Best Shoe Care Kit?

Build it yourself! Buy "Crema alpina" - great conditioner, a pot of Saphir black and one of neutral cream, plus one Saphir wax polish in both (Medaille d'or is the best). Add two brushes - one for black one for brown, one old Tshirt. Read how to polish your shoes over the net, practice and take care of the shoes.
Simple indeed!

koolhistorian, where's a good place to find those at?

where do you find crema alpina?

Crema Alpina im buying from Bata, they sell it with their brand... In the US, I don't know, try Bata or net... There are alternatives - meltonian i think.

There are complete kits with box from Allen Edmonds or shoeshinekit.com. If you don't care for the box that much, I suggest building your own kit. Some of the components I suggest will be in the box, but you can buy these all individually. For leather conditioner, Lexol works fine. I think you should have three basic waxes (i don't prefer creams, as they leave shoes with a matte finish rather than a nice shine): brown, black and cordovan/burgandy (any additional colors will depend on what shade of brown you have). three horse hair brushes dedicated for each general color for loosening up dirt on the shoe before applying wax, and brushing off the wax after its application (but before buffing). I personally don't like the horse hair brush wax applicator, so not necessary to spring for those. I think using an old t-shirt works much nicer to apply the wax. Soft flannel cloths to buff a nice shine.

Shoeshinekit.com has some nice kits. http://www.shoeshinekit.com/kits.html

I'm interested in hearing recommendations for convenient sources for purchasing flannel cloths for buffing. I bought the shoeshinekit.com kit (without the box) a couple weeks back, and have been practicing on my shoes since then. However, the polishing cloths soon got covered in wax, and I couldn't figure out a good way to clean them. I've since been using cotton (like you, cut up old t0shirts), but it doesn't work as well. Do you have any recommended sources for cheap bulk flannel cloth? Or is there some way to clean out used polishing cloths?


I went with the Kiwi wax, and it seems to work fairly well. I think I'll go with Saphir off Francos for my next purchase, to see if it's any better. I like polishing my shoes. It's very meditative.

I guess it is personal preference.

I tend to prefer Kiwi Paste Polish over all else.

Here are all information concerning Saphir:

http://www.avel.com/

There are several brands that are all comparable. People say Saphir is better. I've never used it, maybe it is, maybe it isn't. I bet most people can't tell the difference and I don't think you can say with any certainty Saphir is better for your shoes.

Lincoln, Kiwi, Angeles, Kelley, Meltonian and Saphir are all good brands. Any of these brands will work well.

In terms of buffing cloths, you really don't want to clean them. They actually get better with age and use. They get softer and the residual wax on the cloth helps with each subsequent buffing. Of course you want to turn the cloth to unused portions, but overall, I don't change them.

Here's a kit I imported about 8 years ago from France. It came with all Saphir products, and my intent was to wholesale the kits. Unfortunately the retail price would have to have been too high to make it worthwhile...well over $100 USD and I don't think there's much of a market for a kit this expensive. Now I just use it myself..as you can see there are two pots of Alden wax on top, along with black edge dressing. The Saphir wax goes on very smooth..it's almost like a cream and has a strong petroleum-based scent. Alden wax is "waxier" - more like Kiwi. Personally I prefer Alden and Kiwi to Saphir as they seem to result in a higher shine.

Where do we find that? That's the nicest shoe shine kit I've seen.