Bad Manners and Brimstone

Has anyone ever heard of  thread gloss or thread conditioner?

It looks like a pot of lip gloss and is used to coat floss before using for needlework.
"Thread conditioner binds thread fibers and prevents fraying-and tangling. It adds a thin, even, slick coating to thread so beads slide easily."

I understand the description above is for stringing beads.  But for cross stitch or needlepoint?

Excuse me but I have been doing needlepoint for over half century and cross stitch almost as long and have never ever heard of such a product until last week when a friend who does not stitch looked up this item for a mutual friend who is a novice needlepointer and complained her fibers were getting caught in the needlepoint canvas.

Wouldn't coating the fibers in something waxy make a mess of things?

I have wanted to try it for hand-sewing (mending, clothing construction) because I thought it might keep my thread from tangling. I do try to coat my thread with beeswax so it won't tangle, but that doesn't always work.

But I haven't tried it. I was excited to see your post.

I still do pull my hand-sewing thread through a block of beeswax, because I almost always sew natural fabrics and use matchingly natural thread on principle. It does help the thread pass through any slubs in the fabric without snagging. (Another old-fashioned trick is to pull the thread through one's hair; the natural oils in the hair do the same job as beeswax.)

Rho, I agree that coating embroidery thread - particularly woollen thread - in something waxy would surely make the work messy. But maybe this stuff isn't waxy? I've never encountered thread gloss/conditioner, but I'm thinking that perhaps it might be something more like hair serum, which uses silicone to smooth the fibres? I can see how that might be effective.

A long time ago I embroidered my wedding dress; the only project I've ever done in real floss silk on silk. I used more hand cream in the months it took me to do that than I normally would in a decade, because I found that the most microscopic roughness in my skin - even roughness that my own fingertips didn't register - would snag the floss. I'd have tried just about any product that promised to smooth the floss and at least lessen its tendency to snag!