Shoe Polishing: Learn The Steps To Shine Your Shoes

It is one thing to wear clean shoes and quite another to wear well polished shoes. 

Shoes are one of the most important accessories in men's fashion and we are aware that many of you are particularly maniacs and perfectionists of shine, so much so that you take care of your shoes as if they were works worthy of the best museum.

 

Besides, being such a perfectionist can lead you not to trust just any professional polisher when it comes to shoe polishing, especially the ones that are most special to you. We understand perfectly, we understand what shoes say about people, about the image you want to project and how you want others to see you.

This art is nothing new, there are already centuries of tradition and work to reach the amazing results that are achieved today. There are a multitude of businesses dedicated to shoe shine and today, it is still a trend. 

Shoe polishers are being renewed and in our times the centers are no longer what they were, now we can find shoe salons, such as Brift H in Japan, a club where you can see how professionals polish shoes using different techniques. As if it were a Show Cooking.

 

In this post, we wanted to put together the step by step that you should follow if you decide to polish your shoes yourself. It is true that the hands of a professional can hardly be matched, but if you are one of those who do not trust your treasures in the hands of others, following our guide and using the products we propose, we assure you that you will have more than satisfactory results.

 

Shoe Shine: The Soldier's Technique:

Don't worry, you don't need to join the ranks of the US Marines to learn how to polish your shoes and boots, we are not going to demand so much either. What we can extract from them is their discipline and methodology, so let's see what this process is about and what products we will need to carry it out:

1- Remove the surface dirt with a horsehair brush such as Polishing Brush Saphir Medaille D'Or

2- Apply a good amount of shoe polish on the leather of your shoes with the help of a brush. Do not use the same brush as before, make sure that the brush with which you apply the shoe polish is exclusively for this purpose. Try to spread the product evenly over the entire surface.

We recomend Pate De Luxe Wax Shoe Polish.

3- Let the shoe polish settle for about 15 minutes.

4- Retrieve the horsehair brush and remove the excess polish while brushing very vigorously. 

5- Now we are going to work on the toe of the shoe to make the mirror shine impressively. 

For this step you will need a clean and dry 100% cotton chamois. Moisten the chamois with a little water and then apply some Mirror Gloss Saphir Medaille D'Or.

The trick to bring out the shine is to make very soft circular movements for several minutes. 

 

Here it depends on what shine you want, if you want some shine with one pass you will have enough but if you want to see your face reflected then you will have to repeat the process several times always trying not to use the same piece of chamois. Each time you are going to perform the step, use a clean and dry piece of chamois and start the operation again.

Shoe Polishing: Old School Technique

In the old days people used to do crazy things like polishing shoes by spitting and burning the leather. We won't explain this technique because we think we have evolved enough to dispense with it, so don't worry.

Let's update and remember the burning version. Let's see:

Step 1: clean the dust from the shoes with the horsehair brush and apply the shoe polish.

Step 2: place a lit candle on a stable surface, go around it -at a prudent distance- with your shoes to get the polish to melt gently and so it is easier to absorb by the leather.

Step 3: with a cloth, rub the polish by hand over the leather until the desired shine appears. Depending on the shine you want to see, keep heating the polish so that it melts progressively.

The best way to see the processes is with our own eyes, take a look at this video for more information on shoe polishing:

 

 

What do you need to start shining shoes?

-Can of shoe polish like our top-selling Saphir Medaille D'Or Luxury Paste. Ideally, you should have one luxury paste per shoe color.

-Horsehair brush.

-Brush to apply the shoe polish, for this step we recommend Saphir Pommadier Brush. This brush is specially designed for the application of the creams of the mythical French house.

-Polishing cloth, specifically a cotton cloth (also try to differentiate it according to the colors of the creams and pastes you use).

-Time and patience, important.

-Careful brushes: double check! The results you get will depend on this.

It is useless to polish and shine the shoes if you don't take care of the tools to make them perfect, moreover, if you do the process with dirty brushes, it is likely that you will not get the effect you expect.

 

 

 

Let's go with some tips regarding brushes:

-Use one according to the color of your shoes.

-Separate the shoes according to the type of leather, it is not the same for leather than for suede, for example. The exclusive ones for suede usually have one side made of rubber (to remove dust) and the other side with bristles to remove excess polish during cleaning.

-Keep them in a special box, so that they are not mixed.

-When you finish using them, clean them with soap and water -neutral if possible to protect the hair- to remove the accumulated polish.  

After these tips, there is no excuse to shine.

See you soon :)