Ranking Shoe Polishes (ft. Anders Sundström of Paul Brunngård)

Leather shoes are among the great wardrobe investments, and while many say they only last a year or two, the right shoe care techniques and products, like shoe polishes, can make them last even longer and maintain their pristine condition. We’ll rank shoe polishes today to help keep your shoes in tip-top condition!

Transcript (Lightly Edited for Clarity):

[Jack] Welcome back to the Gentleman’s Gazette. Today, I’m in London at the Arterton Showroom with my friend Anders Sundström. Anders is an expert in shoe polishing, and today, we’ll be ranking different shoe polishes. Anders, welcome to the channel!

[Anders] Thank you.

[Jack] Now, what we’re going to be doing is we’re going to be ranking polishes from top to bottom. We’ll be looking at wax polishes, so something that you would get in a tin that’s typically like a hard wax, versus a cream polish.

The ranking guides that we’ve got are quite whimsical. We’ve got at the top, “Shines Like A Diamond;” moving down to “Super Slick;” we’ll also have “Daily Gleam,” so something that’s very middle of the road; and then working down, we’ve got “Works In A Pinch;” all the way to “Rough As Dirt.”

1. Saphir Pâte De Luxe

[Jack] So let’s get started with the one that I think everyone knows: Saphir.

[Anders] So, Saphir is one of the most well-known brands out there and, first of all, they do really good chemistry. No doubt about it. And we should really start by looking at the the polishes.

So, first off, you would have the Saphir Pâte. This is the most well-known. It’s actually a soft wax polish— softer wax polish—consisting of more of the natural and mineral waxes, and they also use turpentine, which is a very important part of the chemistry of a good wax polish.

Because if you use mainly naphtha, you would actually lose some of the evaporation properties that are necessary for the speed of a high shine—when you build layers—because evaporation will speed up solidification of the wax, because it will draw energy and cool down the wax. It’s a very key part of the process of building layers.

So, the Pâte is actually a great product because it has… You have beeswax, your carnauba, you have montan waxes and you mineral waxes, and it’s a great mixture to create quite of a easy buildup layer, and I would argue that it actually has capacity to avoid, in a way, the cracking issue when you build spit shine.

Because, obviously, when you build a thick layer, you would potentially crack it when you flex. So, this is some of the issues you would run into when building spitshine. So, I would definitely rank that as a top one. Yeah, definitely, it’s a good, good polish.

[Jack] Are we talking absolute top tier or…?

[Anders] Yes.

[Jack] Fantastic.

[Anders] It’s one of the top tiers, definitely. It is a good product.

2. Saphir Mirror Gloss

[Anders] Now, they also have the Mirror Gloss. The Mirror Gloss is a hard polish, and if you compare those two, most who have worked with both will notice that the Mirror Gloss is actually very hard. And the idea with a Mirror Gloss is you want speed when building layers, which hardness is ideal.

The problem you’re going to have with Mirror Gloss, because obviously, you’re going to build layers fast, but what they did is that, similar to the Pâte is that you use about 50% naphtha and 20% turpentine. So, it’s a mixture of naphtha and turpentine; it’s not only turpentine. And then you add more of the harder waxes, which would be montan waxes. Now montan waxes have a great feature of shine that would be good; however, when you solidify a mineral-based wax, especially montan waxes, it will shrink.

[Jack] Oh, okay. So is that why when you get a tin of polish, sometimes the polish looks like it doesn’t fit the tin?

[Anders] Yeah, that is one, for example.

That has something to do with the evaporation of the solvents. But, if you put the wax polish on the leather, and as soon as the solvent evaporates and the wax film solidifies, it will start to shrink even after it’s dried. It has that chemical property.

[Jack] Interesting, okay.

[Anders] So, that’s one of the issues I’ve seen with a Mirror Gloss. One of the issues. Again, it is really efficient to build layers, yes, and it will create a good shine; but a good polish is not only a shine, it’s long longevity of the shine itself. So, that is one of my concerns with that product. Also, one of the big problems montan waxes is the high melting point.

