Ingredients in Venetian Shoe Cream

I am skeptical of any product that doesn't tell you what is in it. Also, those heavy oil based products aren't good for dress shoes. It may penetrate deeply, but in many cases it fills the pores and fibers to where they can't take a shine anymore. They typically turn the leather into a wet rag, think wet cardboard how easily it is to rip. Also, they tend to be too sticky, which attracts dust, dirt which gets in the creases and acts like sandpaper over time.

patrickBOOTH said:

Siloxane is a VOC silicone which is a boogeyman in the shoe care world and wrongly so.

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Apologies for resurrecting this thread (again ), but there's a thread on reddit that sent me searching, and it brought me here.

Coming from the world of car-detailing (I used to own a company that offered a custom polish/wax DIY system), silicone was an anathema and justifiably so. When I did demos I could always tell when paint had been exposed to silicone, and there wasn't a reliable way to get rid of it. Based on that, I've been entirely averse to it with leather especially when there are so many good alternatives.

Can you explain why Siloxane is OK for you?

M635Guy said:

Apologies for resurrecting this thread (again ), but there's a thread on reddit that sent me searching, and it brought me here.

Coming from the world of car-detailing (I used to own a company that offered a custom polish/wax DIY system), silicone was an anathema and justifiably so. When I did demos I could always tell when paint had been exposed to silicone, and there wasn't a reliable way to get rid of it. Based on that, I've been entirely averse to it with leather especially when there are so many good alternatives.

Can you explain why Siloxane is OK for you?

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Because it entirely evaporates. It’s a Volatile Organic Compoud that’s mostly used to increase the spreadability of other things (like non-evaporating polymers and silicones)

That's very strange that all your shoes are cracking, PB. I've been wearing my beater dress shoes for years and there's not a single crack on it. They're my partying shoes so they've been stepped on and been exposed to all sorts of nasty spills, puke, piss, etc. The shoes have completely lost their shape but the leather is holding up fine; its French Annonay boxcalf. I only use Reno and Saphir products on it, so I don't think its that. I suspect its NYC. Do they put salt on the roads?

benjamin831 said:

That's very strange that all your shoes are cracking, PB. I've been wearing my beater dress shoes for years and there's not a single crack on it. They're my partying shoes so they've been stepped on and been exposed to all sorts of nasty spills, puke, piss, etc. The shoes have completely lost their shape but the leather is holding up fine; its French Annonay boxcalf. I only use Reno and Saphir products on it, so I don't think its that. I suspect its NYC. Do they put salt on the roads?

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I'd guess the correct term is "were cracking" since this thread is so old. I spent a lot of time in the shoe care thread a couple years ago, and came away with a shoe-care routine that is light on product and heavy on brushing and regular damp-cloth wipe-downs (followed by more brushing), and a lot of that perspective is from PB (I think) and DWF. Great thread.

patrickBOOTH said:

Because it entirely evaporates. It’s a Volatile Organic Compoud that’s mostly used to increase the spreadability of other things (like non-evaporating polymers and silicones)

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It leaves zero silicone behind? (I'm not an expert in these areas - that just sounds weird)