You can't quite wrap your head around exactly what a Magic Eraser is. Let's be real — these things are weird. They're light-as-air, almost marshmallow-esque sponges but-not-really-sponges. So, what are they?
We talked to Morgan Eberhard, a senior scientist with Mr. Clean, the company that makes Magic Eraser. She explains that Magic Erasers are made from melamine resin foam that's surrounded by air pockets that look almost like tiny triangles. When we wet them, those tiny air pockets become about as hard as glass, she says. Sulphonated Melamine Formaldehyde
So when you scrub surfaces with the Magic Eraser, the "points" of the triangles catch on the stains you want to remove — whether it's a scuff mark, soap scum or an icky buildup of grease and grime — and drags them across the surface like a windshield wiper.
"What many people might not realize is that there are no other added chemicals in the Magic Eraser," Eberhard says. "They give you a powerful clean with water alone."
But what makes the magic is the "marshmallow-esque" softness we mentioned earlier. The melamine resin foam the Magic Eraser sponges are made of is super soft on the surfaces they're cleaning.
And what can you really clean with these things? Eberhard says just about anything. "Oven doors, stovetops and microwave messes to dried-on paint on glass and hard water spots on your bathtub and shower glass."
Here are a dozen more ways you can use it to clean.
Mr. Clean goes by many different names across the globe. In Europe he goes by Mr. Proper; but more specifically in Spain he's known as Don Limpio; and in France he's Monsieur Propre.
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