Hi I'm Kirby Allison and we love helping
the well-dressed take care of their
wardrobes in today's video I'm gonna
show you how to create a mirror shine on
a pair of cordovan leather shoes if you
have any questions or comments during
this video please don't hesitate to ask
them in the comment section below I
enjoyed getting back to as many of those
questions as possible cordovan leather
shoes require their own unique care and
that's because cordovan technically
isn't leather it's actually a membrane
that comes from the horse's rear
quarters one of the things that makes
cordovan very unique is that it doesn't
have an open pore structure like calf
skin instead it has a very tight fiber
structure that is further compressed
during the tanning process because of
that cordovan is very unique in that it
doesn't naturally have a very high shine
this pair of carmina cordovan boots balmoral boots more
as you can see is completely
unfinished with any type of polyurethane
finish from the factory and so you're
able to see the natural finish or
texture of the beautiful cordovan
leather and as you can see it's quite
matte it's not very glossy
however that doesn't mean that you can't
give your cordovan leather shoes a
beautiful mirror shine and there's no
better products to do that than the
saphir Medaille d'Or mirror gloss what I
like about the saphir mirror glass is it
has a lower concentration of solvents in
it then save the saphir pate de luxe wax
polish the reason this is important for
cordovan is that those solvents
penetrate into the court of in leather
and can cause that type fiber structure
to expand thereby ultimately decorating
you know the really unique type fiber
structure that makes quarter than unique
now the mirror glass can be used in lieu
of the Pat deluxe wax polish because it
has a lower concentration of solvents
and therefore you don't have to worry
about it altering the texture of your
cordovan leather shoes at all cordovan
does require its own special care and we
have an extensive shoeshine tutorial on
our youtube channel on how to care for
cordovan leather shoes but to just back
up a little bit you know the most
important care you can do for your
quarterman leather shoes is actually
just frequent brushing with the pig
bristle brush the reason is because
cordovan actually shines up quite well
with just brushing because of those
natural oils that stand
this leather then of course we recommend
the primary use of the saphir cordovan
cream polish for the conditioning and
repigmentation of your cordovan shoes
this doesn't have any solvents in it
unlike the Saphir Pommadier Cream polish
and is based on neat's-foot oil so again
it's gonna feed the cordovan leather
keeping it soft supple but without
altering the texture of the leather
itself and then the other product that's
very unique for the care of cordovan is
a deer bone and the purpose of the deer
bone again is to get the creasing out of
the vamp of the shoe and we have an
entire video on the website also showing
you how to use the deer bone but the
purpose of this video is to show you how
to create a nice beautiful high shine in
your cordovan leather shoes and so
the products that I'm going to be using
are a high shine water dispenser you can
also use a spritz bottle very important
is our high shine a hanger project
cotton chamois and then I'm going to use
the Saphir Medaille d'Or mirror gloss and a
little bit of Pate de luxe just for that
final buffing and finishing but this is
just gonna be used at the end so you
don't have to worry about it penetrating
the leather okay
so the first step of any mirror shine is
building that foundation of hard waxes
and that's why the saphir mirror glass
is so incredible this is a product that
I actually collaborated with the Bell to
create and has really made the mirror
shine process so much more easy to
attain the reason is because it has that
high concentration of those hard waxes
that creates that mirror shine and a low
concentration of solvents which is what
acts against the mirror shine by
softening those waxes so the first step
of any mirror shine process is to create
that foundation of hard wax and so I'm
gonna do that here with our saphir
mirror glass I'm using a neutral and our
high shine chamois now the beauty of our
hanger project high shine chamois again
is it's made out of cotton shirting and
so it has a very tight weave structure
that is perfect for creating a mirror
shine so in step one i'm gonna apply a
pretty generous amount of the Saffir
mirror glass to my chamois again you can
see just how dense this polishes
I mean I'm tapping it with my finger
it's hardly breaking up it is a hard wax
polish
it takes a little bit of getting used to
because again it's much softer than the
pate de luxe but boy is it incredible once
you start using it I've got the mirror
glass on my hanger project high shine
chamois and I'm just going to begin
massaging this into the cordovan
leather using small circular motions now
you always want to limit your mirror
shine to just the hard countered areas
of the shoe this is typically the toe
cap and the rear quarters in this video
I'm just gonna be creating that mirror
shot on my toe cap and the reason that
that's important is because if you do a
high shine across any area of the shoe
that isn't hard countered that flexes as
soon as you flex that leather those hard
waxes are gonna crack immediately
thereby ruining your high shine so I'm
