Hi, I'm Kirby Allison,
and here at The Hanger Project we love
to help the well-dressed take care of their wardrobes.
In today's video,
I'm going to be talking about how condition
leather shoes using the
Saphir Medaille d'Or products.
If you have any questions
or comments during this video please ask them
in the comments section below.
I always get back to those comments personally.
Now, Saphir Medaille d'Or has 3
different conditioners
and each is uniquely different for a specific
application.
A really good leather conditioner is an
important staple of any shoe shine
routine because leather,
being a natural product,
is going to dry out over time.
A good leather conditioner is going to restore
the natural oils in your leather dress
shoe so that the leather remains soft,
supple, flexible,
and so that you don't have to worry about any cracking
that could occur as leather dries
out. Now there's different conditioners for different
purposes and for different types of leather.
And so that's where having three different
types of conditioners
with the Saphir Medaille d'Or comes into play.
Without question.
The most popular leather conditioner we
sell here at The Hanger Project is the
Saphir Renovateur Medaille d'Or.
This is widely considered by shoe aficionados
to be one of the best leather conditioners
in the world.
And it's what we call here at The Hanger
Project, liquid gold.
The reason the Saphir Renovateur is such
a popular product is because one,
it is an incredibly effective conditioner.
But secondly it is just a
very versatile product
because it's a water based formulation
it can be used on calfskin,
cordovan,
on crocodile,
on Alligator, on ostrich,
it can be used on almost any type of
smooth leather.
The water based formulation ensures that
it's going to be a gentle conditioner
and that it's not going to affect any
type of finishes that might be unstable.
The source for mink oil that Saphir uses
in all of its mink oil formulation
is obtained by a humane
organization that is regulated by the
European authorities
and it's being done in the most humane way possible.
The next one I want to talk about
and certainly one of the newest
conditioners from Saphir
is the 100 percent mink oil.
This uses a highly refined
mink oil
and is really meant just for a deep
irregular conditioning.
This product is incredibly nourishing
and rich
and it's something that you'd use once
or twice a year really to rejuvenate
leather that is dry.
Now what's unique about this mink oil formulation
is that it uses a highly refined
mink oil so it's not going to leave
a very greasy residue
behind on the leather that could prevent
the shoe from absorbing any
type of polish afterwards
and that's a common problem you find
with less expensive mink oils.
Now the Saphir mink oil is something that I would traditionally
use just on calfskin
and then finally we have the Saphir
Nappa Leather Balm.
The Nappa Leather Balm as a solvent free
water-based conditioner that uses
cosmetic quality vegetable oils,
such as jojoba oil
and wheat proteins that is really
meant for those finely delicate
Leathers like box calf,
veal, goat,
or even the types of leather that are
more commonly used in women's handbags.
What's nice about the Nappa Leather Balm
is one, you don't have to worry about it changing
the color of the leather at all
and it doesn't contain any waxes
so it's not going to change the texture
of the leather whereas
with using the mink oil you're going to see a little
bit of a shine leftover.
And using the Saphir Renovateur,
you're going to have a shine because of the waxes.
The Nappa Leather Balm really leaves
a nice soft natural leather
finish after you use it.
Next I'm going to apply these three Saphir
products to Grenson Hand Grades so that
you can actually see how they affect
the leather. These Grenson Hand Grades
are really a shoe that I'll never get rid
of because it was one of my first nice
pairs of shoes I invested in in college,
and you can see even after what is almost
15 years they still look
fantastic because I've taken such good
care of them. So this is the pair that I wanted
to use today because of all of my shoes,
it probably has the leather that needs
conditioning the most.
So first time to apply the Saphir Renovateur.
Now, the Saphir Renovateur is a
product that you could polish
with regularly.
Now the Saphir Renovateur doesn't contain
any pigments in it.
If you have any types of scuffing
or discoloration
or you are going to want to use an actual
pigmented polish so
that you can recolor.
But if all you're looking is for a quick shine
and a little bit of conditioning the Saphir
Renovateur is a fantastic product.
You can really see it beginning to work here
because the leather is darkening.
Now what that's telling you is that the nutrients
in the Saphir Renovateur is actually being
absorbed by the leather
and causing the leather to darken.
The darkening is only temporary.
In the same way that if you were to wet a piece
of paper, it darkens
and then once the paper dries it returns
to its normal color.
Leather really responds the same way.
It will always darken if your
conditioning it.
But then as soon as
the leather dries
and you buff the polish it should return
back to its normal color.
I'm only going to apply the Saphir Renovateur to the
first half of the shoe because I'd like to use
the Nappa Leather Balm on the back half
to just contrast the way that those two conditioners
work.
So I'm going to set this aside
and I will let that polish dry
and then I'm going to use the
Saphir Mink Oil
with the right shoe.
Now what's special about the Mink Oil Medaille
d'Or, again, is it's using that highly
refined mink oil
and has been formulated in such a way that
it minimizes the greasy kind
of oily residue that any mink
oil is going to leave behind on the shoe.
As you can see from my chamois
it's really a thick product it's very
rich.
This is actually more closely
compared to like the Saphir Dubbin
which is again you know a product that you would
use less regularly
just to provide that really deep
rich nourishment.
So I'm going to apply this onto the shoe.
