Saphir Medaille d'Or Pommadier Cream 75ml – Natural Cream Leather Shoe Polish, Leather Conditioner for Boots, Handbags

My father used to carry my brother and I to the old mall in Gainesville, Florida, to get our haircut. An elderly gentleman had a shoe-shine stand in the barber shop, and my father would always get his shoes shined. I think this is where my love of good-looking shoes started. After school, I joined the Navy where, of course, my shoe-polishing education continued. Now, I'm 64 and have taught school for over 20 years, and I've kept my shoes polished all these years. I mention all this merely to let the reader know I have some experience polishing shoes.Simply put, Saphir is the finest shoe cream I have ever used. After I discovered it, I did away with all my wax-based polishes except for black which I use for the heels. If you polish with wax, you just keep piling it on top of itself, and after a few years your shoes don't look so good anymore. They start to crack. Wax-based polishes are not designed to be good for your shoes; they are designed to put a shine on them. Conversely, Saphir is easy to put on and there is something about it that makes it good for your shoes. When you put Saphir on, you can feel how soft and supple it makes the leather, and this may sound strange, but it even makes the shoes smell good. You smell it, and you know it's doing what it's supposed to for that leather.I have always felt that a good review mentions the pros and cons. I can only find two cons with Saphir. One is the price. However, I am not deducting stars for that, because I think Saphir is the best shoe cream out there. Also, you can do a lot of shoes with that little jar of cream. I would estimate that a jar will polish 8-10 pairs of shoes. This cream is really thick, and a good dab on a cloth will literally polish almost half a shoe. That is my experience anyway. My second con is that Saphir does not impart a bright shine on a pair of shoes. It is more of a dull shine, but the shoes feel oh so good. And, personally, I don't feel the need to see my reflection in a pair of shoes. Actually, at my age, I don't want to see myself at all. I'd prefer my shoes last a long time and look good that entire time, and that is what Saphir helps me accomplish.My school routine is this, I polish every new pair of shoes before I wear them. This prevents scuffs, a lesson I learned the hard way as a child. I asked my parents for a new pair of boots and scuffed them the first time I wore them. I asked Daddy how to get the scuff out. He asked me if I had polished the boots. I, of course, said "no". Daddy said, "Then you can't get it out." He was right as always; I couldn't get it out. I still remember how bad I felt about those boots. So, after the initial polish, I put cream on my shoes every 6 months to 1 year based on usage. To keep them looking good daily, and this is important, I use Weiman Leather Wipes every day or few days that I wear the shoes. These wipes cut way down on the number of times per year that I was having to polish my shoes. And Weiman Leather Wipes are not expensive. In fact, they are relatively cheap. These wipes will impart the bright shine you are missing with the Saphir, and keep the shoes clean and healthy. To me, Saphir and Weiman Leather Wipes are the cat's meow of shoe care. And, no, I don't own stock in either company, I just try to help people when I write these reviews.I'm a teacher, and it's summer so I'm off. I've been doing some shoe polishing to pass the time. It relaxes me. And... I am so slow.... I just figured out Saphir has all these colors, and I could have been using it on my tennis shoes and leather shoes of varying colors. I had only been using it with dress shoes. So thinking outside the box (finally!) gave me the picture I am showing you. I've intentionally left out newer shoes. Every pair of shoes here is 5 years or older. The newest is the olive green pair of Rockport's, and I used a neutral color on them (called Reno Mat but Saphir also has a neutral-colored creme). And if you're thinking those are not 5 years old - yes they are - I have a lot of shoes so I don't wear the same pair every day. The oldest shoes are the Timberland's, front right, they're over 20 years-old, and I used Saphir Renovateur to clean them and then applied a burgundy cream. You should have seen these before I started: fishing, mowing yards, general destruction for 20 years. The front row, second from left, are Rockport's that are now cognac colored - they were light brown. I think they look good. The dress shoes in the back row, far right, are 15 years-old or older. I put Saphir on them every year. So, now that you see the picture, maybe you can decide if Saphir is worth the $30 or so including tax, and the dull shine it imparts (use the wipes). I think it more than is.Thank you for your time. I know this is very long, but I hope it helps.

I never leave reviews but my goodness would give 10 stars if I could.I have had this pair of Ferragamo shoes for almost 8 years now and they were starting to look a bit raggedy. I have shined them in the past with other polishes but they never came out the way I thought. I watched a few videos online and saw that most cobblers recommend Saphir and thought, “I mean how good can this really be ?”Let me tell you, it’s really good. My shoes look brand new. I first used the Saphir Renovateur to condition the leather and then did two coats of this 1925 polish and it has completely transformed my shoes to looking like brand new again. So happy with this purchase. I just bought more polish in brown and blue to do some other pairs of shoes. Worth every penny.If you’re on the fence about spending the money like I was because you think another polish that’s half the price can get the same results, I promise you they won’t. You should buy this. Now.

Met all my expectations

Excellent vendor!

Works great, it does tend to rub off when used on handbags but maybe buffing it some more will help?

Creates a beautiful gloss, the best

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 stars2. Black - 5 stars3. White - 3 stars - lacks pigment small gray scoffs will not come off from white shoes.