Cream, wax or polish: what the tins actually do
Three products, three jobs, and a lot of confident misinformation. What each one is for, in the order you should use them.
"Polish" is the word people use for all of it, which is where the confusion starts. There are really three products on the shelf and they do different jobs.
Cream
A soft emulsion carrying pigment and oils. It penetrates. Its job is to feed the leather and put colour back into scuffs and worn edges. If you buy one thing, buy this.
Apply with a cloth or a dauber, work it into the creases, leave it ten minutes, brush it off. Two or three times a season on a shoe in weekly rotation.
Wax
A hard paste with little to no nourishment. It sits on the surface and buffs to a shine, and it will take a mirror finish on a toe cap if you have the patience. It also adds a genuine layer of weather protection.
Thin coats. Let each one haze, then buff. Thick wax never hardens properly and holds dust.
Conditioner
Oils and fats with no pigment. For leather that has dried out, or after a soaking. Use it sparingly — over-conditioned leather goes soft and loses its shape, which is a different problem and a harder one to fix.
What about suede?
None of the above. A brass-and-rubber brush to lift the nap, an eraser block for marks, and a protector spray from new. Wax or cream on suede is not a mistake you get to undo.
Colour matching
Go lighter than you think. Cream builds, and a shade too dark cannot be taken back out. Neutral is the safe choice on anything patinated or multi-tonal — it feeds without touching the colour.
Bring a shoe into any of our shops and we will match it at the counter, no charge and no obligation to buy.
Not sure what yours needs?
Bring it to any counter. Two minutes with a craftsperson beats any amount of reading — including us telling you it is not worth the money.