In this post, we are taking a look at Griot’s Garage Brilliant Finish Car Wash, a pH-balanced car shampoo that contains a proprietary blend of gloss enhancing additives. Brilliant Finish Car Wash is advertised to be safe on previously applied waxes and is also advertised to be good in both a foam cannon and wash bucket so I’ll be trying both.
First, let’s see how this product foams. The label recommends adding 3 ounces of Brilliant Finish Car Was and filling the water reservoir. This of course doesn’t account for the various sizes of foam cannons. On my channel, I test shampoos by using 3 ounces of product and filling my foam cannon reservoir up to 800ml. Because I use the same mixing ratio for all shampoos, you’ll be more easily able to compare the results of Brilliant Finish Car Wash to previously reviewed shampoos on my channel.
As someone who’s tried many different car shampoos in a foam cannon, I’m surprised to say that Brilliant Finish Car Wash gave me something different that I have not seen before. The foam initially came out very aerated. I wouldn’t say that it’s the traditional shaving cream thick foam, but the foam gives the perception of thickness because it’s so fluffy. The foam is also very dry. It’s didn’t come out thin, wet, and run off the surface right away. Sure, in places where I sprayed a lot of foam, the excess rolled off pretty quick but that’s something that happens with every product. Here, when the excess is gone, what’s left just clings and moves at a snail’s pace. In some flatter areas like the hood and roof, the foam just didn’t go anywhere. I like it when foam clings because I feel that it gives the foam more chance to encapsulate contaminants. Then when the foam is rinsed off, it’ll take more contaminants with it.
Next, we’re going to use Brilliant Finish Car Wash for a two bucket contact wash. The directions recommend mixing one ounce of Brilliant Finish Car Wash per gallon of water so that’s what I did. I’m using the Griot’s Garage Ultimate Car Wash Bucket and that has a built-in measuring cup and fill capacity indicators. So, I mixed four ounces of Brilliant Finish Car Wash with four gallons of water.
We’re going to start with the hand lubricity test where I run my hand through the soap solution and just get an initial impression of its lubricity. At one ounce to one gallon of water, I can definitely tell that there’s some slickness to the water but it’s just right below what I typically like. So, I’m going to add one more ounce to the bucket. Now, at five ounces of Brilliant Finish Car Wash to four gallons of water, I think the solution is good to go and provides adequate lubrication.
As a bucket contact wash shampoo, Brilliant Finish Car Wash gets a pass. It provides good lubrication and cleaned the car with no issues. Five ounces of product to four gallons of water is more than my one ounce to one gallon of water standard but to be fair, five ounces here was pretty slick and I think I could’ve actually used less. So at this point, I can only say that, for me, when using four gallons of water, I would use somewhere between four and five ounces of product.
That’s still a bit more than what I would like but in the grand scheme of things, I would give Griot’s Garage Brilliant Finish Car Wash a recommendation because it performs very well. In a foam cannon, its performance was very memorable in a good way. I actually really like the foam that this shampoo gave me. It can definitely be used as a pre-wash and if you use foam for a bucketless contact wash, this is going to perform really well for that too. As a bucket shampoo, Brilliant Finish Car Wash Cleans as needed and provides excellent lubrication. As for Griot’s claim that this product enhances the gloss of the finish, I can’t really say. I don’t use a gloss meter so just based on eyeballing it, sure the finish is a bit glossier but the car was dirty prior to using this product. Cleaning the surface with just about any shampoo would’ve made the surface glossier. I don’t think the difference is enough to warrant buying this shampoo simply for the gloss enhancers. I would buy it for its versatility in a foam cannon and bucket.
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