The present invention relates to a method of disinfecting a surface and to antimicrobial composition, particularly for personal cleaning, oral care, or hard surface cleaning. It is an object of the present invention to provide for an antimicrobial composition that has relatively fast antimicrobial action. The inventors have found that use of small amounts of eugenol in combination with thymol and terpineol enables this fast kinetics at much lower amount of thymol and terpineol than without eugenol.