lipstick. I feel “finished” when I have added a bright red lippy, but I am, also, regrettably a coffee drinker. Those aren’t a good combination, so when I learned that a decent electric toothbrush has a whitening setting, I was hooked.

Which brings me back to my travel last year. I learned very quickly that within a few days of travel, especially when there were long flights or train rides with limited access to brushing facilities, my teeth just didn’t feel clean. I started experimenting with my rechargeable toothbrush at home and on short trips, and learned it was good for about a week. Anything over that and it just became an unreasonably heavy manual toothbrush with a tiny little brush head. Clearly if I wanted an electric toothbrush for travel, it needed to have batteries.

It feels very decadent to own two electric toothbrushes. In a world where plastic purchases have an environmental impact, this was a tough decision. But the more I considered it, the more I realized I didn’t want to cut back on toothbrushing.

So here I am heading into 2023 with my most exciting purchase being a toothbrush. It hasn’t shipped yet, but I will definitely give updates on this unbelievably exciting travel accessory as it comes with me around the world.