I see and hear about shoe polishing mistakes all the time. Sometimes they ruin the shine. Sometimes they do something to the leather that is a lot harder to fix. And usually, they were only trying to take good care of their shoes. And in rare cases, sometimes they just ruin the shoes.

Once upon a time, I was a professional shoe shiner, for those who don’t know. And after years of shining other people’s shoes, you learn pretty quickly what works, what doesn’t, and what people keep doing despite being told not to.

So here are my top five shoe shine don’ts. Some of these might save you a lot of time, frustration, and money.

1. Never Mirror Shine Your Brand New Shoes

In my years of professional shoe shining, I constantly got customers who would buy brand new shoes and then want me to mirror shine them. Of course, I didn’t argue with my clients and turn them away. But I never liked the idea of mirror-shining shoes brand new, because the reality is that the shoes hadn’t set their creases yet.

Once the creases have set and you’re polishing around them, it’s much easier to understand where the shoe needs more cream and nourishment versus more wax and shine. You know where it bends. You know where the polish is going to break if you build too much of it.

But these guys became good clients. They would have their brand new shoes mirror shined, go to parties, and bring them back the following week because they had cracked their mirror shine.

Which was naturally what was going to happen.

And I learned from that experience that brand new shoes should be worn before being given a proper mirror shine.

If you want to give them a light shine, that’s fine. If you want to give the toe a nice polish, that’s fine too. But a proper mirror shine is something different altogether. You’re building that hard, glass-like surface, and you need to understand where the shoe is going to move before you start covering it in layers of wax.

It’s much better to wear your shoes at least once, if not two or three times, before subjecting them to the famous mirror shine. Let the creases settle. Learn where the leather bends. Then build your shine around those areas.

I know people are eager to put this beautiful shine on their beautiful new shoes. But in reality, waiting a little is one of the smartest things you can do.

If you’re that eager to wear them, give them a little cream polish where needed and a light wax shine. Wear them once or twice, and then start kicking in your mirror shine.

You’ll have a better idea of what you’re working with, and hopefully you won’t spend all that time creating a shine just to break it on the first outing.

2. Never Add More Than One Conditioner

One of the worst things you can do to your leather is oversoak it. And one of the easiest ways to do that is by applying too much conditioner.

Conditioner is the kind of product that really seeps into the leather. Apply too much and you can quickly end up with leather that is far too saturated.

Get to a certain point, and you can leave dark patches that don’t simply dry away. You can actually stain the leather. And you’re not going to fix that by throwing another shoe-care product on top of it.

You can end up having permanently changed the appearance of your shoes, all because you were trying too hard to take care of them.

Black shoes aren’t an excuse to go crazy, either. You might not see the same obvious dark patches, but you can still overload the leather to the point where it doesn’t want to take a proper polish afterward.

So be cautious with conditioners. All conditioners. Far too often, I see overzealous people wanting to apply way more than they should. And it’s simply not necessary. You use a little. You work it in. You add more when necessary.

But globbing it all on and putting it all over your leather is simply a recipe for disaster.

I’ve seen far too many horror stories, even on some of the best-quality shoes, because people are way too eager to over-condition them. Buying expensive shoes doesn’t somehow protect you from using too much product.

And buying three different conditioners doesn’t mean you need to use all three. Make sure you know your conditioners and their uses. They are not always for the same leather type.

If you’re using something like Saphir Renovateur, use it sparingly. Work a small amount into the leather and give it time before deciding that you need more. With Creme Universelle, you can be a bit less cautious (so to speak), but never go crazy with it.

Never add one conditioner and then start piling another on top because you think you’re giving the shoes some extra nourishment. You can very easily give them far more than they need.

Always allow drying time between steps. If the leather is still wet or greasy from what you’ve just applied, leave it alone for a while.

Use a little, work it in, and add more when necessary. That is a lot easier than trying to undo what happens when you use too much.

3. Never Mirror Shine the Vamp

Another place people seem to want to overly polish is the vamp. The vamp is the area underneath the laces and before the toe cap. It’s the part of the shoe that does all the bending and creasing when you walk.

Which naturally means that if you put an artificial, glass-like surface over it, that surface is going to break.

You generally want your mirror shine on the toe, where you have a stiffener underneath the leather. The stiffened heel area can take a high shine too. The important part is that you’re building the mirror finish over something that doesn’t bend.

Never the vamp.

The vamp should be one of the most pliable and flexible parts of the shoe. It needs to move. So building a heavy mirror shine there is asking for it to crack. And in reality, it just doesn’t look good once you start walking.