And again, it goes on very
thick
and you can see the oily texture.
You know, the shoe leather is shining
itself.
If you were using this as part
of a deep conditioning routine
that then I would actually recommend
leaving the mink oil on the
shoe even overnight just
to give the leather as much time as possible
to absorb the oils
into the leather.
It will leave us slightly greasy residue
on the leather behind which could
make polishing the shoe using,
let's say the Saphir Pommadier
Cream Polish a little difficult.
I recommend allowing the leather
a few days to fully absorb that
into the leather before trying to polish
with the more traditional polish.
So you could leave this on overnight,
buff it in the morning,
and then allow the shoe one
or two more days to sit,
buff it again, and then continue
with the rest of the shoeshine routine.
OK.
So I've applied the Saphir
Mink Oil
and I've applied the Saphir Renovateur
and you can really see just between the two
of these how they're totally different products.
The Saphir Mink Oil is leaving
a nice kind of greasy residue
on the leather.
Now, certainly less than what you would
get from a traditional mink oil,
but it still is a very
potent and a very rich conditioner
and you can see that
with how it leaves that oily residue
on the leather itself.
The Saphir Renovateur is
drying like a more traditional polish,
it's drying matte,
and those are the waxes drying
and whenever I buff this off you'll see it go to
a shine.
I'm gonna set the right shoe aside
and then what I'm going to do is apply
the Nappa Leather Balm.
Now, the Nappa Leather Balm,
again, is a vegetable based
conditioner
and is really meant for delicate
leathers that you might be concerned
with changing the color
or changing the texture.
It doesn't contain any waxes
it's just an emulsion,
a water based emulsion of those different
oils.
Now the Nappa Leather Balm is
great for say like a ladies shoe
like a Chanel pump
or a Chanel flat because
again it doesn't contain any waxes.
It's not going to change any of the
surface texture of the leather itself.
Or if you're really concerned about darkening
some leather then
you could use the Nappa Leather Balm
to just ensure that you're not
going to darken the leather at all.
If you were to compare the Nappa Leather Balm to
the Saphir Renovateur you can see that
it's not drying
with that wax layer.
Ok so I'm not allow these shoes a few minutes to dry
and then we'll buff them off using the horsehair brush
to see what they look like.
Now that these shoes have had about 10 to 15
minutes to dry,
I'm going to buff off the polish
using our Hanger Project
100 percent horsehair brush
so that I can show you what these shoes look like
after they've been buffed.
I've buffed off each of the three different conditioners
using our Hanger Project Horsehair
Shoeshine Brush
and you can see the Saphir Renovateur
compared to the Saphir Mink Oil couldn't be
any more different.
With the left shoe, where I used the Saphir
Renovateur,
you really have what looks like a traditional
shine. And again you conditioned
using the Mink Oil based cleaner
and conditioner
but also the beeswax
and soft waxes in the Saphir Renovateur
have left a nice soft shine.
You compare that to the
right shoe where I used the
Saphir Mink Oil,
the 100 percent Mink Oil,
you can still see the product
on the leather.
The leather is still dark.
That means that it's still absorbing
the nutrients from the mink oil
and even if you run your fingers over this
you can still feel the texture of
the Mink Oil after even rigorous
buffing.
So as I said earlier,
what I would recommend
with the Mink Oil again is this is for more
kind of occasional deep nourishment
and you would almost want to leave it on
the shoe overnight,
buff it off,
and then allow the shoe one to two additional
days and maybe even three
to fully absorb all of the
mink oil.
You would come back on it buff it again,
and at that point you would be able to add
traditional polishes
and resume polishing the shoe normally.
Now comparing that to
the Nappa Leather Balm you know
you don't see really
any waxes, it's more kind of the natural
texture of the leather.
It went on very nicely.
It didn't darken the leather at all.
It also didn't change the surface texture
because it didn't have any waxes.
The Nappa Leather Balm really is best thought
of as almost like a pure
conditioner.
It's all you get from the Nappa Leather Balm
is just conditioning if you need any
waxes you could add an additional product
like the Saphir Pommadier Cream Polish
or Wax Polish,
but it's still
a really nice,
really potent leather conditioner.
So as you can tell these three
conditioners couldn't be any more different.
I mean the Saphir Renovateur,
it's like liquid gold,
it's a staple.
Honestly this is a product that
anyone that has shoes that they're trying to
take great care of should own.
The other two products,
the Mink Oil
and the Nappa Balm are more specialty
conditioners that each have their specific
use and application,
but certainly a much more limited scope
than the Saphir Renovateur itself.
So if anyone's looking for just a really
good leather conditioner for your dress
shoes the Saphir Renovateur
is my number one recommendation.
And it's certainly the reason why this
is one of the most popular shoe care products
we sell here at The Hanger Project.
If you have a pair of shoes you're looking to bring back
from death,
then the Saphir Mink Oil
is going to do that
with its incredibly rich
and potent nourishment.
And then if you have a pair of shoes,
a wallet, or a handbag for that matter
that you want to condition without waxing
or changing the surface texture,
than without question the Saphir Nappa Leather
Balm is a fantastic choice.
If you have any questions
or comments about anything I discussed in this
video please ask them in the comments section below.
I get back to all those questions personally.
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I'm Kirby Allison,
thanks for joining us.