This shoe care set contains a tin of Saphir Medaille d'Or Mirror Gloss.

Mirror gloss shoe polishing wax is best applied using a cotton cloth. (TIP. Don't use too much shoe polish at once. When it comes to shoe polish we like to say less is more.  To treat your shoes with Mirror Gloss polishing wax you need:

 Saphir Medaille d'Or Mirror Gloss
 Applicator cloth
 Polishing cloth
 Polishing brush
 Water dispenser

High gloss
Once you’ve gone through all the necessary steps to wash, nourish and shine your shoes, you can start working on the spit shine – also known as ‘glazing your shoes’. The basic principle is applying thin layers of shoe wax, and shining each of the layers in between. The layers even out the coarse structure of the leather. Note that some shoes are made of finer leather than others – so one pair might take longer to spit shine than another.

We recommend working with Saphir Medaille d’Or Mirror Gloss since it is famous for its great shining and nourishing qualities. If you prefer to use a different brand of shoe polish make sure you use a natural beeswax based shoe wax. If you don’t, you risk damaging the leather.

Before you start

If you have an oily shoe wax such as Saphir Pate de Luxe you can choose to let your shoe wax dry out a bit before you start. Since Saphir Mirror Gloss is already quite dry it is not necassary to let it dry first. By leaving the lid off the wax for a day or so, the moisture in the wax will evaporate. That way you get a concentrated shoe wax that will shine more easily.

Use a shoe wax with the same colour or slightly darker than the leather of your shoes or neutral. For black shoes you use black polish.

Use a cotton cloth so you don’t scratch the shoe wax when you apply a layer. If you scratch the layers, you can’t get a spit shine.

Wrap the cloth around your index and middle finger, so you have a small and smooth surface to shine with. Watch this video for more details:

The first layers (1-3)
Apply a little shoe wax to the cloth and massage the wax into the leather of your shoes. Make sure you hold the cloth as shown in the video. The general rule is to use as little shoe wax as possible, but for the first three layers you want to use slightly more since you are trying to cover the structure of the leather with layers of shoe wax.

Once you’ve finished one layer on your shoe, start with the other shoe so the wax can dry into the leather a little bit. As soon as you’ve finished the second shoe, you can go back to the first and shine the wax. Do this with a horsehair shine brush until you are happy with the result. Finish the layer with a shine cloth, rubbing it firmly and quickly over the toe cap to create heat. The heat melts the wax evenly over your shoe, making it as smooth as can be. Do this in between all the first three layers.

After the third layer you can check if you’ve used enough shoe wax, simply by touching the leather with your fingers. If you can still feel the structure of the leather clearly, you might want to apply another layer. If you only feel it slightly or even better, not at all, you can continue with the finishing of your spit shine.

Building up your shine (layers 4 and up)
Apply the next layer of wax, but really try to use as little as possible from this layer on. Also add some water to the wax from now on. A little water will help to distribute the wax more evenly over the leather, which we will explain later.

Use just enough wax to cover the toe cap, but don’t apply a thick layer. The shoes already have a thick layer, because of the three thin layers you’ve applied earlier.

Once you’ve applied the layer, let it dry. If you didn’t let the wax dry in the tin for a day before you used it, it needs to dry a bit longer on the shoe.

Wait a few minutes and shine the wax using only the cotton cloth. Again, use only two fingers inside the cloth as explained earlier in the video. It enhances the heat, which causes the wax to shine more. Before you start, drip two small drops of water on the toe box of your shoe; the water will help to distribute the heat, creating an even layer of wax.

Apply as many of these layers as you wish, until you’ve reached the shine you were hoping for. Keep checking your progress in between the layers by touching the leather to feel if it is smooth already. On average it takes about seven to ten layers of wax to get a spit shine and about 4-5 layers with Saphir mirror gloss. As you can see it depends heavily on the type of shoe wax and technique you use to get a mirror sine/

No luck? No tools!
Finding it difficult to get the level of spit shine you want? Use no tools at all. By applying and shining shoe wax with your bare hands you create the most heat, thus getting the quickest shine. Downside: your hands will obviously be covered in shoe wax, but since it’s a natural wax, there are worse things to get on your hands.

Simply apply the wax with your fingertips and let the wax dry for 5 minutes. Shine your shoes by quickly rubbing the heel of your hand over the waxed toe box. This creates so much heat that the wax melts and creates a smooth shiny layer. You will notice that your hand also gets really hot by the friction.

To wax and shine the rest of your shoe, use a Saphir Medaille d’Or shine glove. The glove allows you to cover a bigger area of the shoe than you would using only two fingers in the shine cloth.