# Wax Tests, Zymol,Auto Finesse, "Mystery wax".



## Lupostef (Nov 20, 2011)

Hi :wave:

I've been doing a wax test/review of durability for the last 6months on a few lsp's. The test has now pretty much run it's cause after today's last update so thought I'd post it up in here incase anyone missed it previously or all together and is interested.

Here it is .......

Been looking forward to doing this for a while now and finally got a day off when its not chucking it down! Basically wanted to test a few wax's up against each other that i find very similar in usage and some of my regular used wax's. Be interesting to see the differences when closely compared together . I know there was also a fair few other people interested in this judging by the response i got from previous mentions :thumb:

These are:
-Zymol Concours -£175
-Zymol Glasur -£105
-AutoFinesse Spirit -£90
-"Mystery Wax"  -???

Was originally going to test the first three, however after mentioning what I was planning in the thread "Favourite Wax's", I was asked to include this "Mystery wax" within the testing, the wax being added is produced by a well established brand name that everyone will know, I recieved a sample of this product yesterday and am pleased to be given the opertunity to use ths wax  Now I have to remember to not give to much about this wax away :lol:

Just to make clear the test and opinions made are my personal opinion and not biased in anyway, although I will happily edit testing for bribes from manufactures :lol: JOKING :tumbleweed:
Tests are also caried out as fairly as possible.

*First Impressions & Wax's Themselves*

AutoFinesse Spirit










Autofinesse Spirit retailing at around £90, the durabilty to be expected is claimed to be 6+months!
Presented in a plastic 200ml tub.
As always with Autofinesse products, labeling and packaging looks really smart, as alot of you know I'm a massive fan of nearly everything made by them :thumb: 
The wax itself is hard in texture and and oily, supposedly has a smell of apples, which i never seem to notice smells fairly natural to me.

Zymol Concours










Zymol Concours retailing at around £175 depending on if purchased within the UK and where fromm which makes it the most expensive wax tested today also durabilty to be expected is 3+months.
Presented in the classic Zymol tub, which I'm personally not a massive fan of as they are thin plastic and the lids easily fall off, hence why mine is cracked :lol: Size is 8oz Which is 226ml if i remember correctly? Wax isn't as hard as Spirit but still firm and is yellow in colour. Product smells of Cinnamon which I actually hate but love the smell of this :lol:.

Zymol Glasur










Zymol Glasur retails at around £105, again depending on where purchased and if in the UK or US, again 3+months of durabilty.
As above presented in the classic Zymol tub, which I've already expressed my personal opinion on. 
Wax is fairly soft in texture and white in colour. Can't quite put my finger on the scent of this product a farily sweet smell some say "cake mix" :lol:

Mystery Wax










Not revealing anything yet as to what this is  I may however if enough interest is shown and if the owner of it gives the go ahead :thumb: 
All im going to say it was given to me in a small tester pot and has a citrus smell.

*Car and Preperation.*

The car chosen to carry out the test on is my nans 2000 Saxo in metalic blue. Car has covered 15,000 miles since new and never been above about 15mph :lol: 
The car had a few layers of wax applied last month from a previous test I've carried out so to make sure there was no existing lsp on the surface I gave it a blast over with a polish. Car didn't need claying etc as it was done a month or two ago and barely seen the road since :lol:


















Used my Dodo Juice Buff Daddy, CG Blue Hex-logic pad and AutoFinesse Triple. Followed by an IPA wipedown to remove any fillers/oils left behind by Triple.

Was left with a nice clean smooth surface to work on. Taped up four even sections for application and reviewing which were labeled accordingly 




























*Application, Curing & Flake Pop.*

Didn't take any pictures of either of these steps as none of the products used require curing time :thumb:. Which is just the way i like it, not a fan of hanging about waiting for stupid curing times. 
However I did record some notes as i went along after the use of each product. 
All products used required very little wax to cover the section and a thin layer is definetly more beneficial than a heavy sticky coating.

All wax's where applied with seperate, clean, foam applicators :thumb:

*AF Spirit.*

Hear a fair few people saying that this isn't the easiest of products to apply, found it an absolute dream to apply and remove :thumb: Spreads nicely and out of all the products used I found I used the least with this one here, very oily, but removes easily with most of the residue being picked up in one swipe to leave a glossy, very wet looking finish :thumb: Really brings out the metalic flake in the paint work 
Picture of the flake pop.










