Specialist aligner/retainer cleaning solutions supplier, Blakmint Ltd., was named Consumer Products StartUp of the Year at the UK StartUp Awards North West final at the Contact Theatre in Manchester. The event saw founders of small businesses championed – those businesses under three years old that are not just coming up with interesting ideas but are building real companies, winning customers and tackling problems that matter.
Blakmint (www.blakmint.co.uk) is redefining how orthodontic patients care for their aligners and retainers by creating a new category of specialist products designed specifically for aligner and retainer hygiene. Their flagship innovation, a retainer cleaning brush designed specifically for this purpose has sold over 4,500 units. This level of traction is particularly significant given that the product represents a completely new solution within the market. Prior to this, users relied on unsuitable tools such as toothbrushes, which are not designed to effectively clean the intricate grooves and contours of retainers, often leading to poor hygiene outcomes.
Building on this, they have expanded into a full retainer care system. The product range now includes a reusable liquid cleaner – a great alternative to tablets – reusable and persulfates free, portable storage case, specialist brush, removal hook and chewies. Each product has been intentionally designed to work together as part of a complete system, simplifying the user experience and supporting better daily hygiene habits.
Founder and CEO, Stacey Greslow commented, “I am absolutely thrilled!
I founded Blakmint through real struggle, when I couldn’t find products that actually worked for me as an orthodontic patient without cutting corners. Instead of settling for mass produced, chemical loaded formulas, I decided to build something better – products I genuinely needed myself.
We would like to dedicate these awards to all of our customers – without them there would be no Blakmint and we also look forward to helping many, many more orthodontic patients in future.”
