A quick detail spray is a product that helps clean your car's surface quickly without needing to wash it with water. It's great for making your car look shiny and clean in a short amount of time.
A waterless wash is a special cleaner for cars that lets you clean them without using any water. It helps remove dirt and grime while keeping the car's surface safe.
Ceramic infused means that a product has tiny ceramic particles in it, which help protect your car's surface better. It makes it harder for dirt and water to stick, so your car stays cleaner for longer.
APC means All-Purpose Cleaner, which is a type of cleaner you can use for many different surfaces, like tires and wheels. It's good for getting rid of dirt and stains.
Alkaline based means the cleaner has a higher pH level, which helps it clean better, especially for tough dirt and grease. It's often used in products for cleaning tires.
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Today, I'm going to share and tell you a few secrets that the car care industry
never talks about. No brand talks about and definitely no in-flure brands talk about.
And it's the stuff that they, it's really not their fault that they don't tell you.
They just literally don't know. And I kind of wish I didn't know either.
But this is the stuff that brands definitely don't want you to know.
Because if you did, a lot of them would lose sales overnight.
And I think it's important to note that a lot of this stuff is actually
coming to light. The more people are willing to talk about it,
the more people find out about it, whether it's the influencer led brands or not.
And because a lot of the brands that don't have these things to hide aren't afraid anymore
to talk about it because there's actually, it becomes more of a rallying cry than anything.
And it becomes a big differentiator. And the hard part for brands that know these truths
is to explain how and what they are without sounding like they're just bashing other people.
And that's something that I'm hoping to, to share honestly.
And I hope it comes across that way. I hope none of this comes across as bashing.
That's not my intention. That's not my intent.
It's not my intent to tell you, you know, this is why you should support my own brand.
This is merely to put out the information because I've been behind the scenes for so many years and
I've talked about it before that I got really jaded working behind the scenes because I kind of,
when you see how the sausage is made, it makes it hard to eat the sausage, you know,
and I'm kind of finally coming out of that and coming out of it with a clear head and
seeing an opportunity really to do it differently. And so I'm kind of leaning into that a little
bit to see how it feels. But whether it's private labeling, working with chemists,
working with blend houses that don't even have a chemist, which is crazy. They've just stolen
blends and recipes, which is a big majority of people fulfilling products for other brands,
testing formulas, you know, working with turtowax on like a global scale. And so I've done a lot
of it. I've really seen how a lot of different sausages are made. And I think honestly, most
of what you think and know about detailing products is and isn't true. I think a lot of us
know that there's only a few manufacturers that make these things. Most of them are pretty much
all the same. But still, even though we think that we have an inkling about that,
it is true and it is also not true at the same time. But either way, almost no one is telling you
the truth about how the industry actually works. So today, I kind of want to share some of that.
So hopefully I can do that without bashing people or seeming like I'm bashing because that's
really not my intent at all. It's mainly just to share information. So I guess the first
thing I want to talk about is, you know, private labeling. And we already kind of know this, but
the vast majority of detailing brands don't make anything. And beyond that, they really just
buy base formulas, slap a label on it and mark it up. A vast majority, 95% of brands
use the same five to six contract manufacturers. Now, there are, you know, some nuances
in this that you could kind of bring up and talk about. But this is usually very obvious,
has become extremely obvious as of late with some influencer led brands that are tied in with other
brands. And it you just kind of get your spidey senses of like, oh, they kind of all have the
same thing, maybe different names, maybe different colors. And it's just easier to do it this
way because the formulas are tried and true. So they'll have the same base formulas, whether you
use a contract manufacturer, you know, some people say, oh, it's made to our specs, which is true.
But the vast majority of people aren't actually making their own stuff,
mainly because it's not it's not cost effective to do that. So again, it's not
even their fault. It's done usually on purpose. It's just much more efficient and cheaper to have
people doing that. Instead of having, you know, 15 different relationships with raw materials,
suppliers, they just have one contact person. It's much, much easier to just do that. It's
actually basically comes down to cost savings, right? And they those contract manufacturers
have base formulas. I call them stock formulas when I'm selling them to people and they're just
tried and true. And so it's a very safe, safe bet to get those. It's a very safe bet to, hey,
the contract manufacturer has been selling this forever. Let's just go with that. In fact,
when I started my own brand, the toughest shell it's in its original form, I did have to adjust
it a little bit, unfortunately, but its original formula was a stock formula. I created that stock
formula. But when I moved it over under the Jimbo's brand, I just changed the color on the stock
formula that I had sold hundreds of thousands of bottles with because I knew it was tried and
true. Now some things, some lies came out and some people tried to undermine my brand.
