Define warm carnuba vs reflective / glossy

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hoyt66

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Mike,

I read a lot on the forum about sealants and waxes having a warm carnuba look or they are described as reflective or glossy. These terms are a little "grey" to me. Could you define them a little further? I have a bright silver car. What should I look for when buying a sealant or wax? Thanks
 
Well Chet, I'll try and help out here before Mike comes in and explains it better than I can but since I've been using these modern sealants they give a look that looks, well, fake or like a candy apple for instance. With your car being silver, IMO a sealant is the way to go, your not going to really get any depth with nuba on silver. Nuba gives a natrual glow or "warmth" if you will. Once in a while I'll apply a coat of nuba to my silver car, although mine's darker than yours, to give it a different look. Hope this helps Chet.

If you've got a CarQuest near you go on in there and buy some DuraGloss #111, you will NOT regret it, trust me! So easy to use and really produces the results!!
 
With a light-colored car such as silver you will get a lot of reflectivity and/or gloss simply because of where the color stands in the visible light spectrum. The closer to white you get, the harder it will be for the human eye to see "depth" and "warmth". It is a simple case of that wavelength of light overwhelming the retina. On the other end, the closer you get to black the more you will be able to see "depth" and "warmth".

Using the characteristics below ...

1- Gloss/reflectivity
2- Slickness
3- Durability
4- Price
5- Depth/Warmth

In a very prudish sense, for darker-colored cars you probably want depth/warmth to be closer the top in terms of priority, and closer to the bottom for light-colored cars. The other 4 you can prioritize based on your personal preferences, and in this day and age, everyone likes to learn on their own while getting some feedback from others... so the notion of trying multiple products over time is appealing to many.

By the way, the above order is my guideline and I will tend to avoid "candy-like" appearance on my vehicles.
 
The difference is hard to describe. I find sealants definitely have a plastic look.
 
oldgeek said:
The difference is hard to describe. I find sealants definitely have a plastic look.
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:iagree: - Carnuba seems to me to give much more "depth/warmth" as described above (particularly for the darker colors)
 
This is the best that I can describe it. Sealants tend to make the paint appear as if a hard candied-plastic coating was poured over it. Paint is extremely glossy, slick, and has amazing reflections to it. I find this true for all colors, and sealants make light colors look awesome.

Waxes give paint real depth to it while also looking semi-wet. The paint just has this "warm" feeling and look to it as it just kind of glows rather than having that "wow" in your face look like sealants. Still glossy, but just not glass like from sealants. As said by others, the depth and warmth is most notable on darker colors.


I know these pictures are at different angles, but I think shows the glow effect versus the candied effect. Specifically on the front fender.

Meguiar's Gold Class Liquid Carnauba Wax

DSC00988.jpg



WGDGPS 3.0

DSC01086.jpg
 
Excellent descriptions here guys. That shed some light on it. I'm leaning on sealant as my lsp

on my car. Thanks:dblthumb2:
 
Warm carnauba is like the look in my wife's eyes after a night of dinner and two-steppin'.
Reflective/glossy is like the look in her eyes when she spies another UPS delivery.

10-04?.
 
hoyt66 said:
Mike,

I read a lot on the forum about sealants and waxes having a warm Carnauba look or they are described as reflective or glossy. These terms are a little "grey" to me. Could you define them a little further?

I have a bright silver car. What should I look for when buying a sealant or wax?

Thanks
Click to expand...



I think it's all kind of subjective...


So many high quality products on the market now days that can all provide,

  • Warmth
  • Depth
  • Reflectivity
  • Gloss
  • Shine
  • Slickness
  • Wet look
  • Protection
  • Durability

Just scroll through the below thread and keep in mind there's a very wide range of products being used to create these type of show car results...


Warmth - Depth - Reflectivity - Gloss - Shine - Slickness -Wet Look - Protection - Durability



Good questions though...


:xyxthumbs:
 
Vegas Transplant said:
Warm carnauba is like the look in my wife's eyes after a night of dinner and two-steppin'.
Reflective/glossy is like the look in her eyes when she spies another UPS delivery.
Darvetis said:
:laughing::laughing::laughing:

+1...(Good One VT)
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
____________________________________________________________________________________________________

Re: "Define warm carnuba vs reflective / glossy"
____________________________________________________________________________________________________

-Some folks say sealicones...Sorry...sealants
have a fake, even a plastic-look about them:

____________________________________________________________________________________________________

While other folks will say that waxes have a:
Deepness, warmth, warm-glow, the "jetting effect"...
Even a: "Spirituality"...about them:



¡Ay, caramba!...OOOPS...¡Ay, Carnuba!
____________________________________________________________________________________________________

:)

Bob
 
FUNX725 said:
____________________________________________________________________________________________________

Re: "Define warm carnuba vs reflective / glossy"
____________________________________________________________________________________________________

-Some folks say sealicones...Sorry...sealants
have a fake, even a plastic-look about them:

____________________________________________________________________________________________________

While other folks will say that waxes have a:
Deepness, warmth, warm-glow, the "jetting effect"...
Even a: "Spirituality"...about them:



¡Ay, caramba!...OOOPS...¡Ay, Carnuba!
____________________________________________________________________________________________________

:)

Bob
Click to expand...

:goodpost:...Classic FUN..:props:
 
Carnauba is naturally yellow in color, or white if it is refined. That makes it somewhat translucent while shiny, which means it captures the light and gives a glow. Sealants are often completely transparent, like Opti-Seal, and thus merely delivers a sparkle, while it just reflects the light clearly, and adds an extra bit of sparkle as the light refracts off of the edges of the car.
The pictures of the Meg's Gold Class VS. Wolfgang 3.0 is not a very great comparison, since I think Gold Class is a bit synthetic, with some sealant attributes, while Wolfgang is designed to look like a wax, as it is translucent out of the bottle.
A better comparison would be the look of Souveran vs Opti Seal. Some waxes like Dodo Supernatural or Swissvax Crystal Rock have a more crystal clear sparkle than most waxes,and more closely emulate the sparkle of a sealant than most waxes, yet still have the warmth of a wax.
 
Glad this thread is still going. Thanks guys. These are great descriptions!
 
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