Hi I'm Kirby Allison founder of
The Hanger Project,
and the purpose of this video
is to show you how to create a
high gloss mirror shine
in three basic steps using
the Saphir
Medaille D'Or mirror gloss
polish. A proper mirror shine
is arguably one of the most
difficult to achieve.
The reason is that it requires
the build up of a wax layer
on the cap, on the hard
surfaces of the shoe that
reflects light.
In order to do this you have to
successfully apply coat,
after coat, after coat,
of wax polish until
you build the wax finish above
the pores and it's able to
glass out- to glaçage so
that reflects light.
The products that I'm going to
use here is a horse hair brush
to help brush the leather,
The Saphir
Medaille D'Or Pommadier cream
polish for cleaning,
the Saphir Medaille D'Or mirror
gloss wax,
and finally the
Pate De Luxe Medaille D'Or
standard wax polish.
I've also got something to
apply water which you need with
your glass wax because it's
very dry,
so I've got both our
high shine water dispenser and
just a simple spritz bottle,
and then another
product that is actually
really essential for this
process that we created
specifically for the mirror
shine, is our high shine
chamois.
Now the high shine chamois is
very important because what it
is, is basically high quality
cotton shirting.
We use a 180x2 ply
shirting for this and what it
does is it creates a very tight
weave that allows you to very
efficiently control the amount
of wax polish that you're
applying to the shoes.
This is very important
if you're trying to produce a
mirror gloss using cotton balls
or a standard cotton chamois,
it's much more difficult than
using this mirror glass
high shine chamois.
Today I'm going to be shining a
new pair of bespoke Cleverley
Cap toe shoes,
these are
bespoke shoes I had made from
G. J. Cleverley in London.
Now the amount of preparation
that you need before you start
with the mirror gloss shine is
really going to depend on the
condition of your shoes.
These are relatively new shoes,
I've worn them several times
so there is a little bit of
preparation that is needed
but, really I'm
just going to use a cream
polish in order to prepare
them.
If you've been using
a shoe polish that
contains silicone and resins
like a cheap or store bought
polish,
then you might want to clean
the shoes first with a RenoMat
in order to really open up the
leather.
If you've got a really high
quality pair of shoes that
you've been taking care of
with the Saphir Medaille D'Or,
you really don't need to do
much prep.
The second thing to know about
that mirror finish is that
you only want to do a mirror
finish on the hard countered
areas of the shoe,
traditionally, that's the toe
box and the hind quarters.
The reason is that you're
building up essentially a solid
wax finish,
so if you do that anywhere the
shoe leather is going to bend,
the moment that you walk,
that wax is going to crack so
if you see white build up
across the vamp of the shoe,
normally it is because you
applied too much hard wax to
that area.
First I'm going to brush the
shoes,
just a very light brush
in order to remove any
type of large surface dirt.
So the purpose of using the
Saphir Medaille D'Or Pommadier
cream polish is just
to clean the leather and
prepare it to receive the
mirror gloss wax.
Because of the high
concentration of solvents
in the cream polish,
it's able to clean the leather
and prepare it.
Here I am using the high shine
chamois,
and I like to pull the
chamois over my index and
middle finger.
And then here.
I'm just applying.
A little bit of cream Polish.
So just applying it here.
in small circular motions,
I'm going to take a little bit
more.
But remember with shoe polish,
less is more.
So here I'm just applying it.
Then, instead of buffing
it off what I'm going
do is I'm going to employ the
technique that you see
used throughout the entire
shoeshine process,
which is that in
order to really elevate the
shine, you buff- you don't
brush. So you're going to use a
high shine chamois with a
little bit of water in circular
motions and that's how you
take the
fogged wax finish
and elevate the shine.
Here I'm to let the wax - or
the cream Polish dry a little
bit and you can see how it
fogging- completely normal,
and then I'm going to take my
water dispenser which we sell
on the Hanger Project,
and I'm just going to get my
chamois a little bit.
Right. So after this has dried,
I'm going to buff this cream
polish and that's
all the preparation I'm going
to do to the leather.
So here I'm just using circular
motions with
light pressure.
You don't want to press too
hard into the leather it's just
with light pressure,
and as you buff
the leather you're going to see
that this cream polish
begins to shine.
Now once you start feeling the
chamois beginning to track
across the surface of the
leather,
you need to apply a little bit
more water.
You're going to do this until
the fogging disappears.
Now you can see that because
this is already been shined it
few times that it's already got
a pretty nice high gloss shine,
but once we start flying the
mirror gloss you're going to
see this shine elevate even
more.
I'm going to do it in the same
process I did in cleaning the
shoes.
I'm going to use a clean
section of the
chamois, going to wrap it
around my two fingers.
And again, because the
mirror gloss has such a high
concentration of hard waxes and
such a low solvent ratio,
you really want to be using
as much water as possible
in order to lubricate
the chamois and to allow it to
glide across the shoe.
So I'm going to do know three
sprays,
take some wax polish- now you
can see I'm rubbing it
a lot in here,
but because it's such
a hard wax I'm still just
picking up just a tiny amount
of wax polish.
Using circular motions and a
very light touch,
I'm going to start applying.
The mirror gloss wax
to the shoe.
Again, you want to be very
careful to apply the mirror
gloss to the hard countered
areas of the shoe.
