POLISHES in General (Start separate threads for specific brand names)

**Gord** · 2004-Aug-19 23:34

Must say Wet, that "Aerospace Protectant 303""Aerospace Protectant 303"^G ^M ^Y would impress me too!

My waryness would however steer me clear from anything used in commercial ventures (movies, videos etc) as their priorities are focused on the look - not the well-being of the garment! Wonder if it is Armor All in an expensive bottle?

Gord

**urbanrubber** · 2004-Aug-20 04:27

I have used both the Scarred UltraSheen PolishScarred UltraSheen Polish^G ^M ^Y, and Eros BodyGilideEros BodyGlide^G ^M ^Y. The UltraSheen (a white milky liquid) gave me the best results, and it comes in a squirt bottle for easy application.

**Sandi** · 2004-Aug-25 00:14

Looking at the MSDS sheet Armorall is a silicone base polish. 303 used too often will soften rubber. I have neck seals on a dry suit that are a rubber goo. Used on rubber seals arround the car windows you can see a deposit on the window glass where it contacts.

I did a study looking at the material saftey data sheets and Armorall was the least harmful. I would bet that any other silicone based product would be similar. This is a very intimate contact and some of theis stuff is not meant to be in contact with skin.

**Steffy** · 2004-Aug-25 15:09

I am always very reluctant to use anything on latex that has not been shown to be safe in the long term. A product is always so easy to apply in the heat of the moment... and so very difficult to remove after doing irreparable damage.

STEFFY

Dark · 2004-Aug-25 16:25

Shining rubber involves placing a layer of "something" on the surface. These somethings are chimicals which may or may not interact with the chemicals in the rubber. Bad interactions will weaken and degrade the rubber... leading to its destruction. This is probably true of solvent based applications.

An application which has no interacation but which sits on the surface would be the ideal shine. There are basically two kinds of reflective surfaces.. hard and soft or liquid. Water is very reflective because its surface is very very smooth and light bounces in very "organized" reflections. Matte surfaces diffuse light and are not reflective.

To increase the reflectivity of rubber the application must create a surface which is SMOOTHER than the unerlying rubber. A hard polish as in car wax would not work... because being hard it is rigid and cannot work with a moving stretching and changing substrate. Hard is out.

The soft shines are liquids which can be stread very thin, fill in all the micro voids and because of their surface tension create a very smooth barrier layer with the air.

Liquids have a tendency to evaporate and those that do not have a tendency to be a medium for dust and other air bound contaminants. As the polish liquid evaporates from the surface of the rubber, or the solvent which they are suspended in... what remains is an increasingly tacky surface.

To mitigate this problem you need to maintain a high polish all the time.. this provides a lot of lubrication at the same time as it shines. The alternative is to remove the polish down to the bare rubber... and talc to prevent the rubber from sticking to itself, or treat it with chlorine.

Not being a chemist... I dont know whether silicone exists as a pure liquid and is non reactive with latex. However, if it did, you might need a solvent to get it OFF the rubber and that might be a problem unless you are prepared to keep all the rubber siliconed all the time.

My personal experience is that applied polishes tend to become tacky over time in an unavoidable way. They tend to be difficult to remove by washing... but not impossible. Many seem to make the rubber more supple, but this may be a subjective reaction.

Being slippery and shiny has an upside as well as a down side. Sitting on furniture or upholstry means damaging the shine and possibly the furniture. When the shine is fading the tack is in ascendence and even sliding about on a chair becomes a chore.

The best shine would be not an applied shine, but a quality of the material. PVC is much more shiny than unshined rubber. It may be possible for rubber to made more shiny in its manufacture, but when stretched the reflectance would suffer. The shiniest PVC does not stretch as far a I can tell.

If you like the shine... you will have to pay the multiple prices that giving good shine costs.

**AMHA** · 2004-Sep-02 06:15

Hi all
I have just recieved an Email from Helen Bunch of the Clorox company that make the Armorall Protectant.
The emial said that it is perfectly safe to use Armorall Protectant on latex clothing.
This is because it contains no harmfull ingredients at all(solvents,alchol etc).The type of rubber they say it is not adviced to use it on is neoprene rubber as it may clog the pores of the neoprene.

**drgummi** · 2004-Sep-05 11:42

Dark is spot on when he says some substances make the latex tacky, or alternatively form a tacky layer on top which is very difficult to remove. This is the main reason I won't use Cult/Eros - it appears to both react badly, and be hard to wash off with water-based detergents. If someone made a matching cleaner for Eros, I'd use it like a shot, but there's nothing I've heard of yet.

I think the plain polished surface of a new latex garment is itself sticky, and needs to be covered by a protectant first, before wearing, otherwise various things will wind up sticking to it. For this reason I normally polish new stuff with ArmorAll/Son Of A GunArmorAll "Son Of A Gun"^G ^M ^Y and then do subsequent polishes with the blue water-based Perv-O-ShinePerv-O-Shine^G ^M ^Y as sold by Skin Two, Demaske, and others. I believe that the blue stuff gradually makes more layers, and these can be sticky, but on the other hand the Gum-ol"Gum-ol"^G ^M ^Y rubber cleaner & disinfectant sold by The Medical Man in germany does a good job of removing those layers, bringing back the clean surface ready for a re-polish. I have several pieces which are between 5 and 7 years old, of varying thicknesses, which I have put through this polish & clean cycle almost every time I wear them; I am quite convinced that the polish work, and the habit of getting all the sweat residue off when still wet, has contributed hugely to their lifespan.

**encased** · 2004-Sep-06 00:59

does anyone know of a good supplier for gum ol in the united states?

**LatexJessica** · 2004-Sep-06 16:06

Hmmmm... so, should I buy Eros, use Silicone Spray from 3M, or find another silicon based shine?

Right now, I am on Simon O's page, about to order a hood, and I see he also sells some polisher and lubricant named RUBBERSILK. Have anyone used it? I am very tempted on trying.

Kisses,

Jessica

**AMHA** · 2004-Sep-07 16:40

Originally spoken by LatexJessica

Hmmmm... so, should I buy Eros, use Silicone Spray from 3M, or find another silicon based shine?

Right now, I am on Simon O's page, about to order a hood, and I see he also sells some polisher and lubricant named RUBBERSILK. Have anyone used it? I am very tempted on trying.

Kisses,

Jessica

I have just tried out the Gum ol Cleaner. It is brilliant for washing your rubber gear. But do not expect it to give a shine. It is only a cleaner. You have to apply a polish after. The UK company www.betweenthesheets.co.uk [rdx]3233[/rdx] sell Gum Ol but it also come with a water based polish and a very very soft cloth. The polish is Mr sheen and it comes in a pump action spray and not in an areosol spray. The polish has given my rubber clothing that new look shinewww.betweenthesheets.co.uk And they have a USA site link on there uk site.