Shoecare for smooth leather shoes 

With smooth leather shoes we mean common shoes made of cowhide or calfskin. Shoes made of Shell Cordovan or exotic leather require a slightly different kind of care.

But even smooth leather shoes differ in their finish. Open-pored leather reacts more intensively to care products, while heavily surface dyed leather hardly allows care products to penetrate the leather due to its strong colour layer on the leather. There are still many gradations in between.

Therefore, check on a less visible spot how the leather reacts to a care product.

Step 1: Cleaning shoes

Remove the laces from the shoes before cleaning them. If you leave the shoe trees in the shoes, the leather is slightly stretched and the care products reach the leather particularly well.

Only clean shoes can be maintained. Therefore remove loose dust or dirt with the Burgol Luxury Dirt Brush. The short birstles are strong enough to remove dust and dirt, but gentle enough on most types of leather. More firmly adhered and water-soluble dirt can be wiped off with a moistened Burgol Polishing Cloth.

Step 2: Care for shoe leather

Leather gets dry and brittle over time, intensified by environmental influences. With a caring shoe cream, our Burgol Shoe Pomade Cream, you add care substances to the leather, keep it supple and refresh the colours. Always use Burgol Shoe Pomade Cream sparingly.

Apply the shoe pomade first to less accessible areas, such as decorations and the narrow areas between the upper leather and the edge of the sole, by  using a Burgol Jar Brush.

On smooth surfaces, apply the shoe pomade with the Burgol Polishing Cloth. The cloth allows to apply the shoe pomade more sparingly and to rub in a little.

After a few minutes you can polish the shoes to shine with a Burgol Horsehair Brush 22 mm or 30 mm hair length. Shoe Pomade Cream produces a silky shine.

Step 3: Shine and protection for the leather

While the Shoe Pomade Cream is used to care for the leather in the depth, Burgol Shoe Polishing Wax provides a high gloss and the wax layer provides additional protection against the penetration of rain and dirt.

Apply shoe wax sparingly to the narrow areas between the upper leather and the edges of the soles using the Burgol Dauber Brush. Apply the shoe wax to the smooth surfaces with the Burgol Polishing Cloth. Let the shoe wax dry for a few minutes.

Polish your shoes to shine with the Burgol Horsehair Brush 22 mm or 30 mm.

Step 4: Even more gloss

Horsehair brushes remove excess shoe wax and smooth the surface. Horsehair leaves very fine stripes in the wax layer, which are hardly visible to the eyes.

With a fine polishing brush, the Burgol Goat Hair Brush or Burgol Yak Hair Brush, you can polish the fine stripes which creats a higher shine.

Fine polishing brushes are not suitable for the first polish. Goat and yak hair are too soft to remove excess shoe wax and to smooth it in the first step.

Step 5: Re-Polishing and subsequent shoe care

When the shine fades, polish your shoes with a Burgol Goat Hair Brush or Yak Hair Brush. Once the wax layer on the leather has worn off and can no longer be re-polished, apply a thin layer of Burgol Polishing Shoe Wax again and polish the shoes to shine as described above.

You do not need to treat your shoes every week with shoe pomade cream and shoe wax. Depending on how often you wear your shoes and on environmental influences, every few weeks is sufficient. The leather will not dry out that quickly.