Lashings of custard are great with jelly and apple crumble but on a car? That's what Autobrite Direct LTD want you to do with its Magifoam Custard, a fun snow foam designed to be both an impressive cleaner and imitate everyone's favourite non-Newtonian fluid - custard.
Instead of being made from eggs, milk and sugar, this custard is a blend of detergents and other non-edible chemicals enhanced with vanilla. It's designed to help dislodge larger bits of debris from bodywork before the shampooing stage.
We love snow foam here at CAR, it's the best part of car cleaning and has a genuine benefit in preventing scratches in a car's paintwork. So the chance to live out our Saturday morning kid's TV show dream of covering something (in this case a BMW 5-Series) in custard and see if it cleans it was an immediate yes. Let's just hope it's not a trifle underwhelming.
Cleaning ability
The point of snow foaming a car is to lift and loosen dirt off a car's body so that when you wash it with a wash mitt, there's little chance of leaving behind scratches. Magifoam did precisely that, loosening larger bits of dirt and lifting any road film present on the car. Its cleaning ability is up there with the best snow foams we've ever tested and it's also safe to use on any applied wax or sealant, a big bonus considering its cleaning ability.
Autobrite recommends allowing the foam to dwell for up to 10 minutes before rinsing off owing to the thick density of the foam, however, we washed it off after six minutes because the car was in direct sunlight. Still, the foam proved to be stable when applied to the car, clinging on well despite the heat and fairly long dwell time.
An aftermarket foaming lance would provide a thicker foam, but even the basic Karcher example used here was a near shaving-foam-thick that was both aesthetically pleasing and useful for lifting debris.
Why custard?
Car cleaning can indeed become rather laborious, especially if you're following a multi-stage technique that involves using more potions and lotions than you'd find in a branch of Boots. It's perhaps for that reason that more and more brands are mixing things up with interesting colours and scents to keep car cleaning fun.
The slight yellow tint to the foam isn't as rich or eye-catching as some of the extreme examples offered by companies like Alien Car Care, but it is still brilliant in a childish, puerile way.
Less brilliant is the smell, especially before diluting the product. It's a very strong, chemically mint scent that once diluted still smells more like a cheap mouthwash than custard. I don't know what custard they're consuming at Autobrite, I just hope the employees kept the receipt.
Verdict
Autobrite Magifoam Custard is a brilliant way to make the best part of car cleaning even better. It might be slightly childish, but it's an excellent snow foam and it's genuinely fun to use. If the smell was a little better, it'd be perfect.
4.5/5
| Pros | Cons | |
|---|---|---|
| • Thick foam | • Not biodegradable | |
| • Fun to use | • Vanilla scent isn’t as nice as you’d think | |
| • A good pre-cleaner |
Custard not to your taste? Magifoam is also available with a cherry scent and the same amazing cleaning abilities.
How we tested it:
We applied the Magifoam Custard via a pressure washer to a car making sure to follow the instructions printed on the bottle. The car featured some general grime and traffic film and the foam was left to dwell for six minutes (owing to the car sitting in direct sunlight) before being washed away with a pressure washer and the car inspected for any left-over residue.
Other products used in this test: Karcher K3 Pressure Washer | Karcher FJ10 Foam Nozzle