Many people get confused by the different terminologies used in the car detailing industry, especially when it comes to services related to the car’s exterior paint such as wax, cut & polish, and finally paint correction.

Wax: Mainly know as Carnauba Wax or Brazilian Wax is a product extracted from the leaves of a certain type of palm trees in Brazil. This product was widely used as a protectant for the car’s paint due to the hydrophobic effects it leaves behind, helping vehicles to stay cleaner by preventing the dirt and dust to stick easily on the paint. Applying wax on your car’s paint will enhance its appearance and promote gloss and shine. Now due to all the technical advancement, the use of Wax became very limited and was widely replaced by ceramic sealants that can last up to 6 months on the paint instead of 3 weeks for the normal wax, and are much easier to apply (spray & wipe).

Cut & polish: Some detailers also use the name buff & polish, which indicates that this process involves the use of a buffing machine. Cut means buffing the paint with a cutting pad and a cutting compound. The process is called cutting because it actually takes (cuts) layers of the paint out in order to reveal the fresher layer underneath. The polish is simply the layer of glossy protection that is normally applied after cutting, which can be wax, ceramic sealant, or even ceramic coating.

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Paint Correction: Over time and due to various reasons like incorrect washing procedure or simply neglect, your car’s paint acquires a lot of light scratches and swirl marks (sometimes known as wash marks). It might be true that most of those marks or lines will only be visible under certain lighting and angle, but as a result the car’s paint starts looking dull. To restore the shine, we need to remove that scratched top layer. Now why is this procedure called paint correction instead of cut & polish, simply because it involves multiple cutting or buffing stages to reach the required depth in the paint. In short, it is a more detailed procedure, mainly used as a preparation stage for ceramic coating.