# Detailingworld™ Review - Britemax Spray & Shine



## Brian1612 (Apr 5, 2015)

*Introduction*

This is yet another instalment in my Britemax review saga courtesy of Matt at Britemax-direct. So for the paint work process, you usually have 3 steps which are preparation, protection and preservation. I covered both the paint preparation & protection steps using the excellent Black Max Polishing Glaze, followed by Vantage Premium Wax. Now it is time to maintain that excellent finish & Britemax have just the product for the job in Spray & Shine. Spray & Shine is a quick detail spray to be used alongside Vantage to top up protection and return that wet look finish with each maintenance wash. Like Vantage, Spray & Shine is a product I considered when first starting out so many thanks to Matt for giving me this opportunity to test it.

For any info on any of Britemax products, please visit http://www.britemax-direct.co.uk/.

*The Product*



The description from the britemax-direct website offers an in-depth explanation on the properties of Spray & Shine:

_"Spray & Shine is among our best selling products. Fortified with wax it offers a quick and easy application to create a beautiful 'wet look' shine on all painted surfaces, clear-coats, plastics and metals. True wax components will not leave streaking after it has dried. Cleans chrome quickly and can be used on glass. Unlike silicone based products, this product leaves the surface anti-static so dust is not attracted to the surface. Perfect for spot washing, it safely removes dust, mild road grime, fingerprints & water spots, Can also be used as both a clay lube and drying aid. Spray & Shine does not contain freely atomized silicone so it can be used in a body shop environment. Spray & Shine provides noticeable durability versus other spray wax products."_

So as you can see from the photo, another full size product (24oz or 709ml) provided by Matt so thank you very much again on the generosity. Packaging wise, this comes in the same bottle as Grime Out with the exact same spray head offering a high quality, even mist spray during use. The label is as you would expect from Britemax, bold and professional looking. With the bottle being clear, you can see the contents within are of a very nice mint looking colour which is pleasing on the eye and only aids in helping it stand out. Removing the spray nozzle and giving this a sniff, giving the colour I almost expected a Kiwi or Watermelon scent. Instead it was something altogether different. I neither liked nor disliked it but I don't really know how to describe it other than a clean scent. It certainly isn't your usual scent of fruit or bubble gum a QD usually has. Personally I reckon this would be more at home as an interior cleaner scent wise & would suggest changing the scent on any future developments on this product in my own opinion.

*The Method*

So the directions provided by Britemax are as follows:

_"How to use - Shake well. Spray directly onto desired surface and spread evenly with a soft cloth or microfiber. With reverse side or another cloth buff lightly and repeat on all surfaces.

Repeat applications as desired. As a drying aid it can be sprayed onto a wet surface to help lubricate your drying towel minimising micro-swirls and water spots.

Keep product from temperature extremes. If product becomes frozen let thaw and shake rigorously to re-establish consistency." _

As a Drying Aid

So after giving my sisters car a quick maintenance wash. I thought this would be a good base test using Spray & Shine as a drying aid. The car has little to no protection, making it that bit harder to dry, along with the cold and damp weather at the time. As you can see from the photo, the panel was still fairly wet and having tried drying a few other panels on the car, I already knew streaking was becoming a real pain due to the conditions.



The drying towel just wasn't picking up the same amount of water as it usually would in warmer conditions. As I went to grab my usual cheap Demon Shine to help, I remembered I had this product waiting for review, so instead armed myself with the Spray & Shine. Returning to the bonnet, I gave the bottle a good shake & made sure it was set to the mist setting before spritzing the bonnet with 5 or 6 sprays. This sat on the bonnet & was easy to see where it was applied due to the light green colour.



My drying towel was folded into a large square section and the Spray & Shine was spread across the bonnet. The streaking was still an issue but the drying towel did appear to lift more water than on the previous panels. The drying towel was then flipped over to the dry side and again lightly spread along the bonnet. With this pass the streaking was reduced substantially and most of the water had been lifted.

