Jif Cream Cleaner

I started using ‘Jif’ cream years ago when I had my first house. Seduced by the TV ads, it was the only product which I new would clean my bath! Sadly a little while ago the manufacturers - Lever Faberge – decided to change the UK name to Cif so that the product would be known under one name throughout Europe. Sorry but it will always be Jif to me.

So what is it and what can you use it for?
Well Cif is a cream cleaner for use on baths, sinks, tiled surfaces etc. It is very simple to use. You just squirt some of the cleaner, be quite mean with it, onto the surface and wipe over with a damp cloth. You then have to rinse the surface to remove the cleaner or you will be left with a white powder when it dries. I just use a really wet cloth and wipe over a good few times, finishing off with the cloth just damp. If you use too much cream cleaner it will take forever to rinse off the surfaces and from your cloth. The liquid is white and quite creamy so it sticks fairly well to any vertical surfaces such as the side of the bath, giving you enough time to find your damp cloth and then wipe it all around. I have just started using the new formula, which is supposedly easy rinsing. Well it is as easy to rinse off as the old one but it doesn’t leave a residue behind – much better.

The Cif I use comes in a white bottle with a green flip top lid. This one has a gentle non-descript fragrance but there is a lemon scented one in a yellow (surprise surprise) bottle for those of you who like a bit of scent. The only problem with this new design of bottle – new formula, therefore new bottle – is that you can’t open the lid very easily with your marigolds on. So it is a bit of a pain having to take your rubber gloves off every time you want to use another squirt. In fact you can’t open the lid very well without your marigolds on either! Also if you haven’t got strong nails don’t buy this as you won’t be able to get in. As I don’t really want any of this on my hands, not that it has ever irritated me, this is a bad design fault.

Well I must say that it does a good job and after I have used it the basins and bath and tiles shine up nicely, along with my chrome taps. It doesn’t take too much elbow grease either – a nice spread around of the cream and then a good rinse off. This is not a disinfectant, just a surface cleaner. It shouldn’t be used on painted surfaces or plastics – don’t panic plastic baths are really made from fibreglass.

A 500ml bottle costs around £1.19 and lasts for a good few cleans. Look out for BOGOF offers too, as they are available sometimes. Because it is a fairly boring product I feel that I’ve not said very much about it, but all in all a good product which basically does what it was designed to do, without any fuss