This Dust Cleaning Gel Is Oddly Satisfying ASMR

If you are a fully-fledged adult that can’t wait to spend time with their nieces and nephews, or whatever adjacent child they know just for the opportunity to play with slime, Play-Doh, or any kind of gooey substance, then your life is about to get rocked—in a good way. This cleaning goo went viral on TikTok, after hundreds of videos showed it wiggling into car vents and bouncing in and out of cup holders, leaving nary a speck of dirt behind.

As someone with a very dirty car and a love for wacky gadgets, I immediately purchased the $6 dust cleaning gel and eagerly awaited its arrival. I was giddy to try it, especially after reading some especially glowing reviews claiming it was, “easy to use and works extremely well.” One happy reviewer comments that it, “brought the interior of [his] vehicle from looking good to looking almost new again.” I was very ready for my dog-park ravaged Subaru to look like I just got it detailed, but had no desire to pay the $250 price tag. Could this slime be the answer to all my problems? 

As far as my filthy car was concerned, absolutely. When I first uncapped the container of Glacier Freeze Gatorade-colored gel, I was moderately horrified as the texture is straight up slime, but there was no over-the-top smell, for which I was glad. The product page states each color has a different scent, but when I took a really big whiff, I got notes of Fake Ocean and shaving cream, which is basically what home-made slime smells like. If you have kids, you know the havoc a batch of slime can wreak on your home. So, as is the rule with “play goo,” make sure you stick to cleaning hard surfaces, as the slime can get stuck to carpeting or fabric. 

The directions call for kneading the goo a few times before you start to use it, and then rolling the goo slowly over the surfaces you want to clean. Despite my stomach churning a bit as I started seeing all the crud in my car, the goo picked up every iota of horrid residue that had accumulated in my cup holders, dash buttons, air vents, and gearshift, and sucked it up into its gelatinous grasp without sticking to my hands. You can also use the gel to clean your keyboard, device remotes, and any other really hard to reach spots. 

My one hot tip is to pinch off a piece of slime, as large as you need for the area, and use it until it has lost all of its stickiness. Don’t go slamming the entire ball of putty in your vents as the videos depict, because then the whole glob will be contaminated pretty quickly. Even though the product description says you can use it over and over, the texture of the goo/dust mixture started to give me goosebumps, and became a bit more than I could handle pretty quickly, so I prefer the piece-by-piece approach. You’ll know when to toss your tub of goo, according to the product instructions, when its color begins to darken (from dirt—which, gross, but effective), and starts to lose its magical sticky powers, or if you leave it anywhere that’s a bit too hot and it transforms into a hot pool of forbidden jelly. So, store your gel in the fridge or another cool spot where there is no chance of it melting.

The TL;DR here is that if you dig slime, silly putty, Gak, floam, or any other substance that lands somewhere between solid and liquid form, you will absolutely love this product. But if specific sounds and textures give you the heebeegeebees (like me), it might take you a full week to recover from cleaning your keyboard. 

So good luck, you ASMR-loving little balls of goo.

The Rec Room staff independently selected all of the stuff featured in this story. Want more reviews, recommendations, and red-hot deals? Sign up for our newsletter.