gonna apply one or two coats of the
saphir mirror glass using my cotton
chamois and again the purpose here is
I'm just developing that foundation of
those hard waxes so once I have that
worked in and I feel like I have a
smooth layer you can begin to feel the
polish really becoming dry your chamois
wants to start skipping across the
Polish and so at that point allow the
polish to dry for a few minutes because
you want those solvents to fully
evaporate and those hard waxes to dry so
once those hard waxes are dry take a
clean area of your high shine chamois
and a little bit of water and what
you're gonna do is you're gonna start
buffing those waxes to a shine I like to
put a little bit of wax polish on my
chamois just to pick up those solvents
and then you're just going to buff using
medium to firm pressure and small
circular motions now this is like
watching you know bread rise it takes a
while in order for these hard waxes to
really work up to a shine and so you
have to be patient especially with your
first few coats if you find that your
chamois is beginning to skip across the
leather you feel it dragging just add a
little bit more water
now what I'm doing is in between kind of
polishing once I see that the waxes are
starting to work up to a shine I'm just
gently dabbing my high shine chamois
back in the mirror glass to just pick up
a little bit more polish and what I'm
doing is I'm trying to build that
foundation of hard waxes and as thin of
layers as possible because that's what's
going to give you the most brilliant
shine
now you want to be careful not to use
too much water less is really more so
whenever I'd you know put some water on
my chamois I always try to you know just
dry it off a little bit by rubbing this
cotton chamois back on my leather shoe shine
carpet but you could rub it against a
towel just as easily now you can see the
shine beginning to develop and again
don't you don't have to be gentle I mean
em you know rubbing this quite fast
because you want that heat you want that
friction to really work those hard
waxes - a nice shine so you can see it's
already starting to elevate and shine
but you can see kind of how it's uneven
and what that is is that is the wax is
not completely filling in kind of the
variations in the leather structure so
what you need to do is just continue to
build up those layers of hard waxes
until that smooth this out I'm gonna
apply another generous coat and I'm
really massaging this into the leather
with medium to firm pressure because I
want this wax polish to go on to the
leather and an even smooth layer okay
so once I begin to feel my chamois
really dragged across these hard waxes
I'm gonna stop massaging this layer on
and allow it to dry okay so I've got a
little bit more water on my chamois just
a quick dab and then what I'm gonna do
is I'm gonna begin working on buffing
that last application of the mirror
glass to a shine now you can see that
high shine is really starting to develop
and so at a certain point I'm going to
bring in the saphir pate de lux to
really finish this off what I like about
the pate de luxe again is I find that it
works really well in conjunction with
the mirror glass because of those higher
solvents that you find in the pet elect
a much wetter polished in the mirror
glass and you know really likin that too
you know essentially what is wet sanding
or wet buffing you know after you have a
really nice foundation of hard waxes
it's nice to bring on that solvent rich
Pate de luxe to really glissade and shine
or bring out the shine those
relaxes it's not necessary you can
certainly do it with just a cotton
champion a little bit of water in the
mirror gloss but I find that they just
work so well together that I really
enjoy finishing with the Pate de luxe so
this is just after two kind of heavy
applications you can see that mirror
shine is really developing that's what I
love about the mirror glass I'm in the
Saphir mirror glass Medaille d'Or or you know
makes the mirror shine process so much
easier than it was before I mean you can
develop a really respectable mirror
shine and as little as three to five
applications of the mirror glass you
know in 30 minutes whereas before it
literally would require hours and you
know you know countless applications of
the Pate de luxe and the reason is because
those higher concentrations of the
solvents and the Pat deluxe would
effectively take off a few of the top
layers so it was like three steps
forward two steps back and it just took
a long time to really develop a
beautiful mirror shine so I'm just
continuing to work this polish a little
bit of water until I find that all the
fogging that polish has been buffed to a
nice shine and then once you achieve
that then you can apply another layer of
the mirror goes now if you apply a
successive layer of mirror gloss before you
work it to a shine what you do is you
lock in that fogging so it's really
important to completely buff to nice
shine every successive application of
the mirror glass otherwise you'll find
that you have some dull spots in the
mirror shine itself so this is the third
kind of big application of the mirror
glass as you can see I'm really getting
it on this chamois and I'm gonna work in
in to this
theoretically as you're building that
mirror shine finish you'd want each
successive application of the mirror
glass to be slightly thinner you know
the true professionals the glasses
