Sophie-Leigh is now nine weeks old (8lb 8oz)! She has just figured out that her hands belong to her....
Sophie-Leigh is now nine weeks old (8lb 8oz)! She has just figured out that her hands belong to her. Lol!
Member since:26.03.2003
Reviews:57
Members who trust:18
Due to the impending birth of my first child I have found myself to be in the 'nesting' phase, which to those of you who don't know is the part where you try to clean everything in sight. Having just moved house there were many areas I wanted to tackle, one being the bathroom, where the grout in between the tiles were black from mildew and damp. My mission when next out shopping was to bring back a product that would tackle this, I settled for this universal cream cleaner with bleach.
BACKGROUND ON CIF CLEANER Cif is a product from the renowned Unilever brand name. Unilever started way back in 1884 (!) when Lever and co first made their Sunlight Soap. The Lever brothers later merged with Margarine Unie to form Unilever in 1930, and during it's reign so far has links to well known names like Kellogg's, Bird's Eye and Pear's soap. The original name for Cif when launched in 1974 in the UK was Jif. This was then changed in 2001. The cleaning range has many other products including;
THE PACKAGING The original cream cleaner with bleach had a pale green bottle with a flip-toplid, this was re-launched in 2005 as Cif Universal Cream with Bleach. The bottle is an oval shape which makes it easier to hold than a round one, and it has been changed to a dark blue colour with a bright pink label, very eye-catching! It has the well known green Cif logo and states on the front that it's the best at; Grime, Limescale, Grease, Rust, Mould (see why I picked it up?) and stains.
The flip-top lid is very handy as you don't have to unscrew it every time you use it, but I do worry that it makes it easier for a child to open. The application however is made much easier as all you have to do is tip up the bottle and the product almost falls out of the lid.
WHAT DID I USE IT ON? BATHROOM TILES AND GROUT Well, as I said earlier the first thing I wanted to do was tackle those black tiles, the mildew had completely ingrained itself to the grout, and after trying a standard bathroom cleaner and a sponge, they had merely turned slightly grey.
At first I tried putting the cif onto a scouring pad and scrubbing, but after a couple of minutes I realised they probably needed a good soak first, plus I wanted to see if there was any way I could get it done with the minimum of hassle. So I poured the cif directly onto the grout (luckily it followed the grooves down so I didn't need to use much, I just let gravity do the work), the cream is just the right consistency for this as it's runny enough to fall down but still stays on the tiles.
An hour later, (after my cup of tea and a chocolate biscuit) I came back to have a look and couldn't believe how white they were! I wiped some away to make sure it wasn't just the cif but they were gleaming! All I had to do was wash it all off, which may sound easy but it is actually quite hard as if there's any left on there, when it dries it leaves a white residue on your tiles. After a couple of washes my tiles looked great, there were a couple of patches where the cif hadn't reached properly but I just took my scouring pad and finished those by hand (yes I felt guilty at not actually cleaning them).
Conclusion for the tile test, absolutely brilliant, I didn't have to lift a finger and I didn't actually use much either! I will bring up a small point though, when I went back in the bathroom after the hour the fumes from the bleach really stung my eyes, silly me hadn't opened a window, so be warned if you're doing a lot with this cleaner, make sure you ventilate the room well.
BURNT ON FOOD The back of the bottle states it can eliminate burnt on food also, so when I had an incident with some rice getting stuck to a white pan I thought I'd give it go. It doesn't mention on the bottle not to use it on cookware but it also doesn't shout that you can so I'm not actually sure if you should, oh well!
I decided to try it as I had before, I soaked the bottom of the pan in a thin layer of the cream and left it for an hour. As I said, the pan was white but now had a big black burn mark in the middle, oops! When I returned however the burn was still there. I tried to scrub it with the cleaner as I thought the abrasives might work, but the mark, although reduced in size was still there. Therefore my happiness with the product was reduced slightly.
LIMESCALE Using this product around the taps in the bathroom and kitchen I found the limescale to be gone very quickly. No need to soak it, as it came off with a light rub with a scouring pad. Again the residue was a little difficult to wash away but I eventually got there. The good thing about this product is that you need hardly any of it to tackle any cleaning.
GENERAL CLEANING I use this for many things generally, my sinks, bath, tiles, oven top and worktops. It has done wonders for my nesting blitz I can tell you! The only thing I don't use it for is the tiled floor in the bathroom as I find trying to get all the residue off after use is very hard, and if it's missed can leave the floor with a coating that gets on your feet or can even bleach your socks!
CONCLUSION I love this product and will definitely buy it again. I had to take one star away for the residue problem because it can be very annoying, and also the fact it didn't clean my pan; but generally I would recommend it to anyone who wants to tackle their house! I would advise that you use gloves when using this cream though as when I didn't they became very dry, although this can be said for most cleaning products with constant use.
PRICE I bought this in Tesco for about £1.40 as far as I can remember, which to me isn't a bad price as it will last me a very long time. Even after all this cleaning I have nearly half the bottle left, and I've only been using it for three weeks.
Thanks for reading. Louise. x
Pictures of Cif cream with Bleach
The original Cream cleaner with bleach
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