One of my biggest beauty fears is bad breath. I get super paranoid when I'm talking to people, especially after a flavorful (read: garlicky) meal, that my breath is causing them to take a step back. I do the usual brushing two times a day, but there are just some times where you feel you need a little something extra.

Up until now I haven't been a big proponent of mouthwash, mostly because I didn't feel like it lasted long enough to justify all that stinging. But when the new Scope Outlast Mouthwash landed on my desk, I decided to give it a shot, mostly because I had just inhaled a big bowl of pasta and was convinced I was wafting stinky garlic fumes throughout the office.

Now when it comes to pain tolerance, I'm the world's biggest baby. Listerine and I are not friends; I can't make it more than five seconds without spewing that stuff all over my bathroom sink and whining for 10 minutes about the "pain." So a mouthwash's sting factor is a big decider for me on if I'm going to use it or not. I tentatively swished around the Scope and found that it was less a stinging feel and more of a tingling sensation, which was totally manageable.

What really surprised me though was that well after I was done using the mouthwash my mouth continued to feel tingly. That was equal parts awesome and odd. It took some time to get used to the sensation, but it also helped me feel like my breath was indeed fresh because I could actually FEEL it. I used it at lunch time and went through a bunch of meetings without a passing thought on how my breath smelled.

The secret behind the long-lasting freshness is the brand's Outlast technology: it binds tightly to your mouth's receptors so that that initial fresh feeling stays in your mouth, lasting up to five times longer than regular mouthwash. I've been using the Mint flavor every day now and I'm minty fresh all day long!

How do you keep your breath feeling fresh?