I grabbed a plush MF I would use for buffing wax residue and gave the bonnet a final buff. This removed the remaining streaks effortlessly and left the bonnet with a fairly glossy finish used only as a drying aid. It certainly made drying the panel easier, the effort in drying the panel was reduced significantly then without any QD. With these fairly good results I was very keen to see how it worked & looked on a dry panel with a coat of Vantage applied.



As a Quick Detailer/Protection Top Up

Unfortunately things don't always go to plan, getting a hold either my sister or dads car to maintenance wash proved difficult. Instead of delaying the review any longer I decided just to test it as a QD on my own car, which was in need of a quick spruce up to see it through till the end of the month where it will be getting a stage 1 machine polish.

As I wasn't planning on reviewing the Spray & Shine here, I didn't take any photos of the process as I would have liked. My car was given the usual snow foam, 2BM hand wash & then dried with a towel, being a nice day it didn't require any aid during the drying process. Once dried, I decided to firstly give the car a wipe down with two different spray sealants on either side of the roof. Both were being tested individually, with finish & beading photos of these taken before the final wipe down with Spray & Shine.

So after the application of both sealants, I noticed smearing from 1 during the buffing process and decided the Spray & Shine would be great to try out here. On first use, I found out less is more with this product. I used way too much on the roof and found it a tad smeary/streaky to apply, quickly saturating my MF cloth. Even with flipping the cloth, still it was more effort than I expected to remove.

It did remove the smearing left behind from the previous product though. With this, I grabbed a second MF and moved onto the bonnet. The Spray & Shine was used very sparingly this time with 2 spritzes of QD on either side of the bonnet. Using the same cloth as before, I spread the QD around and found it was buffing up during application much easier this time, confirming my thoughts that I had used too much on the roof. The second dry MF dry was then used to final buff the bonnet with far better results, the remaining smears buffing off effortlessly.

Definitely less is more with this QD and this same method was continued around the rest of the car. As I don't have any photos of the car during use all I can do is show the after photos. Bearing in mind this car has no other product on it apart from the roof, you can see the results were truly stunning.









*Price*

The 24oz (709ml) bottle of Spray & Shine I was provided can be picked from Britemax -Direct http://www.britemax-direct.co.uk/britemax-spray-shine-709ml-24oz-c2x18170207 for only £10.99 which is in my opinion, very cheap.

The gallon (3.78L) sizes to me seem a bit expensive compared to our comparable 5L bottles but in the lower amounts, 500ml or 200ml wax tubs, the comparable American sizes seem good value. You get 709ml (instead of 500ml) and 236ml of wax (instead of 200ml).

*Would I use it again?*

Now this is a tough one for me. I really liked the product but I'm not sure it's any better than some of my other usual QDs. The smell is the big issue for me as I just don't really like it but the performance of the product itself as both a drying aid & QD can't be faulted.

I don't think I would reach for this over my similar type product purely on the smell and if in the future it is ever being tweaked, I would suggest Britemax give this something of a bubblegum or fruity scent.

*Conclusion*

Spray & Shine comes with 209ml more than that you can expect from an comparable UK product and at £10.99 is a bargain. Used on wet or dry paint it works brilliantly, making drying paint much easier and all the complete exterior including glass on the car. The finish is also top notch but my only gripe is the scent which for me, just doesn't belong with a QD type product. I think if the scent was changed to a more typical Bubblegum or fruit scent, Britemax Spray & Shine would be just about perfect.

Beading isn't bad either from it, not quite as tight as some others but for a single application quick spruce up of paint, pretty good I'd say with further applications only improving this.






_DW has followed the Manufacturer's Instructions and accepts no responsibility to any circumstances arising from any member using these products or following this test._


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## Bristle Hound (May 31, 2009)

Great write up Brian :thumb:

Thanks for being 'honest'. Like yourself it was only the smell that put me off this particular QD


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## Pittsy (Jun 14, 2014)

Nice one Brian, for part 2 try leaving a few water spots on the car when drying then see how it fairs as a cleaner.... Its also really good on bird poo. :thumb:


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## Brian1612 (Apr 5, 2015)

Thanks guys! It is a really nice qd but like I said, the scent really could do with being changed but for anyone considering this I would definitely give it a go. It's a terrific quick detailer otherwise at a terrific price!


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