Shoe Cream vs Wax Polish Explained

You might damage your money if you don’t maintain your fine leather shoe correctly. Every leather shoe owner knows how much a shining adds value to their daily appearance. To enjoy its beauty and appearance, caring is a must.

Numerous depend on shoe care centers or persons to care for our shoes. But if you are enthugious enough and want to do it on your own, then this guide is for you.

It will help you to understand the difference between shoe cream and shoe polish, the right way to apply them, and what they do for your shoe. 

Shoe Cream Vs Wax Polish

Shoe cream vs wax polish

If you are thinking about taking good care of your leather shoe or boot at home, shoe polish is a widely accepted way to go. Three types of polish are available: Liquid Shoe Polish, Cream Shoe Polish, and Wax Shoe Polish. Shoe Cream and Wax are highly used and can handle most of your demands.

First, let’s briefly explain Cream polish and Wax polish. So, shoe cream is a type of shoe polish that adds color to your shoes and contains its original finish.

It’s a heavy cream with a bit of wax and is dense in pigment. Its pigment-rich cream base helps to cover dents and creaks, creating a mate finish that is not so glossy. It can heal cracks and marks on your leather. 

On the other hand, wax polish is another type of shoe polish with less pigment and high amounts of hard wax. It gives a smooth finish on a rough surface. The shoe wax polish can help you with an excellent mirror shine to your shoes.

Wax polish creates a count on applying surface of the shoe and protects it from water splash, little dirt, and others.

However, as we know the basics of cream shoes and wax and get a little idea about them, it’s time for the next stage.

Comparison of Shoe Cream and Wax: What’s the difference?

Numerous of your questions, “what are the differences between wax and cream?” Let’s find it out.

Name Wax PolishShoe Cream
MotiveThe motive behind using it is for protection and a glossy finish.Using it is to nourish the leather and contain its original texture.
MaterialThe wax filled with wax comes with a higher amount of hard wax and less pigment.The dense cream has a higher quantity of pigment and a minor amount of wax.
CoverageThe wax is used in particular places, such as the toebox and the hind quarters. It can be used over the entire shoe.
IngredientOne to two times of wax polish is enough for a general glow, but you can apply some extra coats for a higher shine.Two or three coats of shoe cream are enough for a soft shine and nourishment.
TextureWax polish gives a higher gloss shine.The cream polish gives a mate finish.
ProtectionThe wax polish provides a layer that protects it from water splashes, small dirt, and scratches.The shoe cream polish helps preserve the color for an extended period, and it can heal minor scratches.
AdvantageThe wax has various high-contrast colors and variations with unique fragments to identify.The cream also comes in a variety of colors, and some of them feature unique options.

Prepare Your Leather Shoe for Shoe Polish

Prepare your leather shoe with horsehair brush, polish cream, on table.

So, now as you know the differences between shoe cream and wax polish, it’s time to prepare your leather shoe for applying shoe cream or wax shoe polish. 

The first step is to ready your shoe before applying shoe polish is removing all the dirt. You’ll need a horsehair brush and a Leather cleaning shop. Using the brush will remove the visible dirt.

Any sticky material, such as mud, dust, or other material, should be cleaned with a wet cloth.

Now you have to use a Leather cleaning soap to shampoo your leather shoe for advanced cleaning. It removes all nano-particles and makes them ready for the next step. 

After cleaning the shoe properly, it’s time for the leather conditioner. It moisturizes your leather shoe and keeps it crack-free and soft. 

It’s crucial to complete all those steps; it could ruin your complex and the shoe itself. If any sticky material, such as mud, dust, or other material, should be cleaned with a wet cloth before applying any wax or cream.

Now you need a Leather Conditioner; it sounds tricky, but your shoes also need the same care as your skin requires. If you invest in this, I bet you will never regret it.

When our skin suffers from moisture, we see cracks on it; you use moisturizer to prevent it. In the same way, when the shoe’s leather suffers from a lack of moisturization, it gets creaked. Use a leather moisturizer, which comes in the form of lotion. It will help you in sticking with your favorite pair of dress shoes for the long run.

You must take all these essential steps before entering the actual process.

Why Use Cream Shoe Polish

Cream shoe polish collection

So, there are many reasons to use pommadier cream polish; after in-depth research, here are three reasons that the experts mention:

  1. It works like a Lite-Shield: Shoes frequently sustain bumps, bruises, and other physical damage during daily usage. Yet, a decent shoe cream polish leaves a thin layer of wax to help protect the leather against light scratches, dings, or scuffs; if they do develop, they may be rubbed away. Shoe cream won’t act like a ceramic shell. Although shoe polish is typically considered a thicker wax polish, shoe cream is the item you should own and use frequently.
  2. It will improve the wearing pleasure of your shoes: Your shoes’ leather might stiffen or crack for various causes, but the most common is a lack of shoe care products. Abrasive leather can become stiff. Moisture often enters through cracks. Both of which are uncomfortable. All of it can be avoided with a good shoe cream. The leather will become flexible and more bendable on your feet if you apply cream shoe polish consistently after every one or two weeks.
  3. Develop a mate shine with a better look: The balance of the leather’s moisture is maintained with an excellent shoe cream, which also gives the leather a healthy appearance. A shoe treatment with wax and pigments can restore faded color and provide a lovely shine.

Why Use Wax Shoe Polish

Man polishing show with wax shoe polish

Shoe wax is a shoe polish with a higher hard wax consistency and less pigment density. When you apply the wax polish on a leather surface, it will create a wax layer. That helps establish a shield that protects from dents, scratches, and others, and your shoe looks beautiful with a higher shine.

