Expectations, comparing apples to apples

We like to under promise and over deliver when we can. This one’s a long one, get comfy, pull out the popcorn as this may irritate some people as we do shine light onto a very sensitive topic, we've ripped off the band-aid, stated the facts and this will help you choose products more wisely.

Before you throw any liquid spray air freshener under the bus, we ask you to compare apples to apples and not compare apples to oranges. Besides other various contributing factors that can affect fragrance longevity which are covered in other tabs/topics on this page, you need to take into account what you are comparing.

TLDR: Sorry, but there’s no '5 second answer' to this, if you have the “good is cheap, cheap is good” mentality, this read will open your eyes and should get you into good habits and using the right products. Yes its 10 minutes’ worth of reading but its well worth it.

We find that sometimes some people’s expectations are extremely high and demanding of air fresheners. We usually see 2 types of customers:

Customer A: Knows exactly what a water based liquid air freshener is capable of, what to expect from them and knows when they see a quality product.

Customer B: Doesn’t know any better and assumes that an air freshener will fix all their problems indefinitely without needing to lift a finger (such as the need to vacuum their carpets before applying a spray air freshener) to get the most longevity from them. < Drastic comparison, yes, but trust us we see this each and every single day. In the world of fragrance for cars, we are the first to get crucified without reason as we learnt the loudest voice in the room gets the centre of attention.

We acknowledge and appreciate both customers A and B. However over the years we have learnt so much from customer B, this customer has helped us improve our products and has allowed us to help better educate customer B by providing useful information, tips, tricks and knowledge (remember knowledge is power!)

The first thing we have to explain to customer B is that, besides making the car “smell good”, our potions also eliminate bacterial and biological odours. However sometimes customer B does not know that sometimes they are trying to mask up a problem odour such as mould, food scraps, grime and some cars just have their own natural smells to them. This effort of trying to mask up problem odours of these natures and/or simply choosing to be conservative by not spraying enough product because they think we are trying to get them to use more product purposely (believe us we are not), usually causes customer B to throw an air freshener/company under the bus because the air freshener didn’t do what they wanted it to do (ie spray once and my problem odours will go away forever) < kind of like how some customers assume that a ceramic coating stops and prevents scratches, stone-chips and dents as if it some magic force field.

Anyone who truly understands what a ceramic coating does, knows that every car manufactures clear coat is different (some are soft and thin, others are hard and thick) and because of this, the ceramic coating may not work as effectively on some car clear coats that are soft and thin. If you want to get into the science of it, its actually very simple, a softer clear coat will expand and contract (hot/cold) much more than a harder clear coat would, the process of expanding and contracting naturally breaks down a ceramic coating over time (remember most coatings are 1micon thick at best case and are as hard as glass when cured), we aren’t even taking maintenance (washing) and exposure to the elements (contaminants) into this equation, this is just a simple temperature cycle that cars 99.99% of cars go through.

Moving on from all the above, when our fragrances have run their course and have completely faded away from carpets and floor mats, our odour eating ingredients and microbial controlling ingredients continue to work for around another 2-3 weeks (sometimes much longer), with our potions you get the below wrapped up into 1 bottle:

1. Large selection of fragrance options (34 fragrances)
2. Complex fragrance profiles (layers upon layers of different smells, some sweet, fruity, classical and others exotic)
3. Fragrance longevity (apples to apples, which we talk about below)
4. Help stop microbial growth of mould in carpets
5. Eliminate bacterial odours from carpets and fabrics including cigarette smoke smell
6. Eliminate the smell of biological odours in carpets and fabrics such as urine, blood and vomit
7. Excellent value for money when considering the above 6 points

With that said, many odours can actually come in from your shoes bringing in dirt, water, sand, mud and all sorts of other contaminants into your carpets as you go in/out of your car alongside bringing in hot foods, drinks, used work/gym clothing and shoes, other odours can build up over time (such as having poor interior cleaning routines and not replacing cabin filters when required, all of which we touch on other topics).

