Mandarin Fireworks Toothy Tabs

Sometimes Lush do things a little too much in excess which isn't exactly a good thing for consumer's wallets. With the recent opening of the new Liverpool superstore, the company chose to bring out ten brand new variations of toothy tabs, as well as ten brand new mouthwash tabs alongside these. While this now means that they have a seriously impressive range to choose from, these additional products don't exactly narrow it down for those of us who want to choose the right one for our tastebuds and our teeth.

To aide consumers with their purchases and help fans to decide which toothy tabs are the ones worth investing in first, I have been trialing them all out by myself so I can offer extensive reviews on all of them throughout this blog. For those still unsure of their choices, I hope that these reviews help you to make the right ones with your money.

Mandarin Fireworks is one of ten limited edition toothy tabs that first made an appearance at the Lush Showcase event early this year. They have since set up camp solely in the Liverpool store as an exclusive product and I was lucky enough to know somebody that was willing to grab a bottle of them for me to try out for myself.

Sold as little circular orange tabs, on the front of the bottle it reads: 'an explosion of Szechuan pepper tingles the tongue while a triple dose of juicy mandarin brings an appeeling flavour.' It probably would have helped me to have read this part first because my experience was a rather strange one that took me quite a while to figure out what exactly was actually happening in my mouth.

Containing three different mandarin oils, it's no surprise then that these toothy tabs both smell and taste very much like a heightened mandarin dessert. From the moment these little gems are placed in your mouth, you can taste the natural sweetness of the citrus oils, and it's very much like brushing your teeth with a rather yummy tasting mandarin sweet. It's tart, fruity, sharp and sweet all at once and it lingers long in your mouth after you've rinsed away the foam.

What is strange about these toothy tabs in that halfway through brushing, you begin to experience a little tingling on your tongue, which intensifies a little and gives a very odd sensation in your mouth. It's almost as if the bitter taste of biting into an unpeeled orange has been placed on the tip of your tongue, whereas the rest of your mouth just tastes of regular mandarin. It's a very odd experience for sure but equally made me recognise just how fresh and clean my mouth felt at particular moment in time.

As with most of Lush's other toothy tabs, Mandarin Fireworks contain a number of ingredients that work in the same way as regular toothpaste does: dicalcium phosphate anhydrous is the main ingredient in these toothy tabs and is a component used to help supplement the body's calcium intake, not to mention preventing the build up of tartar in the mouth; sorbitol is a natural alternative to sugar, which allows Lush to add flavour to this product without adding anything that'll rot your teeth; Lauroyl Sarcosine not only helps the product to foam up in the mouth but is also used to remove unwanted bacteria that may cause problems in the future.

To use them you simply pop a tab into your mouth, crunch down using your front teeth, wet your toothbrush and begin to brush your teeth as normal. The powdery mixture reacts with the water and the cream of tartar creates a foam that freshens your mouth and cleans away any stubborn pieces of food that may be lingering around. Unlike some of Lush's other tabs I have tried, this one melts almost immediately upon contact with moisture and you won't need to crunch these at all.

What I liked about these tabs was that they produced a rather generous foam when in use, and even when I rinsed my mouth out halfway through, I was still able to stimulate a lot more foam when beginning to brush my teeth again. I found that I could continue brushing my teeth for a good 5 minutes without running out of product and they left my mouth feeling thoroughly clean afterwards. 

While these tabs won't leave you with amazingly minty-fresh breath, and this may be something you'll have to get used to, it does leave a pleasant taste on the palette and provides you with clean-feeling teeth. Although these are the first ones I have tried from the new collection, I thoroughly enjoyed using these and felt that my teeth and breath remained fresh for a good many hours after brushing my teeth in the morning. For those who dislike the heavy taste that mint can leave in your mouth, these would be a great alternative and I have been enjoying using these during my working day to keep my mouth super clean until lunchtime.

Containing enough tabs for three months of daily brushing once or twice, this small bottle will last you a long time. And while they may work out a little more expensive than a tub of toothpaste, they're definitely worth the price tag - if only for the novelty of trying a flavour that is far more interesting than the hum drum of mint that you may be used to. The fact that these are easy to transport on holiday as well only serves to make me appreciate them even more. These are definitely ones I would purchase again.

Quantitative Ingredients: Dicalcium Phosphate Anhydrous, Sodium Bicarbonate, Cream Of Tartar (Potassium bitartrate), Sorbitol, Lauroyl Sarcosine, Red Mandarin Oil, Yellow Mandarin Oil, Green Mandarin Oil, Stevia, Fine Sea Salt, Menthol Crystals, Szechuan Pepper, Oleoresin, Gardenia Extract, Alpha-Isomethylionone, Anise Alcohol, Limonene, Flavour, Colour 15985:1, Colour 19140:1.   

Vegan?: Yes. 

2019 Price: £5.95 each.

Year Of Original Release: 2019.