Zimba is an online company that makes teeth whitening products. At first I was skeptical of the company (it doesn’t have a physical address and is only a few years old), but the prices it offered were very attractive – the strips are much cheaper than Crest’s whitening strips, so I thought, “why not give it a try?”. If none of its products worked it wouldn’t be a big loss anyway.
So I placed an order and got three things to try out: their whitening strips, whitening pens and LED light.
A Quick Overview
Zimba actually offers a few extra products such as charcoal powder and desensitizing pen. But since I just wanted to try things out first so I didn’t get the extras.
What’s In The Parcel
Here’s the order summary for your reference. I placed the order in Feb 2020.
- Zimba Strips LED Light Kit (US$34.99) which includes the LED light and a pack of strips in coconut flavor
- Zimba Strips Deal (US$30) which includes 2 packs of strips in coconut and pumpkin spice flavor
- Travel Teeth Whitening Pen (2ml) (US$7.99) BOGO free (buy one get one free) offer which includes 2 pens
I got a discount code which helps deduct US$18 from the total. I paid US$4 for tracked shipping so the grand total was US$57.99. For a LED light, 2 whitening pens and 3 packs of strips, not bad huh?
LED Light
What LED Light does is to allow faster and deeper teeth whitening experience. The LED Light emits heat which allows for your teeth’s pores to open up, so the teeth whitening gel and the whitening agents in whitening strips can travel down to where the deep stains exist, in a shorter amount of time.
At the time of purchase, Zimba just rolled out a new dual 32-LED wireless accelerator light. It basically doubles the energy emission of the original 16-LED light which is connected to a power source (e.g. phone, laptop) when in use. However, I got the original as it was half the price* of the newer model and in fact it’s very similar to another LED light device I kept in Hong Kong which I had good result with (it’s by Dr. Smile from Korea). Zimba’s original LED light includes 3 connectors (lightning, micro usb and type-c) which lets you connect to any phone.
* Just for your information, you can get the old version at US$29.99. For the newer model, you’ll have to spend at least US$74.99 at a bundle price. At the time of writing, the newer model is only available in every “Supreme” bundle kit.
I like that LED light helps speed up the whitening process a lot faster. If using the Zimba strips alone, it’ll take at least 30 minutes, up to an hour for even deeper penetration, as per Zimba’s instruction. With the light, the time goes down to just 10 minutes per cycle (you can safely run up to 3 cycles max for each application). Besides the strips, you can use the light with whitening gel and pen as well. You can basically use the light on top of general teeth whitening product you can get on the market just to accelerate the process. Sooo convenient!
Whitening Strips
As mentioned early, I got 3 boxes of two flavors: coconut and pumpkin spice to try out. Each box of strips contains 28 strips (14 pairs for upper and lower front teeth) and is good for 14 consecutive days. You should not do more than one treatment each month. If you want more results and do another round, you’ll have to wait for at least 2 weeks to allow the teeth to recover.
As you can see, one strip is slightly shorter than the other and it’s used on your lower teeth. In theory, you should have the strips stayed on for 30-60 minutes in order to see result. You should NEVER wear whitening strips overnight as the active whitening agent will damage your teeth. (Even with Zimba’s strips which should be gentle on sensitive teeth.) Some people claim to see result just after one time of use. I actually only saw initial result after the 7th or 8th session even with my LED light… After one treatment, I could actually see improvement, but it wasn’t very impressive so I waited for 2 weeks and did another. This time, the result was really good!
It’s been over a year after my Zimba treatments and with regular maintenance of a whitening gel from another brand I can still maintain the whiteness pretty well!
Whitening Gel I Also Use
Apart from whitening strips, which should only be used once per month for each treatment, I use the Plus White 5 minute Speed Whitening System when I’m done using the Zimba strips for maintenance. I even use it sometimes together with the LED light for more obvious result. It was recommended by a youtuber and it’s worked on me pretty well.
Note: as for daily maintenance, I use Waterpik Whitening Water Flosser which helps remove stains. Together with the use of the whitening tablets, it’s clinically proven to remove an additional 25% more stains than brushing alone!
Whitening Pens
For the whitening pen, I’ve only used it once as a touch-up. Even though my teeth are so much whiter than before, the edges of my teeth still look a bit yellowish at close-up. The whitening pen contains whitening gel that you can get it out by twisting the end of the pen. Zimba claims a pen lasts for 2 months. So I applied the gel by brushing it up onto my teeth. Surprisingly the gel reacts quickly and I could actually see some stains fading away in a minute! I followed the instruction to have the gel stayed on for 5 minutes and the result was impressive.
I guess the gel dissolves shallow stains better than the strips, but the strips are gentler and can penetrate deeper.
For people wanting to see quicker result, I suggest using the strips + LED light during the whole treatment. Zimba suggests using the whitening pen for short travels as touch-up on the go. I think it’s a good idea as the pen is handy to put into your purse or suitcase and only requires 5 minutes of treatment time.
Verdict: Good-buy or good-bye?
Of all the Zimba’s products I’ve tried, all of them do what they’re supposed to do and the results were pretty decent. I was once a supporter of Crest’s whitening strips but they were much more expensive and a friend of mine found them too harsh on the teeth. I recommend you to go get some of its products I mentioned if you wanna save some bucks on teeth whitening, or if you found Crest’s strips causing sensitivity issue to your teeth.
So yes, Zimba’s products are a good-buy to me!
Unsponsored This article is (sadly) NOT sponsored and I purchased the product/service(s) at my own expense. I am not paid to write this review.
