# Super Illusion!! My first go at mixing



## damocell

Two days ago I melted and repoured a jar of Auto Finesse Temptation for the first time which got me thinking, how hard can it be to mix a couple of waxes together. After a quick read up on here I found out it is quite easy but with mixed results.

I've had a number of samples recently from Auto Finesse but which to choose?



This got me thinking again......my favourite waxes are Auto Finesse Illusion and Dodo Juice Supernatural Hybrid but for different reasons. I love the look if both even though there are differences, Illusion is wet and SNH is reflective. But the differences for me is the feel, use and durability. illusion wins for ear of use and luxurious feel/smell whilst SNH wins for beading and durability.

What would happen if I combine equal parts? Would it work? Would it fail? Would the wife kill me for melting and mixing wax in the kitchen? Hold on I know the answer to the last one!!!

So here are the waxes



Illusion is very soft soft, oily and smells of Strawberries. It's a dream to spread and remove.

SNH is quite hard, smells of turps and is a bit grabby to apply and remove.

I know I'm asking for a lot but if I can keep the good bits of each and loose some of the bad bits I'll be over the moon.

Illusion was added to a metal dish



Then equal shavings of SNH added



Even as I placed the dish on the pan of water the illusion started to melt



A minute later



2 minutes later and it's ready to pour.



Poured into a 30ml Nivea pot! And had enough to fill the Illusion jar as well



Left to set on a speaker you can already see it setting on the side of the pot! It still has a smell of strawberries



Can't wait to try it out! If it works I will call it Super Illusion!!!

Managed to start some testing today. First step was to apply some by hand to a glass table, it spread with ease and removed quite easily to! So far so good.



Next up was the Saab. On Sunday I applied a fresh layer of Illusion to it so it was quite clean. To prep the boot I "washed" it with Finale QD the used Rejuvenate pre wax cleaner to remove the old layers of wax. After taping up the boot into three section I set about applying the wax.



Application

Comparisons like this are great as it tends to show you what you think is really good sometimes isn't as good. If you know what I mean!!

Illusion: super soft, a 10 degree twist of the applicator was more than enough. I usually love this super sift wax but in comparing it to the two the super softness of it has a downside, to begin with you spread a fairly thick layer around the paint. Never noticed this before, maybe it's down to the size of the test panel as I know a small twist will cover the whole boot.

SNH: a very hard wax in comparison, begins to spread nicely but quickly runs out and tends to streak (in comparison to illusion)

Super Illusion: to be honest a bit of both, easier to achieve a thin layer then illusion but spreads better than SNH. So far so good.

Pic of applied ( if you can see it at all)



Left them all for 1 minute more then removed:

Illusion: removed with ease but still spread a little oil around he paint for the first wipe.

SNH: removed with ease, needed a little bit more rubbing than illusion and the cloth grabbed a little

Super Illusion: again in between the two, didn't really spread, didn't really grab!

So I left it an hour then put a second cost on in the order Illusion, SNH, Super Illusion. Why a second coat? I want this test to be realistic to me, I never just put one coat on so it would be strange to just test a single layer. this time I immediately removed in reverse order as one of the things I love about illusion is that you don't need to wait for it to haze.

Super Illusion: dead easy, no issues.

SNH: spread a little needed a little longer

Illusion: no issues dead easy.

So far it seems to be working with the Super Illusion wax taking on properties of both the waxes I like. So I see no downsides so far. Hopefully over the next few days we'll get some rain so I can show some beading pics!

Here is a final finish pic with tape removed:



I certainly can't tell any difference and I've really looked including taking the car to a petrol station and examining the finsh under halogens!

From here I will wash the car as usual. The plan is to machine polish the rest of the car with Tripple and coat with a Super Illusion to see the finish from different angles in different light. However the boot will now be left alone without using a QD after wash to check the durability of all the waxes.

Can't wait to see the results!!!

Any advice or comments much appreciated.


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## WhiteRoc_170

Looks very interesting. Ill be keeping an eye on this thread


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## Goodylax

Interesting.....no explosions, still alive and didn't burn the house down....how did the wife take it?