On a Cap Toe, it's very easy to
see you know where the hard
countered area ends and the
soft vamp begins because of
the cap but on a
pair of hole cuts,
you really need to pay
attention to where you know
the shoe to bend.
Sometimes you can see that by
the creasing,
but sometimes you just need to
know that based off
where they've been when you're
wearing them.
I'm going to spray a little bit
more water and while this is
drying, I'm going to apply the
same mirror gloss
polish to the rear
of the shoe.
Again, I'm just applying it
to that hind quarters;
once you feel the chamois
begin to drag again apply
a little bit more water
and start
going again.
So here I've applied my first
layer of the mirror gloss wax
polish.
Now using this product you can
normally produce a pretty high
mirror gloss within three
to five different coats.
So after you've allowed the
mirror gloss to dry, it dries
pretty quickly, because again,
it's such a hard wax,
spray a little bit more water
and your chamois.
You can see I just got a few
little white drops there,
and then using a very light
touch begin to
buff that wax.
I'm using circular motions,
you can take up just a little
bit of wax polish to
help further lubricate your
chamois also and
then using circular motions,
I'm going to try to buff
as much of that
clouding out of the wax polish.
During this process of building
the wax foundation,
don't concentrate
too much on the quality
of the shine because that's
really going to come in the
last step where
we use the Pate De Luxe to melt
that wax and really glaçage it.
So here I have applied some
more and then I'm just going to
repeat this three
or five times
using more
of the mirror gloss wax polish,
applying it in circular
motions,
massaging it into the leather,
then
allowing it to dry before
buffing it off.
I like to buff
on the fingers whenever I'm
applying the wax polish,
then whenever I'm buffing the
polish off, what I'll do is
I'll roll my fingers so
that I'm buffing on a clean
area of the chamois that
doesn't have any wax build up,
and I find that it's really
effective at
buffing the wax off.
So between layers
of wax polish while I'm doing
this process, you really don't
need to allow much time just a
few,
you know, 30 seconds.
I mean,
because this wax is already
so dry to begin with,
the Medaille
D'Or mirror gloss dries pretty
quickly.
Once you've created that
mirror gloss,
it's actually kind of a pretty
fragile shine.
This is about the third or
fourth wax finish-or
layer of wax that I apply
to the calf of my shoe,
and I think I'm getting near
the point where I can finish it
off using the Pate De Luxe.
Now again the question of
how many layers to apply is
really dependent upon
the shoe that you're starting
with.
If you're shining a
pair of shoes for the first
time and it really doesn't have
much wax finish,
then you're going to have to
add more layers of the mirror
gloss in order to build up that
foundation,
but if you're just glaçaging
over a pair of shoes that
you've had for a while,
that are already in pretty good
condition,
you should be able to get away
with three to
five layers of the mirror
gloss before coming on top with
the Pate De Luxe.
A lot of that also depends
on how much of
a gloss you want.
Like with anything,
there's different levels.
You
could literally spend all
afternoon of lawsuits no
question.
OK.
So here I am.
You can see that there's still
a little bit of fogging one the
toe box here. Right.
It's not a mirror shine
but that's OK because what
we're going to do is we're
going to finish the mirror
shine off with the Pate De Luxe
wax polish.
The high solvent ratio is going
to melt that wax to really
glaçage it over,
but you can't do that unless
you already have a really
strong wax foundation.
The next step
is then to take
some traditional
Medaille D'Or Pate De Luxe wax
polish and
you can see,
it's a much softer wax
polish.
Since we're just doing this
to the toe box
and the hind quarters,
you want to apply just
a tiny amount of wax
polish.
I'm going to just,
with a really light touch,
apply a little bit of wax
polish,
then using no water,
I'm going to repeat
that same process
where I apply the wax
polish. and
without letting it dry,
I'm
going to begin buffing it off.
If you feel that your chamois
is really starting to drag you
could probably do just one
small spritz of water,
I think I still
have enough residual water on
my chamois that I'm not going
to need to.
With a really light
touch,
I'm just buffing
the clouding
out of that wax polish,
and you can really see
that mirror shine start to come
out.
Especially
during this last stage,
you want to use just
a really fine light touch,
I mean, as light as possible,
in order to get that
polish to come up.
I'm doing just another
small layer
and again,
I'm really not giving this
enough time to dry,
I'm going to spritz my chamois
then continue to buff
that off.
Now what's happening here,
is that you've built
a foundation of hard waxes
using the highly concentrated
mirror gloss polish,
and then you're using the
solvents, the higher
concentration of solvents that
you have in the Pate
De Luxe to melt that Polish
down and
to buff it
to a high shine.
Now it's difficult to do this
using the Pate De Luxe alone
because it's such a relatively
soft wax
that you have a much more
difficult time building up that
initial foundation of wax but
with the mirror gloss, it's
really easy to do.
Use just
one more water-no more polish,
again, a very light touch and
I'm
just going to very lightly buff
this polish.
And there you have it,
in as little as 20 minutes,
of course depending on the
condition of your shoes and how
comfortable you are,
you can produce a really nice
high gloss mirror shine.
If you desire even more gloss,
even more or glaçage,
even more mirror,
just continue this process
by applying the mirror gloss
wax polish to
build that foundation
and then buffing it down
or polishing it down using a
little bit of the softer Pate
De Luxe wax polish. and your
high shine chamois.