Cif Mint Fizz Mousse - Great cleaner, shame about that smell! (Cif Mousse)

Member Name: Redhead23

Product:	Cif Mousse
Date:	12/05/01 (280 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Works well, Easy to use

Disadvantages: Smells like a cat loo, You get mousse all over your hands

Having been responsible for cleaning the family bathroom every Saturday since I was a teenager - and sticking to the same regime now that I live with my partner - I've used a fair range of different bathroom cleaning products in my life - most of them had the typical 'Lemon Zest' scent, which was, albeit refreshing, getting a bit boring.

Although the 'Cif Mousse' is also available in more traditional scents, when I saw the somewhat unusual and quirky 'Mint Fizz' variety on offer in Wilkinsons a few months ago, I thought I might as well give it a try. I usually love minty fragrances and found the idea of a 'minty fresh' bathroom rather special, but I must admit that with hindsight I would have been much better off buying the lemon variety!

---- : What is this Stuff? : ----

Cif Mint Fizz Mousse is a tall, 600ml can of bathroom detergent suitable for all surfaces that you could possibly have in a bathroom, ranging from enamel over plastic to the chrome on your taps. I don't know what the recommended retail price for a can is, but at Wilkinsons (where I buy most of my household goods) it costs £1-23, which is quite reasonable for the amount you get, and because the 600ml are measured in its liquid form (and the mousse foams up quite a bit!), the can lasts you approximately 3 months if you use it up to twice a week. Quite a good deal really!

The can is quite stylish, in silver with juicy mint leaves printed on the front and a round frosted plastic cap in turquoise.
According to the instructions, you have to shake it well and then turn it upside down to spray all your bathroom surfaces from a distance of about 20 cm, leave it for 10 minutes and without an effort you should be able to rinse it off or remove the foam with a damp sponge - 'Brilliant Shine without Rubbing' as it says on the can.

---- : The Good : ----

First off, this stuff really works well and makes clea
ning your bathroom very easy indeed!

Unlike with many other detergents, you really do not need to scrub (unless you have very bad stains, for example if you haven't cleaned your bathroom in about 6 months) and it is the first bathroom cleaner I have ever used that really cleans well even if you just flush it off with your shower. Unfortunately our shower hose isn't very long, but when you rub it off with a sponge it doesn't foam too much and is therefore easy to get off - many other detergents foam up like there's no tomorrow as soon as you even touch them with a sponge, which can be annoying when you are cleaning corners or areas that you simply can't flush out with water, such as the edge of the bath.

The shape of the nozzle allows for a wide range to be covered in one go, and when you leave it to work on that dirt, the mousse 'melts' and takes all grime with it - I can't say much about its claims about 'preventing limescale', as our water is very soft here, but judging by the brilliant performance on grime I would assume that it does the job for limescale as well.

---- : The Bad : ----

One thing that I find quite annoying is that even though I used the product exactly according to the instructions, the nozzle always seems to squirt out some of the mousse on the wrong side, especially during the first couple of weeks.
This means that, while most of the mousse ends up where it belongs (on your bathroom tiles and in your washbasin and bathub), a considerable amount also collects up around the nozzle and either sticks to your hands (not good if you have a scratch or other small wounds - it stings!) or ends up falling to the floor, which is bad if you have a carpet or rug lying there.

---- : And the REALLY Ugly : ----

The reason why I will not buy this variety again is its smell - Although the underlying mint scent is quite nice, it wears off very quickly and simply isn&#
39;t strong enough to cover the horrid smell of the aerosol (Propane and Butane) and the active ingredients - which are not listed but I would assume that ammonia is part of them, as this stuff truly smells of cat pee once the slight mint fragrance has worn off, plus even if I have the window wide open the smell still gives me a headache!

I never showed great interest in the chemistry of household detergents, but this product has helped me understand why lemon scents to this day are the prevailing choice of fragrance for these products - while most other scents would need to be extremely strong (and thus becoming too pungent) if they had to cover the original, and often repulsive, smell of the other ingredients, lemon-based fragrances can be very strong and still smell fresh and 'clean'.

---- : Will I buy it again? : ----

As far as the 'Mint Fizz' mousse is concerned, the answer is a definite NO! When I clean my bathroom I want it to leave a fresh, clean fragrance or none at all, but we already have a cat loo downstairs - I don't need the 'human loo' to smell like that too!

However, the easiness of using this product, in addition to the good results I have achieved with it, have me covinced that Cif mousse is an excellent addition to my 'cleaning arsenal' and when the can runs out (hopefully soon - why is it that the worst-smelling products always last the longest?) I will definitely go and buy the Lemon Fizz version!

I do have an inkling that this product might get discontinued soon, as only the mint version ever seems to be on special offer, but if it should prevail - steer well clear of it!

HAPPY CLEANING!

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