And so I made some improvements and adjustments to that base formula that I guess technically made it
my own proprietary formula for the Jimbo's brand. But its core formula is a, I say stock formula.
I created the stock formula based on another stock formula, right? So it's been improved and increased,
but at its core, it was a stock formula, right? And so you do that because it's tried and
true. I did that with Toughest Shell because I already had it labeled under a half dozen or a
dozen other brands out there and literally had sold millions and millions of dollars worth of it.
Tens of thousands of reviews on the products and I thought, well, okay, I created this.
You know, I literally created the formula with the chemist. I sold it as private label
because that's what my business was before starting my own brand. Got tired of doing that
for reasons I'll talk about today as well. And so I just sell it as my own now, right?
But you could see how that's a lot safer if whatever influencer, whatever person that has
the idea to create their own product brand, they're definitely not going to hang their
neck out on a new formula. They're definitely not going to start from scratch
because they don't even know how to start from scratch. It is so hard to do something
like I did with the Picture Perfect Polish. And even that wasn't started from scratch. It was
based off a stock formula and then improved from there. And then when I got to the end of that,
had to kind of revisit that again. But the Picture Perfect Polish was created
from an idea and then there is a stock kind of base that you start from
and then you tweak things from there. I hope that makes sense. But again, 95% of brands aren't
even going to that tweaking phase. They're taking the stock products, changing the color,
changing the scent and slapping their label on it. Why? It's much quicker. It's much faster.
And that's why you see these brands, influencer led brands or not, they either launch with a
ton of products or a bunch of SKUs or they can rapidly release new SKUs. They release a new iron
remover. They're releasing stuff very, very quickly because they're just stock formulas.
long-term durability testing, batch stability is a whole other thing. I think Tom talked about
this a little bit but you can make a sample and it works really good in like an eight ounce
bottle or a 60 ounce bottle but then you have to kind of titrate up to a drum or a toe and sometimes
when you make a sample in an eight ounce bottle and a beaker in the lab, it works really good
and then when you go to make a drum of it, it doesn't work and that is, sucks. It's happened
to me, right? Picking specific raw materials is incredibly difficult. I laugh when I see people
release three or four compounds or polishes but it totally makes sense because, again,
they're stock formulas and it's incredibly hard to find. I was really surprised if I could take
a little tangent right here. I was really surprised at how many options there were for abrasives and
aluminum oxide when it came to trying to figure out that equation for the picture perfect polish
and there is literally, when it comes to abrasives and aluminum oxide, there's two main raw
material suppliers in the US and then outside the US. Well, there's two main raw material aluminum oxide
suppliers in the US. One of those has offices outside the US as well but it really comes down
to two main players in the US and so micro abrasives, being one of those if you want to
search your own, you can just search micro abrasives. They are one of the aluminum
oxide suppliers in the US and there are endless amounts of abrasives that you can purchase from them
and put them into formulas. Now they have automotive abrasives but sometimes those automotive abrasives
aren't actually what you're looking for. Sometimes you have to take an abrasive that's made for
the beauty industry or a different industry. I mean, Thomas talked about this, right? He
took an abrasive that was used for plexiglass and put it into his formula and so sometimes
you just have to look at different angles to do these things and that's ultimately what we did
with the picture perfect polish is we looked outside of the stock raw materials, the stock
aluminum oxide, right? But even we had formulas going from both, this is what made the picture
perfect polish just a total nightmare to be honest, is that we had the similar abrasive, both
aluminum oxide providers, raw material suppliers were telling us this was the same abrasive.
We had it in two different samples and we're getting two different results.
So then beyond that you had to determine what raw material supplier you wanted to go with
and kind of stick with, right? It just gets insane. So again, each one of these times you're sampling it,
testing the sample as much as you can, rejecting the sample, approving the sample,
I mean it takes a ton of time. The picture perfect polish I think we did pretty quickly
and it took seven months, seven months on that one product, which it was mainly the abrasive
on that one that was just driving me nuts. But the Foamon rinse off paint protection,
I mean we're going on what two, three months of that one. I'm working on a new tire cleaner
because I already have pure magic cleaner for the rims, but I want a tire cleaner,
but I'm looking at doing some things very different on that. That is, I'm very,
very excited about that. But I don't even have the first iteration sample of that yet.
