Tarrago Shoe Cream Professional Shoe Polish for Leather Boots, Shoes, Purse, Furniture Eco Friendly Leather Conditioner 1.7oz - High Silver Metallic #106

I have a Relic handbag I just love. Unfortunately, it got stained. In the process of trying to remove the stains, the bag faded- badly. I really wish I had taken a picture of the bag before I used this product so I could show the difference. It was amazing! The handbag looks brand new. The product was super easy to use, and I didn't smell at all. I'm extremely happy with this product, and should I need any more leather polish, I will be coming back to this company.

So smooth to apply, covers well and polishes to the perfect sheen. What more can I say? Well, there is this: be sure to use a small brush to apply so you don't get it on your hands as it does not wash off as easily as paste polish. I think this is because it's almost a thick liquid, it gets into the skin pores. Even so, highly recommend.

I am a former shoe cobbler. I am writing this review for anyone, but also anyone with knowledge of or interest in solvents, paints, adhesives etc because I like this product a lot, but it has very specific applications in my opinion and I would want to know these before purchase in some contexts. This is, in essence, a water-based paint. It cleans up very readily with water should it wind up on unintended surfaces. This is true even after cure of two months, in my experience. For context, I have a pair of Manolo Blahnik heels made of a matte/nubuck dupe fine grain leather in a solid pale ice blue. I was wanting to turn these metallic with a product that would not crack or peel over time, and hoped to avoid doing something permanent that I would come to regret/find irreversible. I did not want to saturate the leather with a dye, as darker was not my goal... simply metallic, and the ice blue was a good background for applying something silvery. I used the bright silver in this polish, but I trust that any mettalic by the same brand would be very good. I will be buying more. I set out to 'rub' this product into the leather surface as I would with a Meltonian shoe cream. The effect was not the same. This product does not saturate the leather whatsoever, but simply sits on top and accumulates by layers. It then dries, and this is why I consider it to be more of a paint, and my application recommendations are discussed further below. In my initial application I attempted to apply the cream consistently in one layer using a cotton ball (because I'm lazy), which resulted in fine hairs of cotton embedded in the polish layer AND (most importantly), patchy areas where the polish did not adhere to the leather as well as others. As I attempted to 'spot' apply more polish to these areas, I noticed the problem was that the fresh wet polish was wirking like a solvent to break down earlier, dried applications and remove these. Because the stuff readily removes with water alone, I abandoned the project for over a month knowing that the next time I applied I would instead use a small brush and lay consistent layers on top of each other, allowing thorough dry time in between, and build to the desired saturation. Thankfully my (then) theory about water clean up was correct and some several weeks later I was able to remove all the polish down to the very same leather I started with using cotton balls and water. I can now start anew with paintbrush application. I recommend that users treat this like an acrylic paint. Do not rub on and expect the stuff to adhere to the leather outright (I had the perfect canvas for this stuff to stick to... a raw, matte, open-pored nubuck). Assume it will lift itself in multiple applications and lay down layers with no opportunity for these to lift with additional rubbing. Of note, when I returned to the shoes to remove my first attempt, I noticed that the thickest area of application had cracked. I hadn't worn them at all, so this occured without stress to the base leather. The cracking was very fine... in ceramics it is called 'crazing' and that's a good description of what I witnessed. Very fine cracks densely dispersed in the areas where the cream had built up excessively. I flexed the leather in these areas to see if there was any sign that the cracking would lead to peeling, and there was no indication that the polish was separating from the leather. I would consider this a superficial characteristic of the polish, and it would not bother me if it occured on my final preparation. Certainly not when I can simply wipe this stuff off over time and reapply to freshen up my shoes. At any rate, I believe that if I apply consistent layers with the brush/painting technique and keep the overall application thin and consistent, the crazing may not even occur or become an unmanageable issue. And, my Manolo Blahniks look positively metallic silver. They look incredible. I will be buying more of this stuff. If you want metallic leather, this is your bliss. Because it is water soluble and highly soluble over time, know it might now be a long-term solution for something that gets a lot of surface contact like a handbag or billfold. If I were thinking of an appropriate product for those applications I would want this same product, but oil based.

Either my shoes were extremely thirsty, or this cream needs lots of layers to get an even color. Regardless, I'm quite pleased with the result so far. I'm going to let these sit over night and see if I can get a bit more to absorb in the toe box.

It’s was what I expected good product.

This was highly recommended by several different sites.

Perfect color for leather that needed polishing. Very good coverage, look, and protection.

I ordered Tarrago #15 Dark Gray. It's not really all that dark at all. At best it is a medium gray, and actually it's a bit lighter than that. I could see it wasn't going to match at all (for filling in some cracks in some non-shoe leather). I thought about blending some of the Tarrago #15 with some Black (Saphir) Cream to try to get the color where I needed it to be. But it turned out the Black (Saphir) Cream did a pretty good job by itself. It filled the cracks darkly but not so much that they stood out against the gray of the leather. So I ended-up returning the Tarrago #15. Tarrago Cream appears to enjoy the reputation of being the best shoe cream product, other than Saphir. They are both owned by the same company, btw, but they each build their own historical formulations in their own historical factories, Tarrago in Spain, Saphir in France. With Tarrago Cream you have to be OK with it being water-based (instead of solvent-based). Water-based puts a limit upon how much pigment the cream can suspend; solvent-based creams can suspend more pigment. On the upside, Tarrago seems to have the widest palette of colors among all the major shoe creams. However I do see other reviewers here also saying that the Tarrago color they get in the glass jar is off from what they expected it to be from looking at the name and the color pallete.

Deludente

Shoe cream corresponds to the description. The color is what I need. The quality is good. I recommend.

ok, doesn't repair lightly damaged leather. More like an polisher.

Très bon produit facile à utiliser

Cleaned boots, conditioned boots and left over night. Then this cream arrived so I set up for polishing. The coverage and ease of application is outstanding. Polishing was completed in minutes and left over night to bed in. The boots rubbed up like new the next morning. This stuff is brilliant compared to the cherry blossom I’ve been using for decades. No going back now, I feel this gear is easily better. Have towels handy when polishing as the cream gets everywhere. Consistency is like moisturiser and needs time to dry and bed in. I have full grain biker boots and don’t like the shine you get with wax polishes. This is more of a matte colour polish and suits the style of boots perfectly. I polished two pairs of boots with what was on the lid after opening, I would say very good value for money because of this.