So, some people who uses Mirror Gloss have a problem with that it doesn’t melt on your fingers when you want to speed build a shine because then, you need to, for example, apply multiple layers fast; you will run into to that kind of issue.

So, again, it’s a great product. It has some some good features. It has some problems. So, I would top rank it more towards the top-middle—The Super Slick. Yeah, again, a good product but it doesn’t really… I would say that the Pâte would be superior because it has some of those feature that create a generally good shine for longevity, which is more important than just looking good when you’re finished.

3. Saphir Pommadier

[Jack] Interesting. So, how would you rank the soft creams that Saphir offers?

[Anders] So, the soft cream, the Pommadier — again, a great product. The big feature of this is the pigmentation, I would say. That’s the niche. It has high content of pigmentation . It is as good as it could be bad because I seen a lot of users actually using it, and it creates almost a painted layer of pigmentations of over the grain, which almost ruined the shoe. It could be used well, it could be used not so great.

I would also say Super Slick for the Pommadier. It’s a good cream, it has nourishment, it has great shine potential, it has good nourishment properties, and definitely a good shine. Definitely, super slick.

4. Boot Black Shoe Polish

[Jack] Great! Moving on. We’ll come to another brand that is definitely within the echelon of specialist shoe care, would be Boot Black.

[Anders] So, Boot Black, the Japanese brand. Really interesting brand. They have a good polish that uses turpentine, it uses carnauba wax, and I would assume mineral waxes. I don’t know their formula by heart, but yes, it’s a good polish.

The problem I have when I’ve played with it is that it’s a bit grainy. It has a tendency to be a bit grainy—which is tendency of, typically, when you either haven’t fully solidified it properly after filling. Because they need a cooling process that is a bit delicate, and if you don’t cool it properly, it will not gel properly. The wax blend will not gel properly, and you can have grain issues.

[Jack] Are you talking about during manufacturing?

[Anders] Yeah, during manufacturing, correct. So, that is some of the concern I have with that product.

Obviously, you can do a good shine. You could use it to do a mirror shine, of course. So, you could build layers with it, but because of the grain structure, it hasn’t properly blended together to proper gel—wax gel. So, that’s why I would maybe put in Daily Gleam. Maybe mid.

[Jack] That mid tier? Yeah, okay.

[Anders] Because that grainy structure has some issues.

[Jack] Yeah, I can understand.

5. Boot Black Artist Pallete

[Anders] But, it’s an absolutely good polish, of course. I mean, if we look at Boot Black, their absolute best product is the Artist Palette.

[Jack] Great! So, what about Boot Black’s cream?

[Anders] So, the cream in Boot Black is their herald product. Literally, the best product in their assortment, and I think that’s widely known also. When it comes to a good cream polish, when we rank a good cream at the top, you can’t really compare to a polish, obviously, when it comes to shine because, when you build a cream, you value not only shine but you also value waterproofing, you also value nourishment and pigmentation. So, it a cream is very different it’s like comparing apples and pears when it comes to, obviously, polish.

Well, this cream from Boot Black is literally the best product in the assortment, and I would definitely rank it as the top—Shine Like A Diamond—cause it actually provides really good shine. If you work with it, great shine, great patina, so you could really create a nice finish on the leather, which really, if you compare to other creams, it’s not that often the case. Because, again, it’s a product where you compromise between the different properties because, usually, it’s some sort of emulsion—you mix water and wax. So, I would rank this quite high because it has all the function.

Waterproofing, when it comes to a cream, is challenging because you mix a lot of different components but, in the end, you need a surface that has this hydrophobic surface. So, yeah, top tier, definitely.

[Jack] Excellent! That sounds like Boot Black is going to be the best cream polish for the person that just likes to rejuvenate the color of their shoes, give it a once over with a brush or maybe a cloth and just have that nice sort of semi-shine for the day.

