# Car Skin Products. Review and Videos.Winning Formulas



## Deano (Jul 7, 2006)

*WHAT IS IT?*

1) Rapid Wax- 500ml- £9.95
2) CS Pro- 250ml- £19.99
3) CS80 Show - 250g- £299.99



*WHAT DOES IT BRING TO THE TABLE?*

Rapid Wax is a relatively new addition to the Rapid Response range from Car-Skin. It provides all the benefits of other Car-Skin polishes, with a depth of shine equivalent to CS12, but it is formulated in an emulsion. As a consequence it is essentially water-soluble before it has set. This allows it to be used on a wet car, for example, straight after washing with Car-Skin Shampoo.

CS Pro is a high-end polymer polish used to achieve a concours standard finish. Further more it provides protection against Salt, UV Light, and detergent shampoos. CS Pro is an ideal final touch to a car that has been treated with the Car-Skin Paint Surgeon Range.

CS80- This is the ultimate wax. 80% Brazilian Yellow Carnauba blended with our unique formula and sealing agent.

There are two CS80 Waxes available - both are at the very top end of what's available, matching or beating products 10x the price. CS80 Road has more emphasis on longevity, CS80 Show is for the deepest possible gloss available.
*
WHAT AM I TESTING IT ON?*

My Audi A4.

*WHAT DO I THINK OF IT?*

When Emily at Winning Formulas asked me to review some of their products, I was intrigued as I had never used any of their gear before so I gladly accepted. Not knowing what she was sending me added to the intrigue which then turned into astonishment when I read their sight for the product info. :doublesho
I felt something this special deserved a little more than my usual short and sweet review style so now is the time to make yourself a cuppa......
Done? Ok here goes.

First of all, the test section was to be my bonnet as I currently have another wax on test on the boot and didn't want to take that off just yet. The bonnet was treated with Dodo Juice lime prime before getting an IPA wipedown and seeing as it had been clayed a couple of weeks ago, it was now squeaky clean and free of all products.

Now with the the vast price gulf in the three products, it would be unfair to pit them against each other in a performance test, but I wanted to see what advantages a £300 wax had over the entry level tenner-a-bottle rapid wax. I masked the bonnet off into three sections, from left to right rapid wax, cs80, and cspro would be applied.



First up, the rapid wax.



With quite a runny but not watery consistency, rapid wax spread well and you could see it curing almost immediately but it wasn't the usual white but more of a thin film appearing so the "residue free" on the bottle was living up to its name and confirmed it would when it was a breeze to remove after a mere one minute curing time. You can use Rapid wax on a wet car and my bonnet was slightly damp, but the lack of a dry surface did nothing to break the stride of Rapid wax. Winning Formulas were very forthcoming with the fact that this wax is not designed to be durable (fortnight to three weeks at best), but is designed to be quick and easy to use. I can see this being the perfect product alongside ONR in the kit bag of a show car, as the quick curing time, ease of application and removal, and the fact you can use it on a damp surface, make it ideal for a quick spruce up in the middle of a field or the NEC.

Curing.



After.



*PROS*

Easy to use, good value, no residue, good finish, can be used on a damp car.

*CONS*

Not durable but it isn't designed to be.

*CS Pro*



CS Pro is a high-end polymer polish used to achieve a concours standard finish. Further more it provides protection against Salt, UV Light, and detergent shampoos. CS Pro is an ideal final touch to a car that has been treated with the Car-Skin Paint Surgeon Range.

*WHAT DO I THINK OF IT?*
CS Pro is not a polish by definition as it contains no abrasives so will not remove any surface defects, what it is, is a polymer emulsion that leaves behind a PTFE sheild which Winning Formulas say will last upto six months. As with the rapid wax, it was very easy to apply and remove and it also shares the same machine compatibility. CS pro is a panel by panel product and was cured properly on my bonnet in just under eight minutes. The finish again was nice and slick and I will again update on durability.

Applied and curing.



After.



*PROS*
Easy on and off, nice finish, good claimed level of protection from the elements. 
*CONS*
Not what we would categorise as a polish so don't buy it for removing defects.

*CS80 Show*

There are two CS80 Waxes available - both are at the very top end of what's available, matching or beating products 10x the price. CS80 Road has more emphasis on longevity, CS80 Show is for the deepest possible gloss available.

