Best Cream Cleaner UK 2026

#	Product	Pack	Price	Cost per use
1	Astonish Multi-Surface Cream Cleaner 500ml	500ml	£1.50	30p per 100ml	Check
2	Cif Cream Cleaner Lemon 500ml	500ml	£1.24	24.8p per 100ml	Check

Prices last checked: 19/05/2026

Cream cleaners are the unloved category. Slower than sprays, slightly messier, and they sit in the cupboard most of the week. But for the one cleaning job a week that sprays can’t handle (burnt sugar on a hob, scuff marks on a sink, soap-ring tide line in the bath), nothing else works as well at the price. Here are the two worth keeping under the sink.

Our top picks, in detail

Astonish Multi-Surface Cream Cleaner 500ml

★★★★★ 4.5 £1.50 on Amazon UK 30p per 100ml S&S £1.42

Pros

• Remarkably cheap per 100ml
• Shifts deep stains other sprays can't
• Vegan, cruelty-free, made in the UK
• Almost no smell

Cons

• Cream is messier than a spray
• Not suited for glass
• Leaves a small abrasive residue if not rinsed

Check on Amazon UK Read full review

Astonish Multi-Surface Cream is the British charity-shop classic. £1.50 for 500ml of mildly-abrasive cream that lifts burnt sugar, soap-ring tide lines, scuff marks, and grease from surfaces where a spray bounces straight off.

It’s gentle enough for chrome, ceramic, enamel, and stainless steel, but not for natural stone or unsealed wood. Apply with a damp cloth, scrub lightly, rinse. Compared to Cif it’s slightly less aggressive, which is the right answer for everyday kitchen and bathroom jobs.

Cif Cream Cleaner Lemon 500ml

★★★★☆ 4.0 £1.24 on Amazon UK 24.8p per 100ml

Pros

• Cheap per 100ml
• The UK default for stained hobs and sinks
• Lemon scent is mild

Cons

• Cream texture isn't versatile
• Mild abrasive, not for delicate finishes
• Not ideal as a daily spray

Check on Amazon UK Read full review

Cif Cream Cleaner is the more aggressive of the two on this list. £1.24 for 500ml puts it as the cheapest cream cleaner per ml, and the lemon-scented formula has the right balance of grit and cleaning agent for tougher jobs: burnt-on hob residue, oxidised aluminium, stubborn coffee rings.

Use sparingly. It’s mildly abrasive, so don’t apply to chrome you want to keep mirror-shiny, and rinse fully after each use. As a backup to Astonish for the few jobs Astonish can’t shift, Cif is the answer. As your everyday cream cleaner it’s overkill.

What we’d buy

For 95% of cream-cleaner jobs we’d buy Astonish Multi-Surface Cream. £1.50 for a tub that handles the weekly burnt-sugar-on-the-hob, soap-ring, scuff-mark routine, and it’s gentle enough not to etch chrome over time.

Keep Cif Cream Cleaner on the shelf for the harder jobs: oxidised aluminium, baked-on hob residue, stubborn coffee rings. It’s marginally cheaper per ml but more abrasive, so don’t reach for it by default.

How we pick value

Cream cleaners are sold in 500ml tubs almost universally, so the bottle-size variance that hits sprays barely applies here. We still publish cost per 100ml (price × 100 ÷ ml) for consistency across the site and because the few non-500ml outliers (HG, occasionally) should be comparable on the same axis.