[Anders] Yeah, exactly, and that’s the the beauty of a of a proper cream. You make it fast, it’s a convenient product. A polish is harder. It takes a little bit more time. But, cream—it’s fast, it’s easy, it’s convenient, it’s soft. So, you can work with it quite easy. So, that’s why a cream, like the Pâte, it’s a great product to use.

6. Kiwi Shoe Polish & Kiwi Parade Gloss

[Jack] Excellent! So, moving on to our next brand, and this one might be a bit controversial—it’s Kiwi.

[Anders] Yeah, so Kiwi. We don’t really know what’s happening with Kiwi. Will they be lost through history or will they remain? Will they be bought up? We don’t know at the moment, but they do have a core part in history when it comes to polishes. We all know the Parade Gloss, and the standard Kiwi polish has been… You can easily find it anywhere, and it’s been widely used through history.

[Jack] Definitely, I think that’s something in my own menswear journey and, even now, Kiwi’s been the brand that I can rely on being available in a lot of different places—supermarkets, corner shops.

It’s the cheaply-available, every-man shoe polish.

[Anders] Yeah, and I mean, I can tell you if I look at my father’s shoe care bag, you will find a Kiwi Parade Gloss. And Kiwi, I mean, most old gentlemen will have it. Anyhow, so if we look at the products though, we can start with the standard polish. It is obviously a compromise when you have to lower the cost as they’ve done, but their focus is consistency, which would mean that this product is not as agile for a high shine if you compare for the the high brands. So, maybe I would rank this low—as Rough As Dirt.

But, if you’re going to take the price into account… Yeah. Looking at the Parade Gloss though, this is a interesting product because it still has a quite valuable low price point, but it a harder wax for a higher shine. I mean, this would be trying to compete with the Mirror Gloss, obviously.

[Jack] From Saphir? 

[Anders] From Saphir. Yeah, exactly. The thing about the Parade Gloss is, yes, you have carnauba wax, which is the harder natural wax you want for high shine, but it’s also made with a lot of paraffin, microcrystalline waxes, don’t use turpentine. Now, using this product, you will notice that you have more tendency with cracking; not cracking of the wax layer, cracking of the leather.

[Jack] Interesting, okay.

[Anders] Yes, it is because, generally, when you talk about polishes, you don’t get a lot of nourishment; however, it will easily dry up the product if it doesn’t have some of the nourishing waxes like beeswax, for example. So, cause it does have a lot of solvents can be a bit harsh. 

So, the Parade Gloss will be able to build a fairly good shine, but it has a tendency to dry out the leather slightly, so you have to be a bit careful when using that product and I mean, paraffins are really good for waterproofing. But, for shine and good for the leather, not so much. So, this would be a mid-low, Works In A Pinch kind of product, if I going to be honest. But, again, a perfectly good product for normal households.

7. Paul Brunngård Spitshine & Paul Brunngård Sublime Wax

[Jack] Okay, so on to our next brand. Now, this one is quite special, and it’s one of the reasons why we’ve got Anders with us today. Although this video is not sponsored, Paul Brunngård is a unique product in the shoe care world. Why is that, Anders?

[Anders] I’m actually the man behind Paul Brunngård.

[Jack] Fantastic!

[Anders] Yeah, so I’m actually an engineer, but I come from a passion for shoe care. I’ve competed with shoe care, competed in shoe shining championships in Sweden, and I really want to bring that passion into this brand. Even though I come from an engineering standpoint, I wanted to have that twist and not be too designing to marketing and really a focus on the quality, the craftsmanship.

[Jack] Excellent! So, essentially, Paul Brunngård has been formulated over your many years of trying and testing other different polishes—which, like I say, is why Anders is with us today—because, essentially, you’ve got more experience in the world of shoe care than I could ever hope to. So, we’re also expecting that Paul Brunngård’s probably going to rank pretty high, but let’s see, where would you put the hard waxes?

[Anders] Yeah, so we have two waxes, and we have Sublime Wax and Spitshine. Both are polishes. It’s not a cream polish, but rather a hard polish, and I would say, for example, the Sublime Wax is a softer polish.

