I Spent 3 Years Cleaning Up Our Bathroom
The Toothbrushes Were
the Last Thing I Looked At.
How a friend's offhand comment led me to discover that "eco" toothbrushes are still made of plastic โ and what we built instead.
Teressa, Author, Mom of 2
If you've been quietly auditing your house for the last few years, you know the feeling.
You replace one thing, you feel good for a week, and then you find out about the next thing.
I started this around the time my oldest was two. By the time she was six, I'd switched almost everything.
I felt like I'd finally caught up.
Until last spring, when a friend was at our house and stopped at our bathroom counter.
She picked up my four-year-old's toothbrush โ bamboo handle, the kind I'd been buying for years from one of the "eco" brands โ and said, "You know these bristles are plastic, right?"
I just stood there.
The Bamboo Lie
Every single "eco" toothbrush I'd ever bought โ every "100% bamboo", sustainably-marketed, leafy-packaged brush โ had Nylon Bristles.
Plastic. Same as a regular toothbrush.
The handle is the part everyone shows in the photos. The bristles are the part that goes in your mouth. Twice a day. For years.
Every toothbrush in our house. Four of them. All bamboo handled. All plastic bristled.
I'd been brushing my kids' teeth with plastic for years and feeling good about it because the handle was made of bamboo.
I'm not exaggerating when I say I felt sick.
What It Does to a Body
I went down a rabbit hole that night.
There's a โPubMed Environmental Study published in February 2024 saying that a single brushing session may release up to ~120 microplastic particles. It's 87,000 microplastic particles per year, per person, just from brushing. For an adult.
For a child, brushing twice a day from age 2 to age 18, that's potentially over 1.4 million microplastic particles ingested directly into their mouth and digestive tract.
From a single source. Over a developmental window when their bodies are most sensitive to chemical exposure.
I'm not someone who likes scary statistics. I think they get used to sell things that don't deserve to be sold. But this one I couldn't get out of my head, because the source wasn't a chemical I could research and avoid.
It was a toothbrush. The most basic object in our morning routine. The thing I'd been handing my kids twice a day, every day, since they had teeth.
And the worst part โ the part that made me genuinely angry โ was that the entire "eco toothbrush" industry knew this.
They sold us bamboo handles and let us assume the rest. Nobody put it on the front of the package: bristles still plastic.
What We Built Instead
Every "eco" toothbrush uses nylon because nylon is cheap and the machines are already calibrated for it.
Real natural bristles โ the way toothbrushes were made for centuries before plastic โ require more percise and slower production.
The "sustainable" brands aren't solving the materials problem. They're solving the marketing problem.
So we made one ourselves.
โ Nik, Founder of Vanillos.
Just 2 Materials
Boar Bristle & Bamboo Handle.
That's it.
No nylon. No glue. No PFAS. No BPA. No microplastics. No other BS.
We source bristles and bamboo from Asia, where the craft tradition lives.
We don't pretend our supply chain is American โ we're honest about where things come from.
(open "Manufacturing" below for specifics)
The packaging is unbleached carton sealed with kraft tape, no plastic anywhere. The brush itself fully biodegrades when you're done.
Lifetime Promise
If you don't love them, full refund, no return required.
One More Thing.
If you've spent the last few years quietly cleaning up your house, replacing the things you didn't think about โ this is probably the last thing in your bathroom you haven't looked at yet.
Go check the bristles.
If they're nylon, you'll know.
โ Teressa
Q. Are boar bristles safe to use?
Yes. Boar bristle brushes have been used for oral care for centuries, long before plastic existed.
Theyโre naturally soft, flexible. Used with normal pressure, just like any toothbrush.
Q. Is this brush too rough for gums?
No. Boar bristles are naturally tapered and gentle.
Many people find them less abrasive than stiff synthetic bristles when used with normal pressure.
Q. Is this hygienic?
Yes. The bristles are sanitized with ozone โ a chemical-free process that kills bacteria and pathogens, then evaporates completely with no residue.
Q. Do boar bristles shed?
A few bristles may settle in the first few uses โ this is how natural, glue-free brushes break in.
Bamboo handles expand slightly with humidity and bristles set without adhesives need to find their position. Most of our customers notice nothing past the first 1-2 uses.
Q. How long does one brush last?
Typically 1โ2 months, similar to conventional toothbrushes.
Replace when bristles visibly wear, just like any oral care tool.
Q. Is this brush vegan?
No.
This brush uses natural boar bristle, which is an animal-derived material.
We believe transparency matters more than labels.
Manufacturing
We don't pretend our supply chain is American โ we're honest about where things come from.
For current stock, our process is:
Bamboo is sourced from Sanming, Fujian Province, China โ where it grows best.
The handle is carved from a single piece of bamboo. No glue, no laminate, no chemicals at any stage.
Boar hair is sourced from Yangzhou, Jiangsu Province, China โ a region with a long tradition of boar bristle brush-making.
The bristles are sanitized with ozone โ a chemical-free process that kills bacteria and pathogens, then evaporates completely with no residue.
You might notice powder coming off the bristles when you first open it and run your finger through them.
That's natural bristle dust from our tip-rounding process โ we sand each bristle tip smooth so it's gentle on your gums. We air-blow the bristles after sanding to remove most of it, though some can still remain.
Harmless and non-toxic.
Just rinse with warm water before first use.
Bristles are attached using brass sheets (62% copper, 38% zinc) โ no glue, no other chemicals.
Assembly happens in China.
The package itself is unbleached carton, sealed with kraft tape โ no plastic anywhere in the box.
Shipping
We put in extra effort to ensure our packaging is natural too. Items are packed in a carton box, and sealed with kraft sealing tape.
We ship directly from our production facility to reduce unnecessary transport and handling.
As we grow, we plan to expand our warehouses internationally to be able to fulfill locally.