Because of its very high concentration of nutritious components and waxes, shining once per week after wearing them few times is enough. Everyday if there is a mirror shine on the shoes, you can buff them with a pig hair brush or with a shining cloth. Just in case you has been through an extremely bad weather, water, snow, you should let them dry peacefully with a wooden shoetree away from any height and then you should shine them. (We advice to not wear your shoes everyday, in order to leave the leather time to dry and rest that way you would be able to extend their life time).

After buying nice shoes, you want them to keep their original shape to look as nice as the first day you bought them. By using wooden shoetrees, you will be able to do so.

The leather is flexible if you don’t use a shoetree, your shoes will naturally bent and wrinkle especially at the front part. The shoetree should put just right after you take off your shoes in order for them to get back to their original shape when the leather is still warm and humid.

You have different material and shape for shoetrees. The best one in most of the case would be the one recommended by your shoemaker because the shape usually perfectly match the shape of the shoes. You can easily by yourself find the proper shoetree for your shoes by putting the shoetree in your shoes and touching them, the wood should completely fill the shoe and you should have any empty space when you touch it. Always go for the full last shoetree and use only wooden shoetree for the shoe to be able to dry properly.

Some people don’t like to have shiny shoes, however the leather still needs to be nourished in order to prevent from cracking. Using a conditioning product will help to clean, condition and protect your shoes.

When taking care of a shoe that is made from a combination of suede and smooth leather, it is best to begin with the suede. You can follow our suede care routine and don’t have to worry so much about the smooth leather. Depending on the proportion of suede and smooth leather on your shoe, caring for the suede may be enough to clean the smooth leather at the same time. Alternatively, once the suede has been cared for, you can move on to the smooth leather and follow our smooth leather care routine.

Please note that unlike suede products, which can also be applied to smooth leather, it is important that no smooth leather product should touch the suede at any time.

In order to make that easier we recommend to use a cloth and carefully apply conditioners, creams and polish with your finger in the areas that are next to the suede.

Over time it is normal that the wax dries and cracks because the solvents evaporate. This does not impact the effectiveness of the product, quite the opposite, because of the reduction of solvents the concentration of hard waxes is increased and a high shine can be achieved more easily. Nevertheless if you want to bring the wax back to its original state you can simply give it a few sprays with our Wax Softener. Read everything about the Wax softener here .

The difference between these two products is that the Médaille d’Or Lotion is a product for conditioning smooth leathers with only little cleaning properties. It is capable of removing slight dirt on the surface but its main purpose is to nourish and polish the leather.

The Saphir Cleaning Lotion on the other hand is especially for cleaning the leather and removing stains or soiling but doing that in a gentle way. The Cleaning Lotion has only very little nourishing and polishing properties therefore. 

Basically these two products are developed for the same purpose which is to achieve a really high shine on your shoes as easy as possible. These two polishes don’t contain cleaning or nourishing ingredients but are merely designed to give your shoes a nice mirror shine as fast as possible. In order to achieve that they contain special hard waxes that create the shine. The difference between the Amiral Gloss and the Mirror Gloss lies in their formulation.

The Amiral Gloss is part of our Beauté du Cuir range and is a great product for high shines, the Mirror Gloss is part of our premium Médaille d’Or Range and has a special formula developed together with professional shoe shiners, and an even higher concentration of hard waxes. 

Generally speaking yes, but to take care of such a unique leather like Cordovan we highly recommend to use our Cordovan Cream which has been developed especially for that. While the Renovateur contains lanolin and mink oil, the Cordovan Cream contains neats-foot oil. This is important since Cordovan leather gets treated with neats-foot oil at the tannery to achieve the desired high oil content which gives the leather its waterproof qualities.

To maintain the oil content in the leather it is best to use the same kind of oil as used by the tannery and the Cordovan Cream has a formula that is developed to maintain the high oil content that Cordovan requires. The Renovateur Cream is developed for smooth leathers in general which require a lower amount of oil. Therefore it is best to use the Cordovan Cream for all Cordovan leathers. 

Yes, all conditioning Products like the Renovateur or our Lotions should be applied before the 1925 Pommadier Cream. This is because after you’ve cleaned the leathers the pores of the skin are free and ready to absorb all the nourishing ingredients of the Renovateur. If you’d apply the 1925 Cream before, the contained waxes which protect the leather will already make it harder to absorb all the ingredients of the Renovateur. Therefore, always follow this routine: clean, condition and then polish. 

We generally advise you to remove old waxes and polish before conditioning the leather so the skin can really absorb all the oils. It is enough though to do this once a month. If you prefer a Mirror Shine on your shoes, you can leave the wax buildup on the toe area so it will be easier to bring this part of the shoe back to high shine.

The vamp of the shoe, the area that flexes, should be cleaned properly though because it is important that leather stays hydrated here so it won’t crack over time. 

The Rénovateur Cream formula is based on mink oil, while the Rénovateur Macadamia formula, as its name suggests, is based on macadamia oil. In its ongoing quest to create eco-friendly formulas, the use of plant rather than animal-based ingredients is in line with the ecological and environmental aspirations at the heart of Saphir's concerns.

For sheepskin we recommend the Médaille d’Or Lotion. Since every skin is different we recommend to test it in a less visible area first, before applying it all over. 

Yes, our Renovateur Cream is completely colourless and safe to use on white leathers.