[Jack] That’s that one there?

[Anders] Yeah, this is the sublime wax. Whilst the Spitshine is harder. And if we look at Sublime Wax, generally, this what we want to use. What I wanted to achieve was a convenient polish, apply easy, get a really high shine for someone who might or not want to do spit shine. Obviously, you can do it. So, these two products are different types of products. It’s a bit apples and pears still. They’re different tools for different processes of the shoe care routine, so they’re a bit optimized for the different parts. 

[Jack] So, essentially, depending on what the user wants to get from their shoe care routine, a different product is going to do a different thing for them?

[Anders] Yeah, exactly!

[Jack] Okay.

[Anders] So, the Sublime Wax, obviously, uses carnauba wax, beeswax, a little more of the soft waxes to make sure that you can easily apply it. It’s soft, nourishes leather slightly, but really when you use a a polishing brush like the yak brush, you can achieve that really nice shine. But, it’s easy, it’s convenient. You can spit shine with it—of course, you can. But, here’s the difference: This Spitshine is made for passionate freaks like me.

[Jack] Not freaks, I would say. I would say “enthusiast.” 

[Anders] Enthusiast! Yeah, yeah! So, the thing about this Spitshine is, if we take the Sublime Wax, you could obviously achieve a really good shine. I would rank it to Super Slick—top to mid, absolutely! But, if we go to the Spitshine, we can actually achieve an even greater shine and easier buildup. So, this product is still optimized for a good, easy shine, but the Spitshine is optimized for building layers and especially fast. Speed is the key.

[Jack] Awesome! So, if you’re the sort of person that likes that mirror shine, that really gleaming toe cap, the Spitshine is the one.

[Anders] Yeah, and here we made sure to use more hard waxes, so you will, if you compare these two, you will definitely see a much harder paste. But, the thing I wanted to achieve with the Spitshine, especially, is that I wanted to have a hard, spit shine polish, a hard wax polish that doesn’t really get the issues with cracking as much. So, when you usually apply wax with too much Montan wax or too hard wax, it could easily crack. But, with this one, we didn’t really have those issues because we tweaked it to be optimized to tweak out those issues; those features that you could find with those types of waxes.

[Jack] Got it! So, the Sublime Wax ranks at the Super Slick. What about the Spitshine?

[Anders] Shines Like A Diamond, obviously! Of course, again, here we use turpentine— optimized to have a evaporation rate, which helps to build layers really fast. Harder waxes to build a solid wax layer. So, definitely shines like diamond. Top tier.

8. Paul Brunngård Artistic Cream

[Anders] And when it comes to the creams, we have the Artistic Cream, and again, you can’t compare a proper cream to a polish. Two different kinds of products but the wonderful part about the Artistic Cream that we’re really proud of is that you really get a really fantastic shine, but still good water repellency.

[Jack] Oh, awesome! Okay.

[Anders] So, it does provide good nourishment. It does provide pigmentation. I would argue that our cream has less pigmentation to, for example, Pommadier, which would be an advantage for some that might over apply it.

[Jack] Yeah. So, you’d say that one is also Shines Like A Diamond?

[Anders] Yes, that one shines because, actually, the shine from Artistic Cream is fantastic.

9. Dasco Shoe Polish

[Jack] Next up is another one very similar to Kiwi. It’s kind of that supermarket brand. I know that I’ve definitely been upsold this one  in a lot of sort of High Street shoe stores. It’s Dasco.

[Anders] So, compare Dasco polish to PB or Saphir. The biggest difference you will see is the lack of turpentine. They will use naphtha. While it’s cheaper and the argument for turpentine could be health issues (some people are more concerned about the health, which is a bit overrated), but the thing about the Dasco is it uses a mixture of, yes, you have carnauba wax, but you also have some synthetic waxes that are not optimized for a good shine. So, obviously, for a general shine, for something that you use on your everyday shoe, fair enough—it’s okay. 

[Jack] So, a Daily Gleam?

