Tips - Herring Shoes
Mink oil is another product that experts frequently cite as an ideal substance for moisturizing shoes, and for good reason: Mink oil is remarkably similar to human sebum (the body’s natural oil that also serves to "waterproof" our skin) in chemical composition. You can find a bevy of mink-oil products, and in fact, our top pick, Saphir Renovateur, is a mink-oil suspension. But we did not test other mink-oil products, for two reasons.Shoe care supply First, Renovateur was the most widely recommended mink-oil-containing product, so it stood in as a competitor representing the general field of “good” mink-oil products. Second, many mink-oil-based products also contain silicone, which serves as an effective waterproofer because it blocks up the pores of the leather—but this action prevents the leather from breathing, which leaves it susceptible to moisture buildup and faster decay. The best shoe polishes I left five top-rated cream and wax polishes with Stanley Mayes so that he could use them on shoes that came into his store that were of a suitable color. After two and a half weeks of in-shop testing, and 20-plus hours spent reading shoe-care guides, interviewing shoe-care experts, and trying to track down MSDS (Material Safety Data Sheet) information on the polishes, we came to some conclusions. You can think of a cream polish as a hybrid of a conditioner and a polish. Accordingly, a cream polish will be a bit more nourishing than a wax polish,1 but it won’t provide the same high-gloss shine that a wax polish will. However, because it soaks into the leather as opposed to staying on the surface, cream polish is better for restoring faded colors—for example, if you were overzealous in cleaning your shoe, and the cleaner ate away at the original finish. If you stop here, you end up with a matte, colorful finish that has a natural look. At the time we initially published this guide, Saphir and Meltonian were the two major brands of cream polish. Between them, Saphir Médaille d'Or Pommadier Cream Polish is considered the higher-end product, but after testing, we preferred Meltonian Boot Shoe Cream Polish Meltonian Boot Shoe Cream Polish for home users. However, the owner of Meltonian, the SC Johnson company, discontinued the brand; we’re now recommending the Saphir cream polish as we test other options. The Saphir polish is richer and more nourishing, but the Meltonian polish was easier to work into the shoe and thus delivered the same result with less effort. Stanley Mayes noted that when he tested the Meltonian product on a customer’s shoes, it provided a more-than-adequate level of nourishment to the shoe leather, although it was not as nourishing as the Saphir polish. Moreover, because the Meltonian polish easily worked into the leather and did not leave residue behind, it provided superior aesthetic qualities in comparison to the Saphir polish, restoring the color of the shoe leather and creating a matte shine (the type of shine that you can expect a cream polish to provide).