Have you seen a man that it neatly and fashionably dressed from top wearing unpolished or poorly polished shoes? Of course, yes! And the image that you built in your mind about their clean and neat personality just comes crashing down within those few minutes. A man, unlike a woman, must polish shoes regularly or whenever he goes out and must know how to polish shoes better than anyone.

It has rightly been said that a man, a true gentleman is identified by his shoes. So, you need polish shoes, wear your perfectly ironed shirt or any casual outfit before you decide to go out. If the former is missing, it makes your entire dressing sense and your personality comes out in a bad taste. 

Now, all you need is a proper guide to polish shoes even though you might have been polishing and shining them for years, there are many crucial, significant yet small steps that might seem or sound inconsequential to you before, but make a larger impact overall. To polish shoes doesn’t mean, to run a brush of shiner over them and you’re done. There’s a whole lot of process and we have men’s shoe shining guide to help you out.  Let’s have a look on how to shine your shoes!

Do You Have the Right Polish Color?

Choosing the right polish is as necessary as polishing the shoes. It will matter the least if you have polished your shoes neatly, yet the shoe polish isn’t the same shade as your shoes, it will end up imparting a dull color to your footwear. You just don’t need to shine your shoes, you want them to appear natural and ooze out the neatness too. This is only possible when you know the right polish for your shoes. Let’s have look:

• The black shoe polish

The black shoe polish is used for black shoes. Being the most common color in shoes, you don’t have to think a lot about this shoe polish. One mistake not to commit is taking the liberty of polishing your dark-green shoes with black shoe polish as most of the people do. It shows itself on the green surface and comes out awful. 

• Light brown shoe polish

Here is where the confusion begins: the shades of brown. Brown comes in many different shades that it poses as a challenge for all the men. Light brown means a tan color, a color that is rusted or tanned and appears lighter than the other shades of brown. The shades that come under light brown are Tan, Rust, Cognac, Neutral and Bronze. The rust shade has more of orange-reddish shade in it, hence sits well with light brown polish color.

• Medium brown shoe polish

If the shoes are neither too dark, nor too light, they need medium brown shoe polish. Another trick to detect is that if your shoes appear slightly dark after polishing, they are probably of medium brown color. Coffee, walnut and chestnut are some of the shades that fall under this shoe polish color.

• Dark brown shoe polish

The easiest one to guess is the brown of the darkest shade making your shoes pretty formal. This shade includes a darker color of coffee, espresso and comes with a plus point. You can use this polish for your medium brown shoes to give them an intense and formal look. 

• Mahogany shoe polish

No confusion with this one. It has a maroonish or reddish look mixed with brown, like burgundy. The red in mahogany sits back than the Hermes red color in shoes. It still retains its formal look by mixing well with brown. 

• Hermes red shoe polish

If the red in the shoes shine more than the brown, Hermes it is. It is comparatively shinier than the mahogany and brighter, too. 

• Bordeaux shoe polish

This falls under the wine color and is pretty easily identified. Don’t get confused with mahogany and Bordeaux shoe color. Mahogany contains a tint of red whereas, Bordeaux has a tint of burgundy wine. 

Polish Shoes with a Brush or a cloth? 

Now that you know the shoe polish colors you need to hop on to the next step on how to polish shoes. Picking and choosing the right cloth. The texture of the cloth and the area that needs to get polished needs to be considered before polishing. 

• Firstly, remove the shoelaces and brush off the dirt and debris from the shoe surface and never forget to dust off the edges of the shoes, too.
• Always put a newspaper below the shoes before you start with the shoe polishing process.
• Apply polish liberally on the shoe with a cloth or horseshoe brush. Keep the layer of the polish thin and apply in the same direction.
• Leave it for at least five minutes.

Shoe Cream or Shoe Polish?

After learning how to polish shoes, the last step that comes is shining them. It’s your call whether you want to put a shoe polish or shine it with a running a cloth with a  few water droplets. Shoe cream works like a moisturizing cream that enhances the polish and rough surfaces of the leather. Shoe polish is a little dry and can sometimes give a dry look with strokes of brush or cloth standing out. 

There is another way on how to shine your shoes after polishing them. What most people do is pick a soft cloth, sprinkle a few droplets of water and run it on the surface of shoes. Surprisingly, this works quite good but it ends up damaging the leather or any material in the long-run. Another alternative to polish shoes is using a shoe cream. If you intend to use a shoe cream then you don’t need to go for the above-mentioned step. Apply the shoe cream with a soft brush and leave it to rest. Shoe cream also enjoys an upper hand because it enhances the shine and gives you show a glossy look. Shoe polish on other hand isn’t able to to give the same shiny, lustrous and rich look. 

Now that you have men’s shoe shining guide and the ideas about the polish colors, you won’t encounter the problems you faced earlier and can polish shoes better than earlier. Moreover, it will help to add glamour to your outfit and personality wherever you go. 

Also Read: Remove Stains From White Shoes