How To Clean Your Dress Shoes

Saphir réno’mat is ideal for soiled shoes that have visible waxy, silicone or resin deposits on the upper (i.e., shoes in the back of your closet, shoes you were wearing in that torrential downpour, shoes that were treated with low quality care products). Before applying any polish, it is important to clean the pores of the leather with réno’mat to get rid of stains, silicones and resins that prevent the leather from breathing.

If your shoes aren’t very dirty you can use crème universelle, a nourishing cream containing jojoba oil (great word by the way, jojoba), lanolin and beeswax. Crème universelle is ideal for gently cleaning, protecting and maintaining leather suppleness. And guess what? This product works great on other leather goods such as clothing and furniture.

How To Polish And Protect Your Dress Shoes

Regular care of your shoes should be handled with beeswax based products (32% wax) such as crème de luxe. Remember, leather is a skin and needs to be deeply nourished consistently to maintain the quality and color of the leather upper and to achieve a beautiful shine. Just like you routinely moisturize your skin (oh, is that just me?), your shoes need the same level of attention.

If you’re looking for that high gloss shine then you need pâte du luxe. A traditional nourishing polish that contains not just beeswax but carnauba, a vegetal wax from Brazilian palm leaves, and turpentine extract, from the distillation of pine resin.  This product is for “glazing” and will give your shoes an incomparable patina by applying multiple sessions onto the same leather surface.

How To Achieve The Ultimate Shine

The secret to the ultimate shine is applying the pâte du luxe evenly across the shoe until you begin to feel resistance. Then, add just a drop of water and continuing to gentle rub the shoe using the same cloth. Note that achieving a very high shine will take time. Be patient and switch between the left and right side of the shoe in order for each side to dry properly.

When they look like this, you've done it correctly.