After being very impressed with the Sainsbury's Basics Range floor cleaner, I have been less iffy about buying other cleaning products from the range - I do find that sometimes it is better to pay a bit more in order to get decent quality items.

However, I failed to see how you can really go wrong with furniture polish. I usually buy Pledge or Mr Sheen ie. big name brands, but I popped this basic polish into my shopping trolley as it was the bargain price of 35p (for 300ml). Most other brands normally retail for £1 or more.

The packaging is typical for the Basics range - a plain white tin with a white plastic lid and orange writing. It says on the tin 'Cleans - no added promises'. The back also says how it protects surfaces. What more do you want from a polish?

As with all polishes you can spray this directly onto surfaces or onto a cloth. When sprayed, it's clearer and slightly more liquid than creamier furniture polishes. It rubs into wood easily and I could definitely detect a sheen on my bedside table and drawers afterward. They also felt slightly coated, as if the polish had left a protective residue - it wasn't sticky and seemed to help the wood shine.

The smell is clean and fresh. It reminded me a bit of Imperial Leather soap. I polished my bedroom furniture around 5 hours ago and I can still smell it in my room.

When polishing mirrors, I did feel that it smeared a little more than other polishes but a bit of elbow grease to remove it was all it took.

The only thing I didn't like about this product was the lid. Most polishes don't have a lid. It's no hardship to take a lid on and off, of course, but it would just make it that wee bit more convenient without one. But it's only a minor quibble.

This would be cheap at twice or three times the price. Great cleaning power and a reason not to waste money on bigger name brands.