I tested the viral cleaning product The Pink Stuff to see if it could restore my pans and get paint off my windows

What is it?

The Pink Stuff is a paste that's popular on TikTok for its supposedly miraculous ability to clean everything from sneakers (it works pretty well) to rusty pans to bathroom tiles. It looks a bit like Silly Putty and could easily be mistaken for bubble gum, including its scent.

Stardrops, the company that makes the Pink Stuff, says it's good for pans, grills, glass, ceramic tiles, sinks, cook tops, copper, and more. 

Its ingredients include quartz (an abrasive), water, soap, sodium carbonate (washing soda, a stain remover), sodium silicate (a compound used in some laundry detergent), sodium bicarbonate (baking soda, an abrasive stain remove), glycerin (a compound used to make soap and lotion), fragrance, laurylamine dipropylenediamine (a preservative and emollient), acid red 52 (a dye), and dimethicone (an emollient). 

You can also get other formulations of the Pink Stuff, including a toilet cleaner and multipurpose spray.

How does it work?

The paste formulation comes in a small canister. You dip a cloth or sponge in and wipe the goop on whatever you're cleaning. You can either let it sit for a bit or start scrubbing. 

Because it's abrasive, you'll want to test a small, inconspicuous area first and be gentle with your application. If you're worried about the surface, you probably don't want to let the Pink Stuff sit for too long. I didn't find that leaving it on for hours made much difference anyway.

What's the Pink Stuff good for, and when should you skip it?

I tried Pink Stuff on shower tile, a burnt pan, a bathroom faucet, a rusty clothing rack, and a paint-stained window. In some cases, it outperformed a trusty Magic Eraser. The results were mostly positive, but there were a couple misses.

An alloy steel clothing rack

I live in the Pacific Northwest, and the rain has done a number on the cheap clothing rack that I leave on my balcony. It's embarrassingly rusty. I scrubbed two different sections with a Swedish dishcloth dipped in the Pink Stuff and then a Magic Eraser, each for a minute. The Magic Eraser barely made a dent, but the Pink Stuff made the rack look almost new. In one section, at least.

Ceramic shower tile

For tile, the Pink Stuff didn't do any better than a Magic Eraser, and neither did as well as non-bleach Clorox spray. I was fairly gentle with the Pink Stuff because I didn't want to damage the tile. The Pink Stuff also required more than a rinse with the shower head afterward because its grittiness tends to stick to surfaces. 

A chrome faucet

I've never been able to get my chrome bathroom faucet to shine. It always has buildup, even after cleaning. I've used every product under my sink, but the Pink Stuff got it gleaming. I spread it on, gently wiped it off with a cloth, and then rinsed off the remaining residue.

A stainless steel pan

I was asking a lot with the burnt pan. I've had it for years and only use it as a last resort. The Pink Stuff did very little on its own, especially compared to an SOS pad. Even after letting the pan soak in a pink paste for five hours, only the surface stains were gone. 

Insider Reviews reporter Lily Alig had more luck when she cleaned her pan with the Pink Stuff, but reporter James Brains was disappointed it didn't miraculously cut through all the grime on his oven door.

A paint-flecked window

I've been living with paint-flecked windows ever since I painted my window trim blue several years ago. I'm too scared of damaging my windows to razor-blade the paint off, and nothing else has worked except my fingernails. The Pink Stuff did an OK job when paired with a dry paper towel, but it left a lot behind and still required fingernail power.

The bottom line

I was as skeptical as the store employee who sold it to me, but the Pink Stuff is definitely worth the price. I'll keep it around to clean my faucet and other weird stains that other cleaners can't fix.

But it's by no means a perfect solution. It often takes vigorous scrubbing to work. (I'm not going to restore my clothing rack to its former glory anytime soon.) Plus, there's an extra step of washing away a filmy substance. It takes more effort to wipe away than an all-purpose cleaner, for example. Because of its gritty texture, you don't want to use it for everything and may want to skip delicate surfaces altogether.