Yeah, hopefully we get pretty close on the first sample, but maybe we won't. That may take months
and months and months. Why? Because I don't want just an APC that foams good and browns the tire.
There's a few other things, not ready to talk about yet, but there's a few other things that
I'm looking for in a tire cleaner that I personally am looking for that I think would make a tire
and wheel cleaner maybe different, right? Yeah, it'll be alkaline based, not acidic. I already
have a great acid for that, but that'll take months and months and months to produce, you know?
And this is why my brand is different. This is incredibly hard to show, and that's why I'm
trying to do it through podcasts and through different videos. I'm just trying to build a
brand differently. I got incredibly, like I talked about in the beginning, I got incredibly jaded
and frustrated working with certain chemical manufacturers and just seeing how the sausage
was made, I was just incredibly frustrated at that. I get frustrated at brands when they just take
stock products and don't, you know, they literally don't care, guys. They literally don't,
not everyone, but a lot of people don't care. A lot of brands don't care. And so I got frustrated
by that. And one other thing that I get really frustrated by is when I have really good
chemistry and I was trying to sell it to people and then they don't, they can't see the vision.
Did that, it happened a couple of days ago. I had a phone call with two different people
and I'm trying to tell them the latest and greatest technology in ceramic coatings. And
there is some major advancements that I'm coming up with, with ceramic coatings,
like some major, some stuff that no one has. And I tried to sell it first through Private Label
because I'm not ready for it for my own brand yet. But the few three or four people that I shared it
with, none of them could see the vision in it. And so I just started to have the conversation
with me with myself in my head of like, this is no one has this, like this is very cool.
Maybe I'll just launch it. And I had that epiphany literally before I recorded
this episode and or this video. And that's really what motivated me to record this is like,
hey, and I was talking to my friend Aaron about it, like, hey, I don't have to try to sell that
stuff anymore and get people to buy in for their own brand. I could do it for my own brand.
And I'm still kind of retraining my brain for that of like, right, I don't need to get people
to buy in to believe it to sell it for their own brand. I can buy in, I'm already bought in,
I'll sell it under my own brand, and then I get you guys to buy in. And that's much better,
because that makes my brand different, right? So that's why I try to show things like the
process of developing these products in my videos. No one's doing that. No one did that. Sure,
some people have tried to kind of copy my videos and showing their development for products,
but it's no more than like, Oh, this is our final formula, right? No one's showing that crap. I just
failed big time with this that I did with the foam on and rinse off paint protectant.
Totally jacked up my wife's car with that. But I understand too that it takes time for you
and other people to understand the difference. You know, every formula that I have is designed
on purpose. That's why I haven't, you know, built out a line of 27 products because
every formula is designed on purpose. I get hit up all the time of like,
when are you going to have a quick detail spray? When are you going to have a glass cleaner? When
are you going to have an APC, like all these kind of me too products? And I think I will
honestly eventually have all those from a profitability standpoint. Once you have
customers in your ecosystem, they want to buy everything that you have. And so by having
more options, it gives people more opportunities to support your brand. And so I think
eventually I will have those products. I'm just really starting with like, it's just
products that are designed with extreme purpose first. And then I could work into those kind of
add on supplemental skews as I kind of as the brand matures because I also don't have any investors.
I don't have any corporate money behind me. I am literally cash flowing this myself
with credit cards. But I'm literally the only person behind this. So you supporting the brand
is supporting the chemistry, but is also funding the continuation of the Jimbo's detailing brand
where I don't cut corners. I don't buy junk from cheap manufacturers. I don't buy cheap raw
materials. Like I said, the buy in for the aluminum oxide, which is one of 12 or 13 ingredients
that are in the picture perfect polish, the buy in just to buy enough aluminum oxide $30,000,
$30,000 just to buy the aluminum oxide, the abrasive for the picture perfect polish. That's
dead straight. That's how much it cost. I don't white label the same formulas for
everyone, right? Yeah, tough as shell was based on a tried and true formula,
but it's since been adjusted and I'm actually the only one with that formula currently. So
it's very hard for me to show you guys that I'm doing things differently because it takes time,
it takes consistency, and it takes transparency. However, there's one thing that I told myself
when I started the auto detailing podcast back in 2014 is that I'm in this for the long game.
