Saphir products - shoe care routine

[Foxtrot82]

Hi everyone,
I recently bought three Saphir products for shoe care:

- Saphir Universal cream polish (creme universelle),
- Polishing cream "creme surfine"
- Wax polish "pate de luxe".

I used all three of them consecutively on a pair of shoes for a first test and I'm impressed with the result! However, using all three products every time is too time consuming for me (and I don't even know if it's correct), so I would like to come up with a more "conservative" care routine for my shoes.

I was thinking the following:

A) After every use: brush shoes quickly just to take any dust and dirt off (I mean 20 seconds per shoe)

B) After 5-6 uses: brush and use just the wax polish to rebuild the shine

C) Occasionally, or when seems required: brush, use the cream and then the wax polish

What I am not really sure of is where to fit in the "creme universelle". Is it a cleaning product I am supposed to use every time I polish (I mean before anything else in cases B and C)? Should I just use it as first step of the more thorough cleaning and polish that I described in point C?

Also any other suggestion on the polishing routine I outlined would be greatly appreciated!


Thanks in advance,


Francesco

 

[Academic2]

I too am interested in the answer to this.

Cheers,

Ac

 

[konda]

New shoes:

1. Walk with the shoes for 4-5 wears without putting anything on.
2. Put a light coat of Renovateur on the shoes. Many times I use a hair dryer to really push it into the leather.
3. Polish with stockings.
4. Apply a primary coat of Saphir Medaille D'Or Pate-de-Luxe. Many times I hair dry this into the leather as well. Let dry well.
5. Polish with stockings.
6.
Dip a cotton pad to cold water. Twist so that it is but moist.
Apply colored polish to moist cotton pad.
Apply a single drop of cold water on the tip of the shoe.
Apply the polish.
Repeat for 10 minutes.
Let dry.
Polish with stockings.
Repeat using colored polish.
Let dry.
Polish with stockings.
Repeat using colored polish.
Let dry.
Polish with stockings.
Repeat for 10 minutes using colorless polish.
Let dry.
Polish with stockings.
Repeat using colorless polish.
Let dry.
Polish with stockings.

The tip of the show now has a very strong polish base. All that is needed for basic maintenance is polishing with stockings and occasionally re-polishing with colorless polish.

Basic maintenance:
Brush dirt off. Polish with stockings. That is all that needs to be done if the base is good. Occasionally re-polish using colorless polish.

Non-dress shoes, i.e full grain leather boots etc:
Renovateur every now and then (especially after heavy rain). Basic maintenance is brushing off dirt and using Saphir Médaille d'Or Pommadier Cream Shoe Polish to polish the shoes. Always polish with stockings.

 

[antonlindstrom]

Taking good care of your shoes does not take that long, if you don't overly baby them.

I'd suggest that you wipe them after use with a good brush, just to get dirt of them. If they are wet, wipe them with a cloth.

About every two weeks or so, polish them with cream polish, I prefer creme 1925 because of the pretty strong pigment and great nourishment for the leather.

If the shoes get messed up with saltstains, dirt that wont come off and such get some chemically clean gasoline to remove any left over polish or wax. Wash the leather with a schampoo like the Saphir Omninettoyant. Dry for 24h with trees and then apply creme for protection, pigment and shine.

Depending on the type of shoe the pate deluxe can be used with cold water to get the mirror-like shine. This takes alot of polishing, and is not something that you usually want for your daily wearers.

The creme will provide a shine that's more than sufficent for most types of shoes and tastes with just a cloth and a brush. To maintain the shine every day, get a large good quality brush and give the shoe a quick wipedown with long strokes.

 

[Foxtrot82]

Thanks for you relplies.
So you both are not using the creme universelle at all. And I understand Konda's suggesting renovateur just on the first polish of new shoes together with many layers of polish and maybe again after a relatively long time of just using brush and polish. I guess I could use the creme universelle sort of like that, once in a while, as a sort of substitute for renovateur (that I currently do not have).

 

[mktitsworth]

If you check out Kirby Allison's Hanger Project, he has a number of shoe care routines which I find work well.

 

[Beach Bum]

See the Shoe Care thread that has numerous diagrams, Saphir advice, etc.