[Anders] Daily Gleam. Yeah, absolutely, it’s not the worst you could get. It’s not, but it’s it’s okay. Definitely okay to use.

10. Dasco Shoe Cream

[Jack] And what about soft cream polishes for Dasco?

[Anders] They do have one, and for the price point, it’s an okay cream. They use beeswax, at least, so you get a nourishment, you get a bit of shine. It’s an okay cream. I wouldn’t rank it too high—Works In A Pinch. It’s an okay cream for the for the price point, I would argue.

11. Cherry Blossom Shoe Polish & Cherry Blossom Shoe Cream

[Jack] Okay. Next up is one that I think a lot of the vintage aficionados will definitely recognize. It’s a brand that I know has been around for many, many years, and that’s Cherry Blossom.

[Anders] Yeah, even from the UK, as well. So, yes, Cherry Blossom is an interesting brand. They do have a polish, and I’ve actually tried it out a bit. The problem you’re going to have with it: They don’t use turpentine. It’s like with Dasco. It is an okay polish. Fair enough, but I’m trying to polish with it, you can’t really build layers fast. It creates an okay shine. The biggest issue with this product is the insufficient wax layer buildup. Definitely the biggest issue with this one. So, it doesn’t really compete with PB, Boot Black, or Saphir.

[Jack] I’ve always seen Cherry Blossom and Kiwi and potentially even Dasco being as competitors amongst the kind of lower echelons, also lower price bracket. I think that’s the reality, right?

[Anders] Yeah, which is fair enough. I mean, they compete at a different segment. So, again, it’s a bit apples and pears, but you have to still compare price point and quality. And definitely an okay brand for someone that that likes their specific formulations. But, trying them out, not really impressed with, especially, the polish. The cream—Daily Gleam. Absolutely okay. Okay cream. Provides a bit of shine.

[Jack] So, you’d rank the cream higher than the wax?

[Anders] Yeah. 

[Jack] Got it! So, the cream came in at Daily Gleam and the polish—Works In A Pinch.

[Anders] It works in a pinch. Yeah, yeah. Definitely.

12. Tarrago Shoe Polish

[Jack] Okay, next up is a Spanish brand of shoe polish, Tarrago. Not one that I’ve had a lot of experience with so I’d be intrigued to hear your thoughts.

[Anders] I’m actually very fond of Tarrago as a middle-segment polish. Because if you look at their formulation, they make sure to use natural waxes—beeswax, carnauba wax; mineral waxes, which would be—I don’t know exactly what kind of mineral waxes—but I would assume a bit of montan wax, a bit of other types of mineral based waxes that are important to create a gel. So, their formula is more stable and more clean, more neat, which is good. They don’t use turpentine.

They have the same problem if you want to build layers as you would have with Dasco or Cherry Blossom. But, definitely an okay, good polish, I would say. I would definitely rank this Daily Gleam if you compare that to, for example, the Dasco and the Cherry Blossom.

[Jack] Good to know. So, is that one that should probably look out to include in my own shoe care routine?

[Anders] Yeah, if you’re going for a… It’s obviously slightly cheaper. So, if price point is important for you, I would definitely go for Tarrago, actually.

13. Tarrago Shoe Cream

[Jack] Nice. Good to know. Do they do a cream polish?

[Anders] Yeah, which is a good one. They make sure to use good ingredients. Get fairly good water repellency, which, again, it’s a balance. Maybe the shine is not as good as, for example… Definitely not Artistic Palette, definitely not PBand , definitely not Saphir. But, it’s good. I would rank it Daily Gleam definitely.

[Jack] So, a consistency with Tarrago polishes.

[Anders] Definitely consistency. I think Tarrago, they do good products.

14. Lincoln Shoe Polish

[Anders] So, the next brand (that’s really interesting) is Lincoln. This is an American brand that is established in the 1920s in California, San Francisco.

It’s a bit interesting cause they they seem to have a great following. I mean, fan base for really shoe care lovers. That military passion for a high shine—military spit shine, so to say.