*Zymol Concours.*

Not overly keen on the way this goes on, a bit grabby but does spread ok. 
A little harder to removed aswell even if it is buffed straight away. Can't see where the moneys worth is with this Zymol product when theres Glasur for a considerable amount less, however it does leave a deep looking shine. 
Picture of the flake, which I feel it mutes slightly 










*Zymol Glasur.*

Spreads nicely and is very oily when being spread, not to unlike Spirit to be honest. Another one that leaves a nice wet looking finish. Brought out the flake nicely and looks glossy as hell. Love this wax for myself as it does look awsome on whites and silvers aswell .










*Mytsery Wax.*

First time I've used this product and have heard lots of good things about it, I'm definelty agreeing with every possitive aspect that has been stated about this, really is nice to use and leaves stunning results. Spreads fairly well and cures very fast, personally I think this wax gives AF spirit a run for its money in terms of flake pop .










*Sheeting & Beading Tests*

For the beading I used a Dodo Juice Spritz Spray Bottle.










Pretty hard to capture sheeting by picture so gave my gold old honest opinion instead .
Heres what I thought and the pictures to show what reaction each product had to water :thumb:

*AF Spirit.*










Sheeted water so well, even when spritzed with the sprayer the water just wanted to run off, not giving it chance to build up big tall beads! After water was tipped over a panel it was bone dry not a drop of water left what so ever :thumb::thumb:

*Zymol Glasur.*










Reacted again simlar to Spirit just didn't sheet aswell in my eyes and thats saying something!! Beaded really nicely aswell.

*Zymol Concours.*










Found the beading really nice with this, could actually see the water grouping together to build bigger beads with every squirt of water, definetly beaded better than it sheeted if im honest.

*Mystery Wax.*










I was so impressed with this on the beading and sheeting front :thumb:
Beaded so tight its unreal and sheeted water really well too. I so want to reveal what this is :lol:

A picture of them all together...










*Final Conclusion *

To be honest the over all winner in my eyes was *AutoFinesse Spirit*, taking into account the cost of each product, ease of use, looks and finish, and water reaction. For the money i think this really is a great boutique wax and if it lives up to the claimed 6+months durability this really is an amazing wax and will literally last a life time :thumb:

With the two *Zymol* wax's I have no realised that its pretty much pointless owning both at this point unless there is a large difference in durability (I never manage to leave a wax on long enough myself :lol. Not saying by any means either are a bad wax but Glasur is that good i can't see the need to spend an extra £70 to get a wax of a very similar nature. Think my two pots of Concours will be going up for sale very soon .

*"Mystery wax"*

I was so impressed with this especially on its reaction to water and the fact its competing with some very well established and quality boutique wax's here :doublesho, tryed my best to conceal the identity of this through out my waffeling on and really do want to reveal what it is :lol: It is a well established wax and I'm sure a few people will be suprised to what it is. As previously mentioned I will reveal what it is if enough interest is shown in it and I'm given the go ahead :thumb:

Really enjoyed doing this test and hope you lot have aswell if you've read this far :lol: 
Will be monitoring the performance of the wax's over the next few months to see how they have held up :thumb:

Hope i haven't missed anything out  and you all like what I've done, comments and opinions welcome, the more interest guaged the more likely I am to reveal the "Mystery Wax" .

Stef .

*Update 16/04/2012*

Rightttt finally a long awaited update :wave:

Its been nearly 3 months now since the coats of wax were wacked on and I've been saying I'll update for a good few weeks now :lol:

Didn't see much point updating after 6-10weeks as I expected these wax's to be lasting 3+ :thumb:

So thought I'd upload the first of the water behaviour tests. Gave the bonnet a good old clean with AF Lather, then stood central of bonnet and misted a pressure washer all over to make for even coverage and water being sprayed in the same direction! Also bear in mind the car has probably done under 100 miles since the original application :lol: so really is down the the products against each other toe to toe for durability 

*Pictures of each corner*

Not easy to capture the beading of the teo wax's closest to the front bumper as they were both sheeting well and water not sitting on there long enough :lol:

Auto Finesse Spirit










Still beading very stongly. And sheeting very well under when hit with the pressure washer :thumb: Plenty of signs of life and will continue to be tested for max durability).

Bouncers 22










Beading still very strong. :thumb: Plenty of life left and will continue to be tested for max durability.

