Chemical Guys Butter Wet Wax Is an Easy Way to Shine Your Ride

Chances are good that if you made it here to The Drive, you like your car. If you’re just getting the hang of how to keep it looking good, read our guide on how to wash your car, then how to wax it. These regular rituals don’t have to cost you a fortune — power tools are cool, but you don’t need them — and they don’t have to take a full day out of your weekend every week of the year. Unless, of course, you’ve got some time to kill. Then wax away.

As you start to journey down the rabbit hole of waxes, polishes, and coatings, it’s hard to know where to start. Our waxing how-to article does a good job of laying it all out, so I’ll skip to two popular wax types: natural carnauba and synthetics. The synthetics can last up to a year, while a natural carnauba should be reapplied once a month. The carnauba wax tends to bring out the depth of your paint color a bit better, though, in a bit of a tradeoff with durability. 

I’ve seen the Chemical Guys products around and wanted to give them a test drive. I got some of their Butter Wet Wax, which is a carnauba wax in liquid form. 

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Good: Amazing shine and gloss, beginner-friendly application.

Bad: Durability of carnauba means you’ll be applying this more often.

The Chemical Guys Butter Wet Wax is, as I mentioned before, a natural carnauba wax. It’s a liquid version similar to old-school paste wax. This is the traditional wax experience but adapted for the modern era and a bit more forgiving to beginners and people like me who are a little lazy. 

Application will require an applicator pad or microfiber towel and a second towel for buffing. Although there are some spray waxes out there that can be applied quickly with a single towel, a liquid carnauba isn’t one of those. You get some on your applicator, dab it around the panel you’re working on, then spread the wax out in a thin layer across the panel. You’re buffing most of this back off, so multiple thin coats is where you want to be. Once the wax is spread, allow it to dry to a haze — it doesn’t take long — then buff off with a clean microfiber towel. 

The Chemical Guys Butter Wet Wax came off with a moderate amount of effort but was fully in line with what I expected from a liquid wax. It buffed easily, so I didn’t have to do more than my regular overlapping pass to get the majority of the wax the first time. My test vehicle for this wax was my 2014 GMC Acadia, which has a metal-flake black paint. This paint is excellent for testing because it shows every streak.

Though not as fast as a spray wax, the Chemical Guys Butter Wet Wax was still more forgiving than the stuff I grew up using. It, too, was a liquid of some variety that my dad found, but the Chemical Guys wax didn’t require the tedious buffing that seems unfairly coupled with memories of car waxing. This is good news whether you’re new to the whole waxing game or you’re a seasoned pro. You can even be a little lazy because the Butter Wet Wax comes off so nicely. 

One of the things I did with the Chemical Guys Butter Wet Wax that I wouldn’t normally do is apply it alongside four other wax products on the same vehicle. Weird, I know, but I wanted to see how it did. Panel for panel, the Chemical Guys produced one of the best deep, glossy lusters, but it fared no better than any of the other waxes after my wife drove the GMC down a dirt road. The Acadia was universally coated in a light dust. Perhaps a ceramic would have fared differently, but this did no worse than any other carnauba or hybrid wax.

The only other ding I can level against the Butter Wet Wax is that it eschews the hybrid high-tech approach, and it hews a lot closer to traditional carnauba wax. That means you’ll be applying it at least on a monthly basis. It may be worth it for some, but a spray-on hybrid that lasts for months is going to run circles around the Butter Wet Wax if you’re limited on time.

The Chemical Guys Butter Wet Wax is a solid contender in the liquid wax segment, and it delivers on the promise of a deep, wet shine. Application, as far as traditional liquid waxes go, is incredibly user friendly, and it’s easy to achieve the freshly waxed look you’re out to get. That being said, if you’re looking to minimize your time spent, then a spray wax or a hybrid that lasts longer than a natural carnauba might be a better choice for you. 

You’ve got questions. The Drive has answers.

A. Chemical Guys doesn’t quote a time for this wax, but since it’s traditional carnauba, it’ll likely need to be reapplied about once a month — maybe sooner. This will depend on how often you drive and if your ride lives in a garage or not.

A. Chemical Guys notes that this product has some natural cleaning power. However, it’s not a polish, so it’s not designed to remove scratches. 

The Drive's Gear section is our brand new baby we want to grow. To give you, our dear readers, clarity on the process, the Chemical Guys Butter Wet Wax and other products we get arrive from a variety of sources, including purchased ourselves or through manufacturers. No matter the source, we maintain our editorial independence and will always give you our honest assessment of any chemical guys butter wet wax we test. We cannot be bought. Unless you wave $1 billion in our faces. Maybe then we'll consider it.

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