To use Auric Illuminate or not.

Auric is the real deal as far as I'm concerned. It does what it says it does.

My experience with all of the many disc treatments I have used (including Auric) over the decades was that eventually they all oxidize, which I easily heard as a dullness, which makes sense as the treatment becomes somewhat opaque, making it hard for the laser to read

Instead I wash all discs in distilled water and a mild soap solution

hth

Update on Auric Illuminator II: I have now treated over 850 discs with just one kit, plus needing to buy an extra pack of 10 Staedtler chisel tip black markers. The pack of ten markers cost $17 including shipping. Each kit comes with only one of these markers. So it has cost me some time and $67 dollars to do all of them. That works out to be about 8 cents per disc to get much better sound and even picture quality with DVDs, Blu-Rays, and 4Ks.

Again, you just need to treat them once and the improvement stays that way indefinitely.

Treat both sides as the directions tell you.  You ONLY use ONE drop of the fluid per side.

Bob