The simplest way to get a better understanding about our products is to simply think of them as a quick and easy, 'best bang for your buck' product that offers temporary passive anti-bacterial, anti-microbial, odour eliminating priorities to your carpets and fabric floor mats for a reasonable duration of time with a twist of fun, class and style with our fragrances. Think of how ceramic coatings works, it offers a medium-term of passive UV protection to your paint and makes water bead off from paintwork (thus making the washing and drying more efficient).

You don’t need to have a wax or ceramic coating applied onto your paint (if you did need these, the car manufacturers would be liable for this). Washing and drying your paintwork regularly and correctly, clay barring once to twice a year is usually enough to keep paint in good shape, however many people opt to install/apply a wax or ceramic coating because they want it.

The fundamental principle of a wax or ceramic coating is to offer passive UV protection to your paintwork. They both offer it, however they are light years apart from each other (chemistry wise) and should not compared to one another as the pros and cons of each will heavily outweigh the one another respectfully.

The same needs to be said for air fresheners, you don’t need an air freshener, as if you clean and vacuum your interior regularly, you won’t have bad odours that need to be eliminated, your car should smell clean, however an air freshener is a luxury that many people simply want, you have the option of solid air fresheners or liquid air fresheners, both freshen the air inside your car, but both offer very different things which we explain below.

Sometimes people have the expectation that 2-3 sprays of our Potions = a lifetime of fragrance longevity (this is not true at all).

You need to compare apples to apples...

We get that you might be saying to yourself 'but I can get a hanging air freshener for $1' or 'I can buy a tuna can air freshener for $10-$15+ that will last a few weeks' however the whole 'cheap is good and good is cheap mentality' is wrong and needs to be thrown out the window as a poor man pays twice.

It doesn’t make any sense to even try and compare a cheap spray wax to a good quality ceramic coating. Most people know and understand that ceramic coatings have plenty of benefits over a wax. A spray wax will increase gloss, is not prone to water spotting, is easy to apply and offers short term UV protection. A ceramic coating on the other hand will increase gloss too but not as much as a wax will, coatings are much more prone to water spotting and are very difficult, costly and time consuming to apply (compared to a spray wax), though the ceramic coating offers protection for years (not months like a wax does), both have their pros and cons to one another. Trying to compare the 2 products is an apples to oranges comparison.

The same principle and logic needs to be applied when comparing a solid air freshener (cardboard / tuna can cup) to a liquid spray air freshener (not just ours, but from other companies too), both have pros and cons to one another but one outweighs the other significantly.

The facts are that some (not all) solid air fresheners (hanging air fresheners, clip in vent air fresheners and tuna can cup style air fresheners) may offer a longer lasting fragrance inside your car when trying to compare them to our water based deodorising air fresheners, however this is where the apples to oranges comparison comes into play, solid air fresheners:

- Do absolutely nothing to eliminate any sort of odours
- Usually cause more problems than they solve
- Have mediocre smelling fragrance profiles at best case
- Easily grow mould sports as they "self-shrink" (decompose and rot)
- Do absolutely nothing for bacterial and microbial control on carpets and floor mats (where many odours originate from)
- Hugely cheapen the look of your interior by always being in your face, or in a cup holder rattling around

You see what we just did there? We just highlighted many of the negatives that solid air fresheners offer, if you remember the first 7 points we mentioned earlier in this topic, you would have just quickly learnt that our products PROS outweigh all of the CONS offered by a solid air freshener 6 to 1. This is why we say you need to compare apples to apples.

Hanging air fresheners: We have seen countless times that these air fresheners cause irreparable damage if they are used incorrectly (melting plastics, paints and leathers) when being hanged off indicator stalks, gear surrounds or tied into the vents. 

Most of these companies making these hanging air fresheners even have warnings on the packaging stating not to let their air fresheners touch anything (though as usual, some people want to do things ‘their way’ or because ‘it looks cool’). When used as directed, some of these companies even instruct to use the plastic bag the air freshener is supplied in and to cut a small hole in the bag and each day to ‘pull the cardboard further out to out to expose more of the cardboard’.

