OK, so we have to admit to a slight touch of cynical disbelief when we first heard claims that a small bottle of liquid could convert your favorite gloves to work with your phone or tablet touchscreen. Yeah right, and we’ve got a tiny pink unicorn from Tibet we’d like to sell you. But in the interest of fair and balanced reporting we decided to accept the chance to see if the stuff really worked as advertised and do a review. We’re good like that, see.

AnyGlove is a liquid solution that you apply to the fingertips of any standard fleece, synthetic, leather or other gloves and which thereupon gives the gloves the ability to work with touchscreens. We’re not told what the secret sauce in the product is, but the makers claim that one application can last up to several months at a time.

The product comes in a small package with an instruction leaflet, and to use you simply add some drops to your choice of fingertips and either wait a few hours for it to dry, or cheat by using a hairdryer for a minute or two. The liquid smells slightly on application, but that quickly disappears after it’s dry. So does it work? Check my video below to see.

The simple answer is yes it does. And very well, although we found that you needed to apply several coats, after drying each one, in order for it to work properly. You also need to make sure you apply enough liquid to soak the fingertip area properly, and don’t forget if you want full pinch zoom multitouch, you’ll need to do a couple of tips. Heavy SMS text users should of course remember the thumb! One of the advantages of the liquid is you can reapply it if the functionality fades after a while, and you can also customize your gloves with just the fingers you need.

The bottle holds around 550 drops, which should be enough to treat several pairs of gloves (or at least a couple of pairs with touch-ups?), and because it doesn’t show up on the fabric at all, you could even do that special formal wear pair so you can text while at the opera. Cool eh? The product is priced at $30.09 / £19.99.