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## bmerritt87

I wonder what your mrs will say when she comes to use her Nivea? Perhaps she won't realise and she will end up with a very slick face that beads like nothing else ha :thumb:


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## damocell

Goodylax said:


> Interesting.....no explosions, still alive and didn't burn the house down....how did the wife take it?


Bit personal....but very well thanks :lol:

She was fine only really used a metal bowl so no issues


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## MEH4N

Nice one. I've got a few homebrews, yet i've never documented it. Maybe i should next time.

This way you have a nice one off wax too.


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## damocell

Came outside this morning to some lovely beading!



At this stage there is no discernible difference between the three waxes...well not to my eye anyway.







More updates to follow


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## STU3YP

Nice work. Although very difficult to see and theres not much in it, I would say that looking at the beading pic of all three on the boot, you can see that the beading on the left side is not as good. It appears that it hasnt beaded so closely and that there are larger parts that are not beaded. I would say that the super illusion seems best as it has an even spread and no larger puddled areas like the one on the right. Obviously if you didn't know it had been divided up you wouldnt know any different as you wouldnt look that closely.


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## damocell

STU3YP said:


> Nice work. Although very difficult to see and theres not much in it, I would say that looking at the beading pic of all three on the boot, you can see that the beading on the left side is not as good. It appears that it hasnt beaded so closely and that there are larger parts that are not beaded. I would say that the super illusion seems best as it has an even spread and no larger puddled areas like the one on the right. Obviously if you didn't know it had been divided up you wouldnt know any different as you wouldnt look that closely.


To be honest in the metal I couldn't tell the difference in curvature/height of the beads, the difference in the volume of water is down to the crown of the road and slight curve of the boot lid. The parts without beading on the left are from the water sheeting away as it isn't flat at that point. The flattest point is the far right of the boot lid which is why larger puddles are forming.

From experience of SNH and Illusion I am expecting SNH to bead/protect the best and Illusion to bead/protect the worst. Hopefully Super Illusion will be, at worst somewhere in the middle and at best better than SNH (unlikely).

Looking forward to seeing the difference over the coming weeks!


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## damocell

Managed to put a coat on the rest of the car tonight. I haven't managed to remove the old wax as won't have time over the weekend and couldn't wait any longer. The car had 2 coats of illusion applied over a 2 week period with the last coat applied last week. 

My findings

Spreads nicely, nearly as easily as Illusion and loads better than SNH but cures and removes more like SNH. Part of the attraction of Illusion for me is that you can almost throw it on the car in any way and it will remove straight away with ease. SNH by comparison needs time to cure and for me can leave little streaks. Super Illlusion needs time to cure like SNH and also is harder to remove than Illusion. Tonight I applied to half the car then removed, in hindsight I think it will work better if applied to the whole car and removed. The test will be applying and removing in direct sunlight which I know you can do with Illusion without issues. 

The weather forecast isn't great for the weekend so I should be able to see the beading in action. Even though the car has 2 coats of Illusion under the Super Illusion...bring on the rain. 

So far it seems to be working, spreading easier than SNH but removing harder than Illusion maybe I need to change the ratio to 1/3 SNH and 2/3 Illusion.


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## damocell

I haven't really kept this up to date have I!!

Finally got sick of not using QD on the boot so decided this will be the only and last update on the wax

Here is the beading currently



Pretty poor from all in my opinion, although I do wax my car at least once a month so beading is usually awesome.

I feel the Illusion is beading the least the Super Illusion next and the SNH the most as expected.

I guess this test is a little pointless for me as I wax the car so much....but, I thoroughly enjoyed mixing the wax and finding out what the outcome will be. I will use the Super Illusion again and might even have a go at a full home brew soon.

I guess what I will take away from this is that when SNH and Illusion are mixed you do get the best of each whilst masking the worst of each so somewhere in the middle. If doing it again I'd go for a 75/25 mix in favour of Illusion to ease application.

It's probably quite telling though that the boot has been rotary polished with Rejuvenate and 2 coats of Illusion applied!


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## Bero

You'll never guess what i seen this weekend?!

Someone trying to wax their car with nivea face cream! I can only assume the wife said he was spending too much money on silly little pots of product and he was taking revenge.....

Good to see the results, i was genuinely confused when i seen that pot in the initial pictures!


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