[Jack] So, what made the brand special to begin with? You say 1920s?

[Anders] Yeah, so it seems to be that the founders, sort of, were the passionate people of a high shine shoe, and you can really see it in the product that they focus a lot on high shine. The product works really well for high shine, and you can get that that is highly reflected in the fan base; that they are as passionate as me, which is great and which gives that brand some credit.

[Jack] Excellent! What are they like, price point?

[Anders] It’s a fairly good price point for the quality, I would say. Yeah, it’s a good product for the price.

[Jack] Okay, so where would you rank their wax polishes? Their harder polishes?

[Anders] Daily Gleam. The polish is a Daily Gleam. It’s a good polish, and I think that’s their hero product.

[Jack] So, again, quite similar consistency with, for instance, Tarrago that we saw earlier. So, if you’re looking for something that’s going to give you a decent return on your money, then Lincoln.

[Anders] Lincoln, definitely. I mean, they have passion. So, definitely a good bang for the buck. Definitely.

[Jack] So, essentially, Anders, but a hundred years ago.

[both laugh]

[Anders] Good point, good point.

15. Pure Polish Shoe Polish

[Jack] Finally, we come to a brand that, again, is new to me but you know a lot about and that is Pure Polish. 

[Anders] Yeah, again, an American brand. Also like Lincoln, made in the United States, and they bring something new to the table. So, instead of using turpentine, they actually use orange oil. Why they do this is because they feel that the turpentine being a bit harsh, generally, to the to the user.

The orange oil is more fresh, which is definitely the case. It has a more fresh smell. Funny enough though, if you take the consistency or the content of a turpentine oil, it consists of limonene, which is the main component of the orange oil. So, actually they are similar slightly, but the orange oil will have similar flash points like the turpentine because it is a turpentine kind of molecule.

So, it’s an interesting concept, and I think they achieved a really nice both polish and cream. So, why would you want to use Pure Polish is mainly because you want something that has a different smell.

[Jack] So, if you don’t like that sort of really harsh… It definitely hits. We were talking about the Mirror Gloss from Saphir. That one is very high turpentine scent. It kind of hits the back of your nostrils. So, if you prefer something that’s perhaps a little kinder, especially if you have sensitivities to scents, I can imagine this is the better polish for you.

[Anders] Yes and no.

So, it’s just that it’s different and that might be for some. That has a lighter smell instead of the bit sharp one. And if you look at the polish, for example, the high shine, it only uses natural waxes, which is good. It uses beeswax, carnauba wax. A good thing, obviously, cause you don’t have paraffins. Again, this means that you can also get a good shine. I would definitely say that.

The problem though with the polish from Pure Polish, I would say, is consistency in graining. There are some… I have seen cases where you have a bit of grain structure, and this is because, even though beeswax and carnauba wax are really interesting waxes to use in a polish, you need some other waxes to create a gel, and the cooling process is vital to to create this gel structure between the waxes and the solvents.

[Jack] So, does that gel structure it creates, the smoother the cake of polish in the tin.

[Anders] Yeah, simplified, yes. So, it can be a bit grainy. So, I would say that is I think the downfall. But you do get really nice shine, and this is because the high content of the orange oil, which has a high flash point, helps to create a good shine, and of course, carnauba wax. So, definitely, Super Slick on the polish.

[Jack] Cool, okay.

[Anders] I like it. It’s just it has some issues, and I think they could be could be definitely better if they try to fix some of the quirks on that product. But really nice product.

16. Pure Polish Cream 

[Jack] And for the cream polish?

[Anders] A good shine, good water… I would definitely put that on Daily Gleam.

Summary of Ranking of Shoe Polishes

Conclusion

[Jack] So, there we have it. Some shoe polish brands that you’ve definitely heard of, as well as some that you probably haven’t heard of yet and how they rank against each other. Now, I’m curious, would you rank these polishes the same as us? What experience do you have? Let us know in the comments below, and Anders, thanks so much for being with us today.

[Anders] Thank you very much!