Cream Cleansers or Scouring Creams

One major innovation to the cleanser arena was the marketing of cream cleansers, with the patent art dating back to 1964 [18]. These products are fundamentally a liquid APC with suspended abrasive. These are packaged in plastic bottles for the most part, and are most popular in European markets. Cream cleansers or scouring creams (as they are called in Europe) are used similarly as powder cleansers. It is interesting that consumers view them as less abrasive than the powder cleansers, although for the most part they use the same abrasives used in modem powder cleansers. 

Cream cleansers were created to address some of the shortcomings of powder cleaners, being easier to apply and eliminating dust. However, they still suffer from one of the difhculties of powder cleaners, which is difficulty of rinsing. The abrasive in both products tend not to be easy to rinse down the drain and builders, being powder ingredients, can be left behind as a film when dry. Both of these can contribute to a dulling residue if they are not ultimately rinsed or wiped away. 

The other change from powder cleansers is the variation in abrasive. Some cream cleansers have been commercialized with soluble abrasive. This is intended to circumvent the rinsing difficulties of standard abrasives, which consumers speak about having to chase down the drain. A soluble salt such as sodium carbonate or borax may be added to the formula in excess of its solubility limit, so that some of it is in the form of suspended particles. When the cleanser is rinsed the product is further diluted and reportedly the expected result is dissolution of the particulate salt [28-30]. 

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