Zymol Concours










Beading and sheeting pretty much redundand! I was told by others this would happen but really didnt show any signs of protection what so ever!! Very dissapointing in my eyes!

Zymol Glasur










Beading and sheeting well still. Plenty of life left and will continue to be tested for max durability.

*Over view picture*










Doesn't show that Glasur is showing much signs of life purely because the water sitting from the above area of Concours is causing it to sheet dramatically!

*Conclusion*

Apart from Zymol Concours,which I'm not suprised about as I was prior warned this would happen, the other 3 are holding well and doesn't seem to be a great leader of the bunch as of yet, although i feel Spirit still has the edge on water behaviour, in my opinion before I'm shot down again :lol: !. So I will continue to run a check every 3-4 weeks to see which the protecion falls off first :thumb: untill then not a "conclusion" yet .

Cheers for reading 
Stef.

*Update 29/05/2012*

Update time. :wave:

Its been just over 4 months now since the initial aplication so went ahead with another water behaviour test. The car itself has probably covered less than 40miles since the last update :lol:

Gave the tested areas a wash using 2bm and AutoFinesse Lather and then dried with a Chemical Guys Wooley Mammoth.

To test the water behaviour this time I used a sprtiz bottle to spray the areas rather than the previous method of misting a pressure washer so that you lot can see the results better :thumb: See even noted the criticism . Replaced Concours as its redundant with another product for a personal test so didn't show any shots of that as it would be a little unfair 4 months on :lol:

Auto Finesse Spirit


IMG_0502 by lupostef, on Flickr

Dodo Juice Bouncers 22


IMG_0503 by lupostef, on Flickr

Zymol Glasur


IMG_0504 by lupostef, on Flickr

Overviews


IMG_0506 by lupostef, on Flickr


IMG_0507 by lupostef, on Flickr


IMG_0508 by lupostef, on Flickr

I'll let you all come to your own conclusions here, must say I'm very impressed with Bouncers 22 given that its under the cost of the other products per ml and ot ranted and raved about enough in my opinion .
Will get another update with in the next month.

Stef 

*Final Update 07/07/2012.*

Gave the car a wash and dry today, followed by spritzing the bonet with water. 
Not much signs of beading left in any of the tested areas I'm afraid, Glasur very much redundant and a few signs of sheeting still occurring with Bouncers and Spirit, these are still protecting but not exactly easy to capture on camera I'm afraid.

Very impressive to see nearly 6months of protection out of 2 products (possibly more). I dont know about you lot but i can never leave a product on my car long enough for it to show of its maximum durability :lol: Ill let you come to your own conclusions here as I would carry on following this up but I've got a bigger 
test/review very much the same as this but with a hell of a lot more products . I've been a busy boy collecting some of the best lsp's money can be to have a boutique shoot out wild west style :lol: last man standing!

Keep your eyes peeled gents I've got one or two products still to get and then I'll considering starting something especially by popular demand .

Thanks to everyone that followed the thread and has carried on reading, I've really enjoyed it 

Stef :wave:


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## McClane (Dec 9, 2010)

Lot of work gone into this thread Stef.

So, if you could only have one, which would it be?


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## Zetec-al (Feb 28, 2011)

Very nice write up mate. Glasur definatly winning this!


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## SJW_OCD (Dec 30, 2009)

Nice write up mate. Well done for having the patience to do this.


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## Soul Hudson (Jul 5, 2011)

Great write up my man very interesting read. 

Can you see an obvious difference between each wax when you look at the bonnet as a whole? flake pop etc?


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## Lupostef (Nov 20, 2011)

-PJB- said:


> Lot of work gone into this thread Stef.
> 
> So, if you could only have one, which would it be?


Difficult to say as they all have they're individual characteristics, looks, beading, durability etc... 
As an all rounder for these factors probably Glasur.



Zetec-al said:


> Very nice write up mate. Glasur definatly winning this!


Thanks .


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## Lupostef (Nov 20, 2011)

Soul Hudson said:


> Great write up my man very interesting read.
> 
> Can you see an obvious difference between each wax when you look at the bonnet as a whole? flake pop etc?


On initial application very hard to pinpoint any major differences, it's about 6 weeks down the line that anything becomes obvious.



SJW_OCD said:


> Nice write up mate. Well done for having the patience to do this.


Cheers, there will be another one pretty soon with very high end wax's involved and a lot more .


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