Whats the deal with silicones?
Silicone is a main ingredient of virtually all vinyl or plastic products we knew of. One of the most popular even states on the front of its bottle that is has "No Oil Based Silicone" but uses a water based silicone emulsion instead. Silicone is cheap, is great for binding ingredients in a formula and works a treat at darkening plastics and vinyl's, however it's not ideal to use in formulas for a number of reasons:
- It's greasy and attracts dust for a long time after you use it.
- Oil based silicone emulsions use petroleum distillates, that attack the vinyls' surface, leading to its failure.
- It builds up on the vinyl surface, accelerating damage from heat, leading again to premature surface failure.
- A very poor UV protectant, even amplifying the suns effect, by magnifying the UV rays rather than dissipating them.
This is why we worked so hard to make our silicone free interior products, which are very unique in the car care world.