Are you using the right polish for your fine leather shoes? The purpose of this guide is to explain the differences between wax and cream polishes, and how to use both to keep the best care possible of your leather dress shoes.
Maintaining the elegance and durability of leather shoes requires choosing the right type of polish. Polish is one of the main components of shoe care, and polishing compounds create a surface layer that can withstand dirt and dust. If you want to maintain shine on your shoes, you need to use both shoe polish and wax. The whole process might be time-consuming, but it will pay dividends in the end.
The fundamental difference between wax and cream polish is that a cream polish is more for nourishment and recoloring. Cream shoe polish is more nourishing to your shoes than wax, both in the form of moisturizing and restoring color. Cream polishes often contain higher-quality natural ingredients, including lanolin and carnauba wax, which are gentler on the leather. One of its main advantages is that it has more color pigments than wax, which means it can add color to your shoes. This is a great way to build patina. The other advantage is that it has the nutrients necessary to feed the leather and keep it feeling supple. Think of it like a moisturizer.
First apply the cream polish. Before you apply any polish, provided that your shoes aren't particularly dirty, just buff them off with a horsehair brush just to remove any type of surface dirt. Now if you have surface dirt that is more than what a shoe shine brush can remove then I'm going to recommend using something like a leather cleaning soap in order to actually shampoo the leather.
Next, I'm going to apply my cream polish. Now again, the important thing to remember with cream polish is that you really want it to be able to soak into the leather so the longer that you leave a cream polish on the shoe, the better. There's really no limit - I mean you can polish your shoes and then leave the cream polish on overnight and buff it off next morning. It's not going to damage your shoes.
Using a cotton chamois, massage the cream polish into the leather with moderate to firm pressure. Use enough polish to cover the surface of the entire shoe, but you don't want so much that you see visible build-up. You can go over each section multiple times - that's not going to be a problem. Once I'm comfortable with the amount of coverage I have, then I'm going to set this shoe aside and let it at least absorb the nutrients from this cream polish for five minutes.
You can let the cream polish dry for as long as you want, even overnight. After you've allowed the cream polish to absorb into the leather, then take a horsehair shoe shine brush and you want to buff that polish off the shoe. What you're looking to do is to really buff off any excess or uneven polish that’d been applied. Then the heat and the friction from the horsehair shoe shine brush is going to bring up the temperature of those waxes and glisage or kind of gloss them over. With a cream polish you're going to be able to get a nice soft patina and a nice soft shine, you're never going to be able to produce a high gloss shine with the wax alone.
Now here’s the Saphir Medaille D'Or Pommadier Cream Polish, there's 13 different colors. Now the important thing to remember with color matching is you just want to get close. A lot of people call us and they want an exact match for their particular pair of shoes and even with 13 different colors it's impossible to find an exact match. So we recommend as close of a match as possible. Now if you're really concerned about changing or darkening the color of your shoes we recommend going with a slightly lighter polish. If you'd like to see kind of more of a patina or antiquing develop which I think is one of the beauty beautiful things of shining your own shoes, then you can go with a slightly darker polish. All of these polishes have a relatively light pigment compared to a shoe dye, so there's nothing that you can do that's ever going to ruin your shoe. If you shine your shoes with some polish and you don't like how they turned out, then you can use some of the Saphir RenoMat to pull that polish off and restore it back to the original finish.
Wax polish is primarily for providing those hard waxes in order to create that high shine. Wax polish has a higher concentration of hard waxes, which provides a barrier to the shoe that protects it from any type of water, light scuffs, and scratches. Wax polish is going to have a higher concentration of hard waxes. Now this is going to help provide that hard protective wax barrier to the shoe that is going to protect it from any type of water and then small light scuffs and scratches. They’re also better for building a shine. With cream polish, you can only ever get a soft, matte finish. With wax polish, you can get something a bit glossier.