artists that just get absolutely
beautiful mirror shines you know as they
finish their mirror shine you know
they're applying tiny minuscule
successive layers of wax polish to
develop that depth to the patina okay so
this is the third application at this
point I'm going to work a little bit of
the Pate de luxe into this finish and the
reason as I stated earlier is that the
high concentration or the higher
concentration of solvents in the Pate
de luxe versus the mirror gloss just really
helped Lesage and bring out the shine of
those waxes now I don't recommend using
a saphir pate de luxe or any wax that is
designed for cordovan or or any wax
that's designed for calfskin on cordovan
because again those solvents will
penetrate into that fiber structure and
cause those fibers to expand but because
I've already created a nice foundation
of hard waxes these solvents actually
won't be reaching the leather they'll
just be acting on those top layers and
waxes that I've created here at the
mirror gloss so I'm going to put a
little bit of water on my chamois and
then I'm just using a tiny amount of the
pet deluxe wax polish I mean just a
little dab is enough to pick up those
solvents as you can see maybe that's
even a lot and then I just want enough
to kind of melt that top layer of wax to
allow me to develop a shine now you
don't want to rush this process you
really want to allow you know the waxes to dry
you know play around with a little bit
of water so here I'm just using water
and then I'm going to take just a quick
dab of the pate de luxe
allowed to dry if you feel your chamois
starting to do be dragged across those
waxes then add a little bit of water
you can really see a beautiful mirror
shine beginning to come out so again
you know at the end don't rush it a
little bit of water you have too much
water you'll end up with dulling light
the medium pressure nice fast speed
little bit of water now if you feel like
you're pushing around those waxes too
much like they haven't dried blow on it
a little bit
I just want those waxes to dry and
Harden so that you can fluff them to a
shine okay so this is the point at which
you really fall into the Mirage of a
beautiful mirror shine I find that as
you really get towards at the end of the
mirror shine process you can almost fall
into it now you be mesmerized or
hypnotized by it and spend the rest of
your day trying to get that perfect
mirror shine I always make a point that
you know once I get towards the end to
set the shoe down to kind of step back
maybe set it on the ground and look at
it while I'm standing now because that
gives you a better judge of how
effective of mirror shine you've
actually created but let's look at it
next to the other shoes that we could
really see the difference that we were
able to achieve
so looking you know at the left boot
that I created this mirror shine on
versus the right boot you can really see
the difference here I mean there's no
question that a proper mirror shine
really makes your shoes pop this is a
beautiful shine could I continue to work
on this for hours absolutely but this is
pretty good and one that I say it really
illustrates how effectively you're able
to create a mirror shine using the
severe mirror glass so I'm gonna stop
here you could of course I keep on going
but this is pretty pretty good we have
an extensive playlist of mirror shine
tutorials here on our YouTube channel if
you're looking to hone your mirror shine
skills take a look at our mirror shine
playlist and specifically our ultimate
mirror shine video so to summarize in
order to create a mirror shine on your
Cordovan leather shoes you want to
be using the Saphir Medaille d'Or
glasses a great product I applied three
applications of the mirror glass buffing
it with our hanger project high shine
chamois and a little bit of water and
then finished it off the really light
buff using the saphir pate de luxe would
just bring those hard waxes and to a
nice brilliant shine the Pate de luxe a
little bit of water the high gloss chamois
high shine chamois
really makes those hard waxes pop for
total cordovan care take a look at our
how to shine cordovan leather shoes
video that we have here on our youtube
channel all the saphir products that we
used in this video can be found on
hangerproject.com where we're proud to
have the largest selection of luxury
shoe care and luxury garment care
accessories available anywhere in the
world
in today's video I'm wearing a W W Chan an
Isaiah sports jacket with a drakes of
London green silk pocket square of
course I've got my trademark white shirt
on
but today's shirt is actually made by
Budd shirt makers in London I'm wearing
one of our new Kirby Allison Sovereign
grade hand-printed ties on 36 ounce silk
this is actually goes through a mater
bath which gives it a very nice dry hand
and you can see all of our sovereign
grade ties create a beautiful dimple and
tie just perfectly I'm wearing a pair of
my white gold Hanger Project cufflinks
my Chopard perpetual calendar watch a
pair
my bespoke Chris despos gray trousers
with single reverse pleats and tabs and
I have on my bespoke George cleverly
black cap toe Oxford shoes and my
favorite Kirby Allison sovereign grades
small dot melange dress socks if you
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publish here on our YouTube channel I'm
Kirby Allison and we love to help the
well-dressed take care of their
wardrobes thanks for joining me