A clean bathroom for just 30p? (Asda Smartprice Cream Cleaner)

Member Name: pink_glitter

Product:	Asda Smartprice Cream Cleaner
Date:	15/05/09 (56 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: does get stuff clean, cheap

Disadvantages: watery, extra elbow grease often required

I've said it before and I'll say it again, I hate spending lots of money on cleaning products! There are so many other, more interesting things that I could be spending my money on, so I always look out for deals and special offers when it comes to cleaning.

As a general rule I don't like cream cleaners - my mam used to use them to clean the bathroom when we were younger (although granted she used Cif - or Jif as it was then) and I always felt that it left a sort of powdery residue in the bottom of the bath. The reason I bought this was purely the price - at 30p for a 500ml bottle it is one of the cheapest cleaning products around, and I felt that it would be worth a try.

The cleaner comes in a plain white bottle with a green and white label and flip top lid. The packaging is very basic - so much so, that the actual ingredient list and other information that you would expect to be on the back of the bottle is all on the front, as there's only one label rather than two.

Now, I bought my bottle online where it is listed as 'lemon cream cleaner' but it just says 'cream cleaner' on the label. When I first used it I didn't think the product had a scent at all, but now I do think I can smell just a hint of lemon, although it's very subtle to the point of non-existent, which is a shame, as I like my bathroom to smell nice, as well as being clean.

I found the consistency of the cream cleaner to be quite runny, and it was an un-appealing greyish white colour. It states on the packaging that it's OK to apply this either directly to the surface you want to clean or to the cloth. Personally I prefer to put it onto the surface, and then you just need to wipe the cream over, and rinse away. It also says that you can use a dry cloth to buff surfaces and give them a bit of extra shine.

I find when using this, that I do need to use a bit of extra elbow grease than would normally be required. Simple stains like shampoo that has dripped onto the edge of the bath seem to take a bit more effort to remove with this product than with my preferred Flash bathroom spray. It does however get things clean in the end, but overall I find a spray easier to use, and easier to rinse off, because with this being a cream, it seems to take longer to rinse away too. I mentioned earlier, that when my mam used this sort of product when we were younger it would leave a powdery residue on the bath. I found the same thing happened with this, even when I thought I'd rinsed the bath out really well and to the naked eye it looked clean, the next time I got in it I could feel a sort of powdery grit - not nice!!

Although I've only been using this in my bathroom, there's no reason why you couldn't use it in the kitchen too, and it is suitable on most surfaces - the only ones that should be avoided are soft plastic surfaces, aluminium and glass.

So in conclusion, this does work, but more effort is required with it than a spray cleaner, and I find that it takes longer to rinse away, and even then I'm still left with some residue in the bath. I'll continue to use the rest of the bottle, although admittedly only for smaller jobs like the bathroom sink, but I doubt very much that I will buy it again.

Summary: I'll pay more in the future to save time