When used as instructed (hanging off the rear view mirror) they are always ‘in your face’ dangling around screaming ‘look at me, look at me, I am too cheap’, worst of all, we find they do not smell pleasant at all, don’t last and don’t eliminate any odours. The cherry on top is if you get a nasty enough of a highway patrol officer, you can actually be fined and defected for obstruction of view when hung off your rear view mirror.

Vent clip in air fresheners: We have seen these fail countless times and leak their oils all over air vents and the dashboard and cause irreparable damage to those surfaces (especially during summer). We have also seen that sometimes when people remove the clips that hold onto the vents, they end up snapping off or cracking the vents which not a fun thing to replace, especially with older cars where these parts are hard and expensive to come by.

Tuna can style air fresheners: We dislike these air fresheners the most as the chemistry involved is very basic and flawed. They are usually made from felt or gel (goo), both of which we found when left exposed to oxygen long enough, they decompose (rot), grow mould spores inside and both styles tend to attract insects and spiders.

With these styles of air freshens, not only do they really cheapen the look of your interior, take up precious real-estate space inside your car, their fragrance profiles most of the time smell cheap and nasty due to the nature of their ‘chemistry’. We have seen many times that that insects and spiders are actually attracted to these style of air fresheners. < We have seen add dealt with this countless times, in addition to this, they do absolutely nothing when it comes to odour elimination.

Besides taking up a cup holder, rattling around, they also scream ‘look at me, look at me, I am too cheap’.

Chemistry of felt based: Tuna can air fresheners simply have a piece of felt soaked with natural fragrance oils (which insects and spiders love). As the oil dries up in the felt, the felt starts to develop mould spores over time, if they tip over and are left tipped over, many leak and cause all sorts of hassles such as damaged plastics, leathers and/or ruined fabric.

Chemistry of Gel (goo): Gel based air fresheners are even worse than felt based air fresheners, these air fresheners should be avoided at all costs in our professional opinion. We have broken down the science and chemistry behind these products and found they most of them are made up of primarily of food grade ingredients (such a gelatine or agar agar) and other cheap natural ingredients, some market themselves as ‘plant based’ (cough cough, code word for food based) and are simply mixed with natural fragrance oils and colour.

These gel air fresher’s ‘self-shrink’ when exposed to oxygen, the flaw with this concept is that the ‘self-shrinking’ is actually decomposition (rot) of the gel (goo). As the decomposition progresses, the fragrance starts to smell ‘funny’ or ‘weird’ or ‘not pleasant’, those ‘smells’ you are breathing in, is a by-product of the ‘self-shrink feature’ these gel air fresheners ‘offer’. In addition to this, some might have a strong kick when you first open them, however within a couple days at best case that kick is gone and is usually very faint.

We found that all of these air gel (goo) air fresheners tend to attract insects and spiders much more than oil based air fresheners do (because that rotting is food for insects and spiders), 9/10 times we have seen that these air fresheners grow mould spores as they decompose (which is terrible to be breathing in). Due to the limited ingredients of using such ingredients to create a gel (goo) based air fresheners, the chemistry required is very basic and extremely limited (can be made at home and there are thousands of recipes online). Some even market a feature of ‘adjusting the strength by twisting to lid more open / close’ < in our eyes, this is nothing but a marketing gimmick at best and really scraping the bottom of the barrel!

With our Potions, insects and spiders actually hate the chemistry of our products (something that is very important to us). Don’t ask us how we’ve done it, as it’s one of our trade secrets. None of the solid air fresheners offer any form of odour elimination, bacterial or microbial control for carpets and fabrics and most of them offer terrible fragrance profiles.

In addition, all the above physical styled air fresheners require a physical item left inside your car (ie remove that tuna can and you have no more fragrance), with our products, you spray onto the carpets and then leave the bottle at home. The bottle does NOT need to remain inside the car to smell amazing, eliminate odours, control mould and bacteria, our products don’t take up your interior real-estate and cheapen the look of your car. < Now that’s class!

