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Applying cleaner/conditioner after the buffing off the polish??

StylingUK

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After searching the forum, I came across a shoe shine guide posted by Rider and he seems to know his stuff so I follow his shoe polishing technique. In the last step, it said to reapply cleaner/conditioner after buffing off the polish. Other shoe shine guides usually ends with buffing the polish so I'm a little confused.

I do notice a difference in the shine of the shoes with and without cleaner/conditioner as the final step:
When I apply cleaner/conditioner after buffing off the polish, the shoe shines more.
When I only buff the polish off, the shoe does not shine as much.

I understand that a spit shine would bring a better gloss to the shoes but I would like to avoid that for now. So do we need to reapply cleaner/conditioner after buffing off the polish?
 

StylingUK

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Sry for bumping this up... The reason I am concerned about putting a cleaner/conditioner to finish off the shoe shine is because I also read that a cleaner/conditioner is used to remove the old polish. So if I were to use the cleaner/conditioner as the last step, I am wondering whether it'll just remove the new polish that I just put on.
 

grimslade

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That seems like a strange idea to me. I would (and do) condition first, then polish.
 

Chips

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I too have spent multiple hours reviewing all the threads here for polishing shoes. I would also second the notion that you should condition first, then use cream or wax polish, I usually finish off by buffing with an old silk tie, completely dry, and get a near glass shine on all my toes, rear quarters of the shoes.

The nice thing about this is, it takes a few coats of wax and polish to be built up for the silk buff to work properly, but once done, scuffs and marks will quickly come out with a brief buffing with silk again. I only have to put on some shoe cream about once a month, or every 4 wears or so, and that might be too much, but I dont want the leather drying out.

Also, I have neoprene shoe inserts in all my dress shoes that I remove before putting in my shoe trees. Most of the dampness or humidity in my shoes comes from the insert, so I figure both will dry out better, and be perserved longer if I remove it before storing my shoes.
 

StylingUK

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I finally just did a cleaner/conditioner first and then polish and finish off with silk buff. Thanks guys!
 

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