Polishing your shoes: the right products
To get started, choose a well-ventilated room to polish your shoes. Make sure you prepare your equipment beforehand. You’ll need a stiff-bristle dirt brush, a shoe-specific cleaning milk, a chamois cloth (or a piece of cotton fabric for buffing), a polishing brush, and finally a high-quality shoe cream.
You can wear latex protective gloves to avoid stains. Then put shoe trees in your shoes, or, if you don’t have any, use crumpled tissue paper. Remove the laces if necessary to avoid damaging the eyelets.
Preparation is done—you can start!
How do I polish my shoes?
Start by brushing vigorously with the stiff-bristle dirt brush to remove all residue and dust. This will help the leather absorb the products you’re about to apply.
Then use a Saphir-type cleaning milk with the chamois cloth. If you don’t have a chamois cloth, you can use a cotton cloth.
This step is essential to strip your shoes back, meaning to remove any remaining polish and to nourish the leather.
Apply the cleaning milk in large concentric circles, focusing especially on the leather’s flex creases—where the leather is most marked.
This step will give your leather a slightly matte look, which is normal.
To make sure you’ve properly cleaned and nourished the leather, run a clean chamois cloth over an area and check that there’s no polish residue left on it.
Choosing the right polish color
Let it sit for a few minutes, then restore shine using a high-quality shoe cream. The shoe cream will help bring back color and shine to your shoes.
Prefer good-quality polishing products that contain natural ingredients and as few solvents as possible.
Leather is a breathable material that needs careful maintenance.
If you’re unsure about the shade of shoe cream, always choose a shade slightly darker than your shoes. If the shoe cream shade is too light, it will highlight the leather’s creases more.
Of course, there’s black or colorless polish, which you can’t really go wrong with. If your color is unusual, always do the first test on a less visible part of the shoe, for example at the back, to see the result.
Wrap the chamois cloth around your finger and dab small amounts of cream onto your shoes in small circles. Let it sit for a few minutes, then brush vigorously with the polishing brush. Brushing should last a few minutes to bring out the shine.
You can then apply a wax polish in small dabs to the front of the shoe and brush again. This step isn’t mandatory, but if you wear your shoes often, wax polish will help protect them longer from external wear by acting as a “shield.”
How often should I polish my shoes?
It depends on how you use them, of course, but we recommend polishing your shoes once or twice a month to keep the leather supple and revive the color.
Also remember to store them away from light and heat sources on a daily basis.
We hope these tips will be useful and help you maintain and care for your leather shoes with this quick shoe-polishing lesson!
