You're right. I just went out and looked at my Essence + bottle. I tried it once and had bad results.
Printable View
As someone wrote before I also think it's cutting comes from the pad choice. They recommend a polishing pad or an AIO pad which would give you some cut on it's own. I have only used Ultima Paint Prep Plus as a non abrasive prewax cleaner and primer for UPGP. It gave some cut too and not just filling. It has worn off on the panels I used it on and didn't do all of the car. And the panels done just has the deeper defects left still and the finer marring scratches is still not to be seened. It was polished last september so would think that the filling is gone. That said I would still want a fine abrasive in a primer polish and use a finishing pad and move up in aggressiveness if I would need more cut.
So what side of the fence are you on?
You say silica is an abrasive.
Yet you mention how some products that claim to be non abrasive have the ability to “round over” swirls and scratches, which I assume means fill.
So what’s your final answer? [opinion]
Btw, the silica sure doesn’t sound like an abrasive [at least not in this product] based on the way it’s described on the product page.
https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/201...23eeb9629c.png
I ignore pretty much 100% of marketing descriptions by most companies in general, but I'm extra skeptical of all detailing marketing. Everyone has different terminologies for things, nobody offers anything concrete enough, and there's so much subjectivity and variable involved in measuring anything we do that it's just not worth the headache to try and keep everything straight - if something works, it works, and I'm happy. Keeps it simple and it stops me from having a bad taste in my mouth about different manufacturers unless they do something super ridiculous.
I’m the opposite when it comes to detailing marketing, especially when it comes to brands that are considered or supposedly top of the line.
For as trendy/boutique aka expensive as some of the most recent detailing products seem to be [compared to years past] I don’t think it’s too much to ask for the product descriptions/label directions to be spot on and that means without even minor flaws. I mean afterall they’re selling this stuff to detailers. We generally tend to notice/care about even the minor details.
Also, because it only comes 32 oz, does it have a shelf life expiration?
That’s a good question, especially since the description says this:
https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/201...d8022f4453.png
If it uses “the same Silica” shouldn’t it have a shelf life? Or is the whole silica shelf life a widespread myth? I dunno...