Kendall Jenner Is Making the Oral Beauty Trend Happen
March 17 | 3 minute read
Words by Kerri Gordon
As far as white spaces go in beauty, come 2024, the pickings are slim. So when dental clinicians and entrepreneurs alike began to set their sights on literal white (or more often than not, yellow-ish) spaces – our teeth – it made us question why we hadn’t been considering oral care as part of our beauty regimen all along.
The beautification of oral care seems to have started when celebrities began facing ‘invisible’ orthodontic brands in the 2010s. And though it’s taken a decade or so, a broader, highly Instagrammable ‘oral beauty’ trend has emerged, through aesthetically motivated dental brands that consider both your selfie and your ‘shelfie’, reframing the twice-daily ritual to be as enticing as your favourite glow drops.
One of those brands is MOON Oral Beauty, an award-winning oral care brand backed by professional smiler Kendall Jenner, whose interest in the brand was piqued by the modern approach of Founder Shaun Neff’s (who created the brand alongside dental clinicians). “It was all very serious,” she says of the oral landscape, “so I was really attracted by that and thought it was really cool and fun.”
It makes sense; they say your hair is 60% of your selfie, a category which fast became ‘skinified’ and soon after, hyper stylised, thanks to at-home devices like the Dyson Airwrap. Tinder data has revealed that individuals that present smiles with bright, aligned teeth are rated higher in relation to attractiveness and likelihood of receiving a swipe – providing a platform for oral beauty to sparkle. After all, it would be wrong to ignore the fact that many of our foundational beauty rituals originated in cave-people times to attract a mate.
Oral health has long been connected to our wellbeing and quality of life, so as the beauty industry continues to create symbiosis with the wellness category, brushing, flossing and whitening emerge as the new equivalent to contouring and highlighting (and veneers, perhaps, as the Botox and filler of it all). Just take the latest Miley Cyrus music video, a three-minute ode to hairspray, reformer Pilates and pearly whites.
When you really think about it, failing to adopt the trend would be a disservice to oneself – and all it takes is slight finessing of existing habits. For one, swapping to an electric toothbrush ensures a more thorough clean, with less wrist work involved. (Editor’s note: I didn’t understand the Moon Oral Beauty Electric Toothbrush hype taking over the MECCA office – how could a toothbrush be that good? – until I tried it myself!)
Taking a skincare and makeup approach to oral care makes for a beaming smile, in the same way a gentle exfoliant and a touch of concealer can work wonders to your complexion. Moon Oral Beauty’s Advanced Whitening Moon Dust and the Kendall Jenner Teeth Whitening Pen do just that. The former is a physical exfoliant that buffs away stains to reveal a brighter smile, while the latter (co-created with Kendall, like the name suggests) utilises urea peroxide and light-reflecting pigments for whiter teeth in the long and short. “It comes with me everywhere,” says Kendall. “ I love seeing it when my friends have it in their purses or their little Dopp kits.”
