**The Official Shoe Care Thread: Tutorials, Photos, etc.** - Page 272

• How many layers would you expect to put on bench grade leather starting from scratch before you get a true mirror?
• Do you consistently get a mirror shine in the same amount of time when starting from scratch?
• Time-wise, when you take that little dot of polish and start swirling it around on the leather with the water droplets, how long do you do this before you breath on the leather and continue?
• How much pressure do you use - the weight of your hand or lighter/heavier?

• How many layers would you expect to put on bench grade leather starting from scratch before you get a true mirror?
• Do you consistently get a mirror shine in the same amount of time when starting from scratch?
• Time-wise, when you take that little dot of polish and start swirling it around on the leather with the water droplets, how long do you do this before you breath on the leather and continue?
• How much pressure do you use - the weight of your hand or lighter/heavier?

So I just received a pair of AE's bourbon strands, and decided to apply some Reno...only to remove a large chunk of the bourbon coloring.  oops.  I didn't think Reno would do that, but apparently I was mistaken.  Now my left is somewhere between walnut and bourbon- I'm attempting to fix it by using dark brown AE polish.  Any other suggestions?

Right when I got mine, I applied lotion, and there was definitely a bit of grey residue that came up. If that's what you're talking about, I don't think you need to worry. I just let that happen because it was a very light amount of residue, and I treated them normally. As you saw, they turned out just fine. Maybe you should post a picture.

This was more than a little bit of grey residue- this was brown/black on the cloth.  I'll take some photos.  And to clarify- I meant Renovateur, not Renomat.

I really like the color of AE's new Bourbon shoes, but is it me or are these cases starting to sound too common?  I wish they would have created a new color calfskin for these shoes rather than just taking their original Walnut calf and simply applying some burnishing.  I'm hesitant to consider a pair because there doesn't seem to be any guarantee that they will be remotely near the same color after a few months of wear and care. 

As an update- I performed the same routine on the other shoe, with the same results.  Both shoes are now substantially lighter than the color they arrived in, though at least they match now.

Well at least they match!  Hopefully the color is still to your liking. 

I've noticed recently on a pair of my shoes that they start to get a buildup of mold on the soles after they get wet. If I get caught in the rain with leather soled shoes, I usually set them on their side on the floor and point a small fan at the soles to aid in the drying process. I leave them like this overnight, then put them back into my shoe rack the next day. But sometimes, a few days later, I'll notice mold on the sole. It brushes off easily and is a non issue once I start walking, but it is quite annoying. Anyway I can stop this from happening?