There's no way I can fail if I just do this forever and I'd rather build trust slowly than sell hype
quickly. That's kind of for me, right? And so I appreciate your guys' support with that. And
again, I talked a lot about the picture perfect polish being the custom blend, but it shows that
you can cut and finish with one product. I've rejected so many samples of that product.
The gloss boss, a wipe on ceramic coating that you can wipe onto half a car before you need to level.
That's insane. That's efficiency at its max. Every other brand is over here talking about how,
you know, don't wait too long. You won't be able to level or 30 seconds or blah, blah, blah.
I'm saying, hey, do half the car and then wipe it and level it. It's insane, right? Back to
the picture perfect polish. There's no scent to it. It doesn't smell bad. Why? Because I
didn't want to, I hated how 3D1 made my whole shop smell. I love 3D1. I think it works incredible.
I hate how it dried out my hands and made my shop smell. So I didn't want that. And I found out,
wow, if you buy a very expensive solvent, you cannot have those. Okay, let's do that, right?
The Super Sober, same thing. Adjustable pH, you know, really designed around kind of the
modern method to wash a car. Tough as shell, same thing, water-based when it first came out. So
anyway, why all this matters is that I'm trying to show that why I'm building Jimbo's detailing to
be different, to simplify detailing, to remove all the BS and the hype, and to give real people
real products and to show you guys what's actually possible when you have someone behind
a brand that actually cares, right? And so I got jaded because I saw brands that didn't care,
and I'd worked with and dealt with people who didn't care. And I'm just, I really got jaded,
and I really got pissed off, and it really made me hate the industry. And so I'm just trying
to do it differently. I'm tired of trying to sell brands that, hey, this is the latest
technology. This is great. I'm tired of doing that, right? So I'm doing it differently. And
I just only know how to do that by talking. So again, I hope you appreciate transparency,
real product development, not just saying that you're doing product development,
and brands that, a brand that doesn't treat you like you're stupid, right? And a brand that will
stick around for the long term. So I'm going to keep pulling back to Curtin. I really love
showing the process of developing and making products that actually work, not products
that are just designed and marketed and overhyped because that's what everyone hates, right? So
I don't know. In my opinion, that's what the industry doesn't want you to know,
right? But I'll keep telling you anyway. So hope you guys enjoyed that one.
Let me know what you think in the comments below. And again, thank you for the trust.
I think when you purchase my branded products, you're buying real chemistry,
but you're also buying into trust and doing things differently and keeping
that train going forward. So as we move into, maybe it's the holidays that I'm feeling
little, you know, little, I don't know, emo about it or whatever. But I don't know,
I appreciate it. Thank you guys. I don't want to ramble anymore. I'll catch you guys on next one.
Thanks for everything. See you.
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About this episode
Uncover the hidden truths of the car care industry that brands prefer to keep under wraps. This episode dives into the prevalence of private labeling, where most detailing brands simply repackage stock formulas rather than creating unique products. The host shares insights from years in the industry, revealing how marketing often overshadows genuine product development. With a focus on transparency, the discussion highlights the challenges of creating effective detailing solutions and the importance of chemistry over gimmicks. Listeners will gain a deeper understanding of what really goes into the products they use.
Most car care brands do not want you watching this. Today I'm breaking down the real truth about how detailing products are made, how private labeling works, and why so many brands rely on marketing instead of real chemistry.
I've been behind the scenes for years—fulfilling products, private labeling, working with manufacturers, and now developing my own formulas with a chemist. I've seen how this industry really operates, and very few people talk about it honestly.
In this episode, I cover:
• The truth about private label products • Why most brands don't make their own formulas • How easy it is to white-label average or poor products • Why packaging often sells more than actual chemistry • The real margins and how they drive decisions • Why many influencers recommend certain products • How detailing products are actually made behind the scenes • What cheap formulas skip and why performance suffers • How my own development process works • Why I'm trying to build Jimbo's Detailing differently
I also share what goes into products like Picture Perfect Polish, The Super Soaper, Gloss Boss, and more—how they're tested, developed, and refined. Building products the right way is slower and harder, and it takes time to show people the difference. But this episode explains exactly why I'm doing it this way.
If you want honest, transparent insight into the detailing world, this podcast will be valuable.