*WHAT DO I THINK OF IT?*

The first thing I thought is that product is an exceptionally brave move by Car Skin. I was comparing it in my head to the Noble M600 taking on a Ferrari 458 Italia, both incredibly good and expensive, but one is not as well known as its multi national competitor. £300 for a pot of wax is a lot, no matter who makes it, so Car Skin better have their A game in play to go up against the well established detailing "big boys" that command a similar price for waxes in their range. Now as we all know, the first thing you do with a wax, no matter how cheap or expensive, is give it a sniff and today was no exception. It's hard to pinpoint the smell of CS80 as normally a wax would smell like a fruit or another wax you have used but CS80 was a bit of a conundrum. At first I thought it smelled like collinite 476, but then it smelt sort of like a pure waxey smell with just a hint of solvent and I still can't make my mind up. Maybe I'll send a bit to Oz Clarke to see what he thinks. :lol:

Sniff test done, time to crack on. Winning Formulas say you should apply this directly with your hands, but they also say it is down to the detailers personal preference on how they find best to apply it. So in the interests of fairness, I tried both directly by hand, and by foam applicator. Firstly by hand, I found the wax soon gave into pressure and scooped a tiny bit out and warmed it in my palms and the slightly grainy texture soon gave way to an oily emulsion that I spread in over lapping layers. Although I found this method to bring a sense of occasion to the application, as well as being quite fun, I did find that it was quite wasteful as I could not get it to spread thinly enough because the wax begins to cure soon after application. Indeed, Winning Formulas recommend no more than a ten minute cure time and removal by machine, so you really do need to get it thin or you'll be there a while and with arms like Popeye when it comes to removal. For the lower part of the bonnet, I used a foam applicator pad and although it came out in a small clump on the pad, the friction of application quickly melted the wax and I could spread it thinly and evenly with minimum waste, and it was sort of like colouring the bonnet it with a wax crayon as the wax on the pad melted a layer at a time and I found this method to be much more preferable than by hand, but for showing off purposes, I won't rule out direct hand application for the future. :lol:

For the curing time, I left it for the recommended ten minutes, panel by panel application and used a Serious Performance plush microfibre for removal. At this point I found out why removal by machine is recommended, as the wax had set like a rock hard shell over the bonnet and even a chap of my size was struggling getting it all off. So with a sweaty forehead and weak arm (stop laughing at the back) I dusted off the Meguiars G220 with a 3M blue finishing pad, and set it on the second speed setting. This was more like it, the wax was now flying the white flag in the face of its DA conqueror and the shine was starting to become evident. I applied CS80 to the roof and sides of the car and this time, left it to cure for a little less time, approx five minutes, and whilst this was easier to remove by hand, I'd still recommend a machine to assist in the removal.

Looking good. (IMO anyhoo)





OK, so now the bonnet was all ready for the last part of the test, could I tell the difference between a tenner-a-bottle, and a three hundred-a-pot wax? Wellllllll no not straight away I couldn't. All three sections looked pretty darn good and at this point I was a little dumbfounded as I was expecting to be blown away by the results, but as we all know, a good chunk of a cars shine is down to the prep so what does the significant hike in price bring with a prestige wax? Well in this case, the first significant difference is water behavior. As you will see from the video below, Rapid Wax and Pro both bead admirably, but the water does not want to hang around on the CS80, indeed the very next day when it rained (bloody typical!) you could see the difference in the three sections. Within one hundred feet the CS80 occupied area, was bone dry as the water surged backwards with mild acceleration.

Trying to film whilst holding a hose pipe is a bit tricky.:lol:











Now I fully know that beauty is in the eye of the beholder, but to my eye, the CS80 also looked much better than the other waxes (including my other subject on the boot lid) under artificial light, in this case, the under cover car park at the Middlebrook retail park. I will try and get a shot if my camera skills allow but the CS80 seems to make the area look almost liquid in appearance and there is almost a shimmer, reminiscent of a heat haze on a hot summer road. I will of course, update on it's durability but three weeks on, it is still beading like day one and still looking very nice.



All three products applied.



Two weeks and two washes later.



*PROS*
Fun to apply by hand, exceptional water behaviour, superb finish especially under artificial light, bragging to your mates you have car wax worth three hundred quid.

*CONS*

Difficult to remove by hand. The smell could have been better. Pricing and the need to be removed by machine may take it out of the reach of anyone but the die hard/well equipped detailer.

A very big thanks to Winning Formulas for entrusting me with their flagship product, and also for their honesty for telling me both what the products will and will not do.

_This review contains my personal opinion and I do not claim scientific accuracy in any methods I have used._


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