Pressurized Aerosol Air Fresheners: You are paying an exorbitant amount of money for a product that only has on average less than 1% of its chemical composition being used for actual 'freshening up' and the other 99% is solvents and gas. < If you don’t believe us, lookup the SDS’s of these products yourself. We find that many of these aerosol air fresheners don’t last anywhere near as long when compared to water based liquid air fresheners. < Again an apples to oranges comparison which is incorrect.

Oil based liquid spray air fresheners: (an almost apples to apples comparison)

Concentrated oil based ready to use spray air fresheners low volume high price (usually 20 - 60mls and priced above $9.95)

It’s a liquid in a non-pressurized spray bottle, sure you are right, but its oil based product, NOT a water based product.

We know that there are some small companies out their offering ‘bespoke’ liquid spray air fresheners in a very heavily concentrated oil form and marketed as ready to use. We have broken down the science and chemistry behind these products and let us say, we are far from impressed with these products (not least because of the exorbitant costs).

Pure and natural oils don't just evaporate from carpets like magic, they build up, stay put and when the fragrance does fade off, the oil left behind attracts dirt, grime, muck and all sorts of nasties you wouldn't want building up on your floor mats.

We have seen with many of these super concentrated air fresheners that they offer more negatives than positives such as oily and mouldy carpets (after long term usage) and the attraction of spiders and insects. Many (if not all) of these products don’t have any odour eliminating ingredients (they rely upon high percentages of natural fragrance oils to mask up odours), nor do they have any effective anti-microbial and anti-bacterial properties.

Put simply, the chemical composition of these products with high levels of natural fragrance oils just doesn’t work with anti-microbial and anti-bacterial ingredients. When attempting to combine the two (which we have) the fragrance becomes unstable and practically useless. In addition when doing ISO certified lab testing of mould and bacteria, these products always come back with very high counts of mould and bacteria (as once again the anti-bacterial chemistry doesn't work in these sorts of formulations). 

We have had countless customers come to us after using these highly concentrated air fresheners long term and asked us if our products can save their carpets and floor mats.

Water based, liquid spray air fresheners (non-aerosol) - The apples to apples comparison!!!

This is where our products fit, this is where the apples to apples comparisons should be made,

Water based air fresheners: The chemistry, fragrance strength and features behind water based air fresheners varies from company to company. There are thousands of these companies all over the world offering these water based air fresheners, however finding a good one is like trying to find a needle in a hay stack. < With us, you are getting the best of the best so you can stop searching.

Many water based air fresheners on the market do not last, smell horrendous and do not offer any form of bacterial, microbial and/or odour control. We see many people using these products and are always never happy with them but choose to continue using them because ‘it’s cheap’.

It’s like comparing different brands of ceramic coatings, you have cheap ceramic coatings that cost $10 and you have expensive ceramic coatings that cost $100+, many people understand that the $10 coating won’t last anywhere near as claimed.

With our products, if you remembered the first 7 points we mentioned above and then compare them to any of our competitor’s water based air fresheners, you will quickly learn that we are offering our customers the best value for money!

It’s no secret that Platinum Potions is very well known in the car detailing world as the #1 go to air freshener not only just here in Australia, but all over the world now. It is something that has taken us years to achieve. Many of our large competitors have only just woken up to a very small percentage of our chemistry (we have been using this chemistry since 2017), other companies simply refuse to use the ingredients we use as the costs and chemistry knowledge limits them.

Year over year, Platinum Potions has been raising the bar and setting new industry leading standards in this field. When it comes to the chemistry behind our Potions, we can happily state that we have been able to advanced our knowledge and refined the chemical composition of our products to a level today that we believe is at the very ‘top of the game’.

The level of our chemistry, quality of ingredients used, our products features and benefits at the price we offer it at is what has astonished our competition.