Put enough wax polish onto your chamois so that it's not gunky, and then start applying the Saphir Medaille D'Or Pate De Luxe Wax Polish the same way that you did with the cream polish. You want to be careful about applying too much wax to the areas of the shoe that bend like the vamp because what happens with the hard wax polish is once those waxes dry, if you bend the shoe, those hard waxes are going to crack and provide or produce a white substance across that area. We really recommend using the hard wax primarily. You can do one or two coats on the shoe, but we really recommend concentrating the hard waxes where you want that high shine which is on the toe box and the hind quarters.
The first one or two coats you can take across the entire shoe, but beyond one or two coats you want to avoid the vamp because once that hard wax dries, and you go outside and you begin walking in your shoe, you will see those hard waxes break and produce a little white buildup. One of the questions that we get quite often is, "Can I use a neutral wax polish on my shoes versus a pigment wax polish," and the answer is absolutely. If you're someone that's got like 30 different pairs of shoes and you've got every single color of our pigmented cream polish then you can absolutely just use a neutral wax polish solely for the purpose of building up that wax finish. Now you're not going to be adding any pigment with the neutral wax polish but you might not need to if the finish in your shoes is already fine or you've recently renewed that finish with a pigmented cream polish.
So I'm going to let this wax polish dry. Anywhere from a minute to three to five minutes is enough, so what I normally recommend is setting one shoe aside while you're working on the other. So now that this wax polish has dried I'm going to take my horse hair brush and just buff this off. With the hard wax polish, you're absolutely going to find yourself spending a little bit more time buffing than you will have the cream. So again, using kind of a moderate firm pressure, just buff the wax polish off until you see a nice shine.
Wax has two downsides, however. First, if you build up enough of it, it can crack, which means it’ll leave an ugly white residue. That can be brushed out with a horsehair brush, but the better solution is preventative. The other problem is that it can dry out the leather. Remember this is a protective layer, so with enough wax, your shoes won’t be able to take in the moisture it needs from conditioners and creams. If you use wax polishes, wipe your shoes down every year or so with a leather cleaner. You don’t need to strip the shoes down, but a few good wipes are fine.
It really goes to personal preference whether or not you stop at the cream polish or if you feel like you want to continue on to using a wax polish. Your shoe should already have a pretty nice shine, but if you desire a higher gloss shine, then that's when you would come on top with a wax polish.
Personally, I use cream and wax polishes, but if you want to simplify the process, stick with cream. You’ll never have to worry about your shoes drying out, although you’ll also lose something in terms of shine.
First a bit about essentials. We don’t call many things essential, but a proper shoe care kit is absolutely one of them. Unless you only wear sneakers, good leather shoes require you to have a shoe horn so you don’t break the heel counter (which can be an expensive repair job). You can find cheap plastic ones on eBay or Amazon for a few bucks, although I like ones made from oxhorn. You’ll also want some leather conditioner to feed the leather; a horsehair brush to help buff the shoes; and something to maintain a polish.
When buying shoe polish, pay attention to the ingredients used in the product. Standard shoe polish, which you can often find at a supermarket, is often synthetic and contains silicones. Synthetic shoe polish, based on silicone, forms a protective layer over the leather. This layer of shoe polish seals completely, effectively closing off the leather. However, leather needs to breathe. Over time, the leather, because the moisture on the outside has nowhere to go (even with the use of cedar shoe trees), will deteriorate under the layer of shoe polish. Beeswax-based shoe polish or those with other (animal) oils, not only provides a protective layer but also penetrates the leather immediately. This way, the shoe polish protects the shoe from the inside out, ensuring the leather is optimally cared for and maintained. If a shoe polish is beeswax-based, it will be indicated on the packaging.
If your shoes are polished with synthetic shoe polish or you're unsure of what’s on them, remove the old layers. This can be done easily with Saphir Renomat.
Liquid polish is favored for its unparalleled convenience and speed. Its easy application and quick drying time make it a go-to option for those in a rush. However, despite its convenience, liquid polish should not be relied upon for long-term care, especially for high-end leather shoes. One significant drawback of liquid polish is its potential to dry out the leather over time. The alcohol and other chemicals present in liquid polishes can strip the natural oils from the leather, leading to cracks and a loss of suppleness.
tags: #shoe #polish #vs #wax #differences