There are other reasons for considering Wax Polish, and that is dust and water splash protection. Like cream polish, the wax polish also sits in the top layer.

So that it could be easily removed with a leather cleaner, but it needs to be noted that the wax is aquaphobic, but it can be resisted to a certain point, which is recommended for its stability.

As it has a wide variety of collections, some of them are hard to find, so you need to make choices by picking the closer variant that goes with your shoes. Some folks use black wax on the toe box edge to create a Patina-like effect. 

These are the reason why you should consider Wax polish for your shoe.

Saphir Pommadier Cream Polish- Best Shoe Cream to Buy

Saphir pommadier cream polish- best shoe cream to buy

If you care for their shoes and know the value of a quality shoe polish product. Then the Saphir Pommadier Cream Shoe Polish will be the best shoe cream to polish your shoes.

These shoe care products are used internationally and are also recommended by shoe aficionados for polishing your shoes to last longer. 

At its most fundamental level, Saphir Medaille d’Or is different because it needed more technical progressions of modern polishes. It doesn’t use any silicones; it doesn’t use any petroleum byproducts.

Instead, it uses only the finest all-natural ingredients to create a fantastic shoe polish that produces a tremendous shine and nourishes and conditions your shoes to ensure that the leather stays soft and supple over a long time.

The Saphir Pommadier cream polish uses seven different types of waxes and shea butter to provide a high-quality shine and long-lasting, deep nourishment. And it’s vital to help the polish to do better work to revive the original finish or the patina.

Saphir’s cream polish has 14 additional colors available, but still, it’s hard to find the exact shade of cream polish that matches your shoe. Therefore, when it comes to color matching, it’s crucial to remember that you want to go close.

Choose a somewhat lighter polish if you’re genuinely worried about changing or darkening the tint of your shoes. You can choose a slightly darker polish if you want to see more of a patina or antique emerge, which is one of the lovely things about shining your shoes.

We ran a computer paper test with Saphir shoe cream polish with their competitors like kiwi or Lincoln to see which works well. And came to the result that they performed outstanding compared to their competitors.

We took a bit of sapphire cream polish along with others on the A4 size paper and see that the Saphir shoe cream penetrates the paper where the rest can’t do much.  This task shows that applying shoe cream should moisturize the leather like the Saphir. 

Saphir Pate De Luxe- Best Wax Shoe Polish to Buy

Saphir pate de luxe- best wax shoe polish to buy

If you are worried about choosing the best wax polish for your leather shoes, then the Saphir Pate de Luxe Wax Polish will be the solution. Saphir’s Pate De Luxe introduces those harder waxes like montan wax and beeswax that produce that high shine little bit of wax and, more importantly, if you pursue it, that mirror shine.

So, combining different types of resins and high quality has a long-lasting glow that you’ll find last longer than what you get with ordinary polishes.

The uniqueness of the Saphir Medaille d’Or shine is that if you see that it dulls a little bit, a simple rebuffing with the horse hair brush is all you need to revive that shine.

The difference you find with the competing shoe polishes is that they use petroleum-based turpentine that, over time, will cause the leather to crack down.

Some of them even use silicones which can produce a clogging of the pores that leads to the cracking of the leather. With the Saphir Medaille d’Or, you don’t have to stress about that because all of them use again all-natural pine-base turpentine, no silicones, and only the highest quality elements to nourish and feed the leather.

You also find a much greater variety and higher quality of waxes to produce the shine you want in your dress shoes.

Then the quality of the waxes used in the polish itself will produce a higher quality shine that’s long-lasting and will re-shine and re-buff more easily with easy use. 

To determine which product serves best, we compared Saphir shoe wax polish to its rivals, Kiwi, Lincoln, and other well-known brands. And discovered that they outperformed their rivals in every category.

We test some sapphire wax polish and other products on A4-sized paper, and we can observe that the Saphir shoe cream penetrates the paper more effectively than the others. This test demonstrates that leather should be moisturized like Saphir shoe wax.

Conclusion

This article aims to show the users differences between shoe cream and wax polish and briefly explain them. When preparing our shoes before applying cream or wax, we get an idea of how they work too long last, protection, and shin and which one we need to choose, shoe cream vs polish, based on shoe condition and our demand.

Also, please know the real quality difference between the Saphir Medaille d’Or shoe polish with the rest of the compaction. You can bet they’re not going to do anything for your leather dress shoes.

And with the wax polishes, you could see a difference between the three, although it was slightly less pronounced than in the wax cream polishes.

Michel's passion for shoes and flowers is evident in his acclaimed "Shoe Fleur" photography series, which features shoes transformed into stunning floral arrangements. His work has been exhibited in galleries and museums around the world, including the International Center of Photography in New York City and the Maison Européenne de la Photographie in Paris.

Author at Shoe Fleur | Website | + posts

Sarah Zane is a talented content writer who specializes in the fashion industry. With years of experience in creating engaging and informative content, Sarah has established herself as an expert in the field of footwear. She currently works at Shoe.com, where she creates compelling articles and product descriptions that help customers make informed purchasing decisions. In her free time, Sarah enjoys exploring new shoe trends and experimenting with different styles. Her passion for fashion is evident in her writing, which is both entertaining and informative. Whether you're looking for the latest sneaker release or tips on how to care for your leather boots, Sarah's expertise is sure to provide valuable insights.

Leave a Comment