Best shoe polish?

I was chatting with someone at AE while placing an largish order last week, and I asked what the difference is between neutral shoe cream and conditioner.  The answer given was "not much."  So the Lexol conditioner would probably be a substitute for cream, so long as one uses wax for coloring.

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Lexol conditioner can darken leather, so be very careful with it to avoid unintentionally making your tan shoes a darker brown. Lexol cleaner is pretty good for removing polish buildup, but is strong enough to strip a lot of color (and thus is not something to use on your nicely antiqued EGs).

Lexol conditioner can darken leather, so be very careful with it to avoid unintentionally making your tan shoes a darker brown.  Lexol cleaner is pretty good for removing polish buildup, but is strong enough to strip a lot of color (and thus is not something to use on your nicely antiqued EGs).

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I must admit, I've not used Lexol. I use Zymol (actually bought it for my car seats), and I don't think it's darkened my medium brown shoes at all. I would imagine even neutral cream would darken light shoes some.

Gents,

used Lexol only for leather interior of my car -- it's an older car in perfect condition (looks factory new) and hadn't noticed that the Lexol cleaner had stripped the color from the leather.

This may or may not be useful when thinking about shoes.

Car seats tend to be semianiline or corrected grain leather, with top layers that are fairly colorfast compared to the leather used for shoes. I have in the past used Lexol to strip the color from botched DIY antiquing jobs on my tan shoes, and taken the toe caps all the way back to a creamy light tan before recoloring them. The same amount of Lexol does nothing to the base color of my leather car seats.

"Real" Zymol conditioner is pretty similar to Lexol conditioner IIRC. The mass-market retail channel Zymol conditioner more closely resembles lotion-type leather cleaner/conditioners like the Kiwi conditioner. I like the mass market stuff as an all purpose leather lotion, and use it on my briefcase.

What do you mean by "real" zymol? Â This is the zymol I have, as well as the cleaner. Â

What do you mean by "real" zymol? Â This is the zymol I have, as well as the cleaner. Â

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That's mass-market Zymol, or as people would say around here, the "diffusion" line. Zymol treat costs $27/bottle and looks like this: http://www.zymol.com/treat2.htm

Cream or polish? Which is preferable?

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Neither nor.

First the cream. That feeds the leather.

Then the polish, use less than the cream, if you want a high shine, mostly on the toe and the heel.

Anyone use Hide Food / Hide Care ?

for those interested in the Saphir products, in particular, Medaille d'or, below is the link to their on-line store :

http://www.valmour.fr/cleaning-leath...oe-polishes-71

below is for "Universal Shoe Polish Cream SAPHIRÂ ", someone has highly recommended it in this topic, although I'd rather give "Renovator Shoe Polish SAPHIRÂ MEDAILLE D'ORÂ " a go.

http://www.valmour.fr/cleaning-produ...ream-saphir,41

Kiwi Parade Gloss.

I use regular kiwi. I had a pair of plain toe shoes go bad on me after 3 years of wear (three times a week.) The inside cracked and started to come apart but the outside was spit and polished with black kiwi. I blame myself though. I did not use shoe trees and sometimes wore the shoe on back to back days.

I have never been a fan of Zymol, never lasted long on daily drivers was meant for more show car type finishes which see maybe 3 days of sun per year. My car is outside 24/7 in the north east and gets Zaino. The last step protectant product is not the most important however, its what you do to make the paint as flawless as possible prior to putting on the wax/polymer sealant (ie paint correction with various polishes and clay bar to remove contaminates.) www.detailsclub.com and www.autopia.org are very good sources of information just like SF

Anyway back on topic. Lincoln was good and used it while in the USMC for spit shining but my Danner Acadia's have been polished (not spit shined) with Kiwi Parade Gloss since 2000 when I got them and I still wear them two or three times a week. I do need to get the soles replaced though.

+1 on Kiwi.

quick question for the fora. I've had pretty good luck with DIY shoe shining/antiquing.

However, I have a pair of AE Evanston (black) that simply will NOT take the polish. I know that one option is the fact that there's a good chance the leather is CG, but is there a step I'm missing here?

Is it just really dry leather that needs a lot of conditioner? Should I strip all poilsh off and generously apply Lexol?

heeeelp.

I may be banned for this but I take shaving cream and spread it all over the shoe and leave it over night. I then wipe it off in the morning with 70% alcohol. I spread a really thick layer of Kiwi on the shoe and then leave it over night. I take a lighter to the shoe the next day and melt the polish onto the shoe. I then start spit shining it small layer by small layer.

I don't believe I would do this to a pair of AE's but I have done it to my Cole Haan's for fun and see what I can get. It looks just like patent leather but much containing a lot more depth and clarity in terms of reflections.

I would also like to know how SF members prep their shoe.

Originally Posted by JasonC8301

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I may be banned for this but I take shaving cream and spread it all over the shoe and leave it over night. I then wipe it off in the morning with 70% alcohol. I spread a really thick layer of Kiwi on the shoe and then leave it over night. I take a lighter to the shoe the next day and melt the polish onto the shoe. I then start spit shining it small layer by small layer.

I don't believe I would do this to a pair of AE's but I have done it to my Cole Haan's for fun and see what I can get. It looks just like patent leather but much containing a lot more depth and clarity in terms of reflections.

I would also like to know how SF members prep their shoe.

I think that is how they do for the ammo boot in RAF, just without the beewax and "spooning" steps.

I just bought my first pair of brown captoe shoes. After wearing them at a wedding I see one or two scuff marks on each shoe. What's the common solution for this common problem? The noob bows in reverence....