The shine breaks everywhere, flakes off, and leaves that white residue sitting in the creases. It looks unkempt. You’ve spent all that time shining your shoes, and now you’ve created another job for yourself trying to fix them.

I used to shine military boots as a service for the Queen’s Royal Bodyguards. You can see an example in the photograph. All that shine across the vamp might look impressive while the boots are sitting there, but the second you take a step, that surface starts breaking.

So learn how to blend your shines. The key to a good shine is gradation. High shines on the toes and the stiff areas, then blending down toward the flex points, where you want a nice shine without a heavy mirror finish.

You can polish the vamp. You can give it a good brushing with a horsehair shine brush or even a nice goat hair brush for finishing. You can make it look very well kept. You just don’t need to turn it into glass.

4. Never Mirror Shine the Entire Toe Cap

Another little trick is that you shouldn’t automatically mirror shine the entire cap of your shoe.

The cap has a stiffener underneath it, but that stiffener doesn’t necessarily go all the way back to the seam.

And I say “the seam” because most people are thinking about cap-toe Oxfords when they think about mirror shines. You have this clearly defined line, which makes it very easy to assume that everything in front of it should be shined.

But look carefully. On many cap toes, the stiffener ends a few millimeters before the seam. That’s where you want to pay attention. That little bit of leather between the end of the stiffener and the seam can bend. And if you’ve built your mirror shine over it, the shine can crack when you walk.

So you need to put your mirror shine where your stiffener is. Find the edge of that stiffener and finish your heavy shine before you reach it. Don’t just follow the cap seam and assume the shoe is stiff all the way up to that line.

This is one of those tricks you tend to learn through trial and error. So I’m telling you ahead of time, hopefully saving you the trouble of breaking your mirror shine and then having to fix it. Because that isn’t always the easiest thing to do, especially on light-colored shoes.

And what happens when you don’t have a clearly defined cap? What if you’re shining a wingtip, a plain toe, or a wholecut? Use your fingers. Press gently into the toe and feel where the stiffener ends. You’ll feel where the firm part gives way to leather that can move. Make sure you’re finishing the mirror shine before that point, then blend it down.

It doesn’t matter how good your wax is. Even Saphir Mirror Gloss isn’t going to stop a flexible part of the shoe from bending.

Know where to stop putting it.

5. Never Polish or Shine Too Fast

Most people, just like with wanting to mirror shine their brand new shoes, are overly eager to get the shine done as quickly as possible. But shining is a patience game. It’s not a rush game.

You don’t get there quickly unless you’re an expert. And if you’re an expert, you’re probably not reading this. Or maybe you’re just here to learn my tricks of the trade.

Polishing is done over time, with purpose. You work in consistent circular motions. You allow drying time between steps. You move between the left and right shoe. Sometimes you sit back and give it a break. The more you allow those layers to settle and dry, the easier it becomes to build your shine.

But if you’re trying to force it, you’re likely to create one of the other problems. You add too much product. You oversaturate the surface. The polish never gets a chance to set, and you’re just swishing a bunch of moist polish around the top of the leather.

Then you wonder why the shine won’t turn. So don’t try to do it too fast. Apply polish to one shoe, then go to the other. Don’t try to finish one shoe entirely before you’ve even started on the second.

Work between them. Give each application some time while you’re doing something to the other shoe. Better yet, do multiple pairs at once.

Start with the left shoe of pair one, then the right shoe of pair one. Move to the left shoe of pair two, then the right shoe of pair two. By the time you’ve gone through that rotation, the first shoe has had some time to settle and is more likely to be ready for the next step.

And if it isn’t ready, give it more time. You don’t get extra points for rushing through it. If the polish is still too wet, adding more polish and rubbing harder isn’t going to magically solve the problem.

Slow down. Take your time with shining. Enjoy it.

Rushing only leads to other issues. Experts know how to work quickly, but even then, the best job isn’t necessarily the fastest one. It’s the patient, thorough job where you understand what you’re doing and give each step the time it needs.

These are my five shoe shine don’ts. Keep them in mind, learn where to put the product and where to leave the shoe alone, and you’ll save yourself a lot of unnecessary problems.

You bought good shoes. Learn to enjoy taking care of them, and you’ll enjoy wearing them for many years to come.

For more of the techniques I learned through years of trial and error, read my Shoe Shining Tips and Tricks.

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—Justin FitzPatrick, The Shoe Snob

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*** Some photos are just space fillers and to show you the shines I built using Saphir’s products 😉 ***