You’ve been buying car cleaning products for years, and you’ve never heard of Soft99? We are not surprised, this Japanese car care company won’t be on many people’s radars and is a hidden gem in the world of car care and cleaning.
Renowned for innovation Soft99 produce some really impressive car care products – the Glaco rain repellent range and its legendary Fusso wax series to name just two. Its Creamy Shampoo seems equally innovative, taking a traditional car shampoo and almost fusing it with snow foam to create the foamiest shampoo for sale. We’re putting it to the test to see whether it’s marketing hype or a genuinely new and clever way to clean a car.
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Lubrication
When washing a car, the last thing you want to do is leave it more scratched than when you started. That’s why companies sell grit guards, pre-washes and wash mitts all designed to keep larger bits of debris from leaving nasty scratches in paintwork. Yet, all of that will be in vain if the shampoo doesn’t offer adequate lubrication.
Soft99 makes bold claims calling this shampoo ‘creamy’ – to us, it means that this should be buttery smooth on body panels. Thankfully, it is.
It’s quite unlike any other car shampoo we’ve tested, instead of large, unstable bubbles that dwindle away, this shampoo produces smaller, more stable bubbles similar to what you’d find in a cappuccino. All this means you’re less likely to catch bits of debris and drag them across the bodywork of a car. If you want to keep your car scratch-free, this is an excellent place to start.
Application
There are two main ways to apply this shampoo, using a bucket or directly to the paintwork. The bucket method is pretty standard if you’ve ever used car shampoo before. Soft99 even print some English instructions on the rear of the bottle to help with traditional washing. Problem is, they’re vague and it’s only through internet searching that you find you need to add 75ml of shampoo for every 10-litres of water. That makes this shampoo moderately concentrated and means you’ll get nearly seven washes from the one-litre bottle.
The direct approach involves soaking a sponge or wash mitt in water and then applying the shampoo directly onto it. There’s not much difference in performance. but you’ll use a lot more of the product this way. Still, it does at least produce more foam, which looks cool.
A more useful innovation is the fact there’s no need to worry about letting the shampoo dry on the paintwork. Usually cleaning a car in direct sunlight is a nuisance, the sun evaporates the water from body panels quicker and leaves the dried shampoo as a horrible veneer that needs rewashing to remove. Soft99 on the other hand has developed this shampoo to dry onto a panel and simply be washed away to leave no visible residue.
We tested this claim by letting the shampoo dry on a car bonnet with crossed fingers. It hardened into a residue just like any other dried shampoo but was easily washed off with a hose. There wasn’t even any need to agitate the shampoo, it simply washed away. While it may seem like a novelty, this feature is perfect for summer car cleaning.
Cleaning ability
This is where the shampoo starts to fall down a little. There’s nothing really wrong with how it performs, it’s just that there are more powerful examples available for a similar price. For lighter cleaning, it dealt with dirt and grime just fine, but tougher embedded stuff was impenetrable for the creamy shampoo.
The absolute best car shampoos will be able to tackle these tougher bits of dirt which is the first major hurdle that stops this shampoo from being the best on the market. That being said, if your car has a decent layer of protection applied to it, this shampoo will be capable of keeping it clean with ease. The subtle mint scent made cleaning more pleasant too.
Verdict
If you’re after raw cleaning power look elsewhere, Soft99’s shampoo is best avoided if you’re dealing with caked-on crud. This is a gentle shampoo designed to clean moderate dirt and pose no threat to the paintwork. It has a lot of redeeming features too, it’ll be hard to leave scratches while using this for example. It’s also relatively affordable, smells nice and can be used in direct sunlight. In short, this shampoo is a top performer for use in the summer months, just as long as the car isn’t too dirty.
4/5
Soft99 pH Neutral Creamy Shampoo
Price: £10.99 | VIEW OFFER
Pros
No risk of scratching paintwork
Ideal for summer use
Fun to use
Cons
Not biodegradable
Not the strongest car shampoo
How we tested it:
To test Soft99 Ph Neutral Creamy Shampoo I cleaned a car following both the instructions printed on the bottle and Soft99’s website. The car was moderately dirty and pre-washed beforehand to loosen any larger bits of debris ready for shampooing.
Other products used in this test: Autobrite Direct Citrus Wash | Oxford 20-Litre Detailing Bucket With Grit Guard | ShinyCar UK Wash Mitt | 26 JPN Drying Towel | Ryobi Power Washer
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