I know you may be looking at this product and wondering if it is worth the price, and I would recommend you stop looking and start buying. This product is exceptionally effective.

I've had these Ecco leather boots for nearly 10 years now. They're my favorite boots, and as you can see they've been some places. During that 10 years I've never once conditioned or polished them. I would just wipe them down when they'd get dirty. You can see in the first two photos how the leather was worn and turning a greenish blue. So I ordered this black Saphir Crème 1925 cream polish, along with the Saphir Renovateur conditioner.

I first removed the dirt from the boots with a brush that you'd use for dishes, and then applied the conditioner to the boots with an old but clean rag. I allowed it to soak into the leather and dry for a couple of days, while I was waiting for the polish to arrive. In the meantime I got lucky and found a Kiwi brand horsehair brush at my local Goodwill for $2.99.

When the polish arrived, I removed the laces, put on a vinyl glove and grabbed the Kiwi brush, along with a scrap piece of soft cotton tee which is what I use at work to buff and polish freshly installed tile. I wrapped the scrap cotton cloth around my finger, dipped it into the jar of polish, and applied the polish to the boots one small area at a time. Immediately the leather was brought back to life, and I really couldn't believe how much better it looked it at that point. You could stop there, and be perfectly happy if you prefer a matte finish to your footwear. I really wanted these suckers to shine personally, so after waiting a bit for the polish to dry, I performed the final step in this process and went over them with the Kiwi brush in swift, short strokes.

My 10 year old boots now look absolutely beautiful. They still have some scratches that are visible, along with definitive creases in the toe area, but the older guys tell me that's called character. I wouldn't call the end result a mirror finish either, but these boots are more for walking and hiking than dancing, so I'm very happy with how they turned out. Merci beaucoup Saphir, votre produit c'est top!

Lives up and then some to all of its rave reviews. Expensive but good value and a little bit goes a long way

This stuff is awesome! Watch some YouTube videos on the proper use, and you'll be ready to start a shoe shine business!

The product is great you need just a little to be applied to clean shoes. You will also need time for it to settle in. if you want to get the most out of this product expect to spend 2 days. Don't warry you will spend a total of 10-12 minutes per shoe though see below.

1. If really dirty and not conditioned ( you will feel leather to be stiff and as if its brittle), grab a shoe brush you don't use with creme, and brush the crusted dirt off vigorously. for awhile wash with warm water and saddle soap and a horsehair brush in circular motions don't be too gentle you need to lift the dirt from pores - leather can take it don't warry... it should take you about 3 minutes per shoe to fully leather it up. Do not wash under running water instead wipe the leather with moist paper towel, then wipe the rest with damp cloth towel.
2. Wipe with dry soft cloth and let gently air dry till almost dry.

If only lightly soiled just do step 2.

if you do not do step 1 and/or 2 you risk setting in the dirt with nasty streaks and will require visit to cobbler to get it out.

1. Once the shoes are ready and clean, take a horseshoe brush that has been used with polish or wax of the same color as your shoes, dab a bit of creme and apply in circular motions with gentle pressure. The surface of you shoes will loose all gloss and turn mate - this is fine. Do the second shoe while the first is soaking the oils from creme. spend about 3 minutes applying creme to the shoe.
2. While the second shoe is soaking the oils, come to the first shoe and buff it with a large horsehair brush.
3. It will take 3-4 minutes of buffing the whole of the shoe to bring up the shine - this will not be a gloss shine, more like high mate shine. now get to second shoe.
4. If you want slightly higher gloss buff up with microfiber cloth, otherwise leave the shoes be over night. Do not use microfiber cloth if you plan to not continue with step 5 (below) as well.
5. On the next day grab the shoe wax (its much more dense than creme because of higher concentration of oils) I used the high gloss one from saphir as well. Dab the brush in it you used to apply the creme and apply to the shoe in circular motions like you did creme. This product is much more solid and letting it soak will do nothing, the purpose is to apply the waxy polishable layer on your shoes.
6. Once applied to your shoe it will turn the surface dusty mate, do the second shoe now or proceed with buffing step six it does not matter what you do first.
7. Buff till you get the gloss come out.
8. Buff further to high gloss with microfiber cloth (best) or shoe polish cloth (expensive and specialized and no better than a rag of old microfiber cloth).

Very important note: this product has heavy aromatic scent, it could be because of natural oils or maybe perfumed. To me its unpleasant and to most people in reviews the same is true. The smell lasts about a day and a half, at which point it will be so faint that unless you stock your nose right into the leather of the boot you will not feel it. Applying the saphir wax at this point will also remove this smell and return proper leather smell to the shoe.

Very important note II: I saw in negative reviews that a lot of people see that this product does not bring the polish back to that of the factory. This is true to polish will be slightly less glossy than that of the factory, though the shoes will look nice clean and shiny. This is likely because there is a lot of beeswax on the factory fresh shoe, which does get removed during wash and also application of creme/conditioner. This is how it should be because if you do not remove the super wax you cannot nourish and hydrate the leather. If you want true mirror finish you'd want a special wax for that purpose.

1. Brown - 5 stars
2. Black - 5 stars
3. White - 3 stars - lacks pigment small gray scoffs will not come off from white shoes.

I've recently started taking better care of my leather shoes. I bought a good kit, but didn't love the mink oil and polish that came with it. If you do research on the web, you pretty quickly start running across recommendations for Saphir products, so I bought both their Mink Oil and polish, and they absolutely exceeded my expectations. You can immediately see the difference. Absolutely, five star products.