One common myth about shoe shining is that it takes too much time. Here I present an effective technique that will enable you to achieve an exceptional spit shine in 15 minutes or less.
Time and patience, combined with small doses of wax polish applied in many layers, is how most of us have learned to polish shoes to create an impeccable mirror shine. When I started Shoegazing, this was also how I learned. While it remains one of the easiest techniques, time consuming as it may be, faster methods were taught by Neus Benavent from Gaziano & Girling’s Savile Row store in London who paint patina on them for them and shine them too something which I now employ myself successfully and achieve quite nice shines in 15 minutes without major complications.
Be warned, however, that it can be easier for this technique to fail, both during polishing itself and as its polish layer tends to crack more readily. Finding an effective technique becomes much simpler if you have experience polishing with wax, experience helps develop this sense of work much more rapidly than learning on your own (which usually leads to lots of mistakes).
As most people know, polishing previously polished shoes makes the process simpler, so to provide an “even” picture I stripped these below of wax and shoe cream with renovateur before starting work on their shine.
At this point in our shoe care journey we are ready to apply a spit shine. I used wax polish from Saphir Medaille d’Or for this post, however, any good shoe care brand such as Collonil, Burgol Springyard Boot Black will work equally as well. Also used is Boot Black polish water with some alcohol although with regular tap water it should work just as effectively, although using any kind of brush may take slightly less effort. A fine cotton cloth should be used as coarser felt fabrics often tear layers apart during shining work compared with felt type cloths which tend to tear layers apart during polishing work.
I use wax on a cloth and apply water droplets (using my finger to dab it on), and make sure they’re evenly dispersed across the shoe (avoid placing too long of an application in any one place as this could create marks). After applying medium pressure and circular movements, I applied wax on the toe. Now the surface will appear matte and tacky, keep working, adding another round of water (perhaps using less) and polish with circular movements until its matte surface begins to vanish and become even and brighter. At the end of each round I apply quite light pressure, occasionally adding drops of water may be needed before my layer feels strung out. This procedure is repeated twice before covering the rest of the shoe with polish (including sole and heel edges) using my polish gun. On heels with stiffeners I apply two additional layers similarly as on toes.
Once I’ve polished all four shoes, I add two layers on the toe according to the principle above, taking less wax polish at one time than I previously would have. There is always the risk that breaking through layers and ruining it could happen here, therefore it is essential that one has an understanding of polish, water pressure and amount used so they keep the right balance for each individual shoe shiner something hard to put into words as each person shines their shoes differently so this experience must be tried out before reaching a decision.
After this step is complete, I switch shoes and repeat this process on them so that my first shoe has time to rest and the wax to set properly before proceeding further. This takes roughly five minutes per shoe. When working quickly once dried I use a nylon cloth quickly on them before taking another three to four layers on their toe part with each successive layer using less pressure and faster movements until I reach the end and see that their shine has finally come through well.
Now when I am only shining my toes, it typically takes five minutes per shoe when working quickly that is roughly a quarter of an hour overall although that can vary depending on leathers as some can be easier than others to shine. Do allow them to rest a bit before continuing with another round with your nylon cloth if you desire an even higher shine. Once complete I had gained an even and bright shine on mainly my toe party for quite decent spit shine results, for an enhanced shine continue with an additional few rounds, resting between each time, until you achieve what you desire with some additional rounds repeat until satisfied that was complete and rest between rounds 4+5 to complete and further polishings.
