The Pink Stuff: How It Works and Surfaces It Can Hurt

Oct 05, 2023

The Pink Stuff is a good cleaner, but it's not the miracle worker that TikTok makes it out to be

TikTok loves cleaning content, and one product in particular is The Pink Stuff, a cleaning paste from the UK's Star Brands that has garnered over 400 million views and rising.

The $6 product is currently the bestselling all-purpose cleaner on Amazon, with more than 105,000 five-star ratings. (It's also sold at Home Depot and Walmart.) Cleaning enthusiasts can be seen all over social media scrubbing grime off their oven doors, sinks, pots, and bathroom tiles.

But how does this stuff work, is it any better than the cleaning products we already have, and can it really be good for cleaning everything?

The Pink Stuff is marketed as a "Miracle Cleaning Paste [that] can be used on virtually any surface." But anything that comes with claims that it runs on miracles gives me pause, so let's dig into what exactly is in this stuff.

"A look at the product's data sheet shows that the paste has a few mild soaps and a high concentration of quartz particles," says Jim Rogers, PhD, director of food safety research and testing at CR. "My initial thought was liquid sandpaper."

It should work similarly to powder-based cleaners like Comet and Ajax, says James Dickerson, CR's chief scientific officer. "It seems to be much more abrasive than Soft Scrub but not quite a Brillo pad."

The Pink Stuff is gritty and alkaline, which means it should be good at cutting through greasy messes and lifting oily dirt off surfaces by creating friction. But while the manufacturer's website says it can be used on almost any surface, Rogers says he’d limit it to hard surfaces like tiles, tubs, and sinks.

Dickerson says he’d try it on aluminum pans with baked-on stuff but would be more careful with a more delicate object. "Vigorous scrubbing is key to getting it to work," he says. That means you still need plenty of good old-fashioned elbow grease. "Letting it sit on a stain won't help much."

A damp, rough sponge will help if you’re cleaning something that you don't mind scratching, like an old baking sheet. For a more gentle touch, opt for a damp soft sponge or cloth instead. And always rinse afterward.

Photo: Perry Santanachote/Consumer Reports Photo: Perry Santanachote/Consumer Reports

I tested it out on a scorched aluminum pot (above), and it did good work on the blackened bottom after several scrubbing sessions. But it wasn't able to remove the older burnt food smear on the outside (below).

Photo: Perry Santanachote/Consumer Reports Photo: Perry Santanachote/Consumer Reports

Abrasive cleaners can damage certain surfaces. The Pink Stuff could scratch the shiny finishes of stainless steel kitchen appliances, plated metals, enamel, and finished flooring. "Avoid using it on anything that is delicate or anything that can be easily scored or scratched," Dickerson says.

As with many things, it's important to read the fine print, because the advertising hyperbole ("can be used on virtually any surface") is tempered by the manufacturer's actual instructions, which clearly state: "Be careful not to apply too much pressure, as this could result in scratched surfaces. Be especially careful with glass, highly polished steel surfaces, and ceramic hobs."

And because it's a basic (alkaline) cleaner, it's probably not the best choice for removing mineral deposits, rust stains, and hard water deposits. An acidic cleaner would work better.

One of the main draws for The Pink Stuff is the claim that it's 100 percent natural—as in, "it is not nearly as harmful as many of the household cleaners out there these days." (It's "100 percent" on the website and "99 percent" on the jar.) Safety Data Sheets (SDSs) don't disclose everything that's in a product, so we can't vet every ingredient in The Pink Stuff. Only chemicals that are considered hazardous must be listed, so other materials may not appear in the data sheet. CR reached out to Star Brands for comment but received no reply.

"It could very well be made of materials you can find in nature, but the term ‘natural’ only conveys emotion, no meaningful, scientific, standardized definition of the properties of the contents," Dickerson says. "It reads like a marketing play to address people's concerns for safe cleaning products."

As with foods, it's important to keep in mind that natural ingredients aren't necessarily safer than synthetic chemicals. Natural ingredients can be allergens, and under U.S. regulations, fragrance ingredients don't need to be disclosed even though some can be irritants.

For what it's worth, one of the ingredients in The Pink Stuff is perfume. But the subtle floral scent didn't bother me, unlike many noxious cleaning products I’ve tried, abrasive or otherwise.

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Perry Santanachote

Perry Santanachote is a multimedia content creator at Consumer Reports. She has been with CR since 2019, covering nothing in particular. Not having a beat allows her to work on whatever's trending—from parasite cleanses to pickleball paddles. Perry is a main producer of Outside the Labs content at CR, where she evaluates products in her tiny Manhattan apartment.