Tarrago Shoe Cream Professional Shoe Polish for Leather Boots, Shoes, Purse, Furniture Eco Friendly Leather Conditioner 1.7oz - Silver Metallic #501

Why did you pick this product vs others?:I have a 6 year old recliner that was beginning to show some wear on the armrest. I ran across the Tarrago shoe cream in steel gray and thought I would give it a try before donating the chair. Boy, am I glad that I did! I am including before and after pics so you can see the results! It is absolutely amazing! The color is spot on and it blends seamlessly. This is only after one light application. I am sold on Tarrago shoe cream. I plan to order some in different colors for my Tieks.

As described

I am a former shoe cobbler. I am writing this review for anyone, but also anyone with knowledge of or interest in solvents, paints, adhesives etc because I like this product a lot, but it has very specific applications in my opinion and I would want to know these before purchase in some contexts.This is, in essence, a water-based paint. It cleans up very readily with water should it wind up on unintended surfaces. This is true even after cure of two months, in my experience.For context, I have a pair of Manolo Blahnik heels made of a matte/nubuck dupe fine grain leather in a solid pale ice blue. I was wanting to turn these metallic with a product that would not crack or peel over time, and hoped to avoid doing something permanent that I would come to regret/find irreversible. I did not want to saturate the leather with a dye, as darker was not my goal... simply metallic, and the ice blue was a good background for applying something silvery. I used the bright silver in this polish, but I trust that any mettalic by the same brand would be very good. I will be buying more.I set out to 'rub' this product into the leather surface as I would with a Meltonian shoe cream. The effect was not the same. This product does not saturate the leather whatsoever, but simply sits on top and accumulates by layers. It then dries, and this is why I consider it to be more of a paint, and my application recommendations are discussed further below. In my initial application I attempted to apply the cream consistently in one layer using a cotton ball (because I'm lazy), which resulted in fine hairs of cotton embedded in the polish layer AND (most importantly), patchy areas where the polish did not adhere to the leather as well as others. As I attempted to 'spot' apply more polish to these areas, I noticed the problem was that the fresh wet polish was wirking like a solvent to break down earlier, dried applications and remove these. Because the stuff readily removes with water alone, I abandoned the project for over a month knowing that the next time I applied I would instead use a small brush and lay consistent layers on top of each other, allowing thorough dry time in between, and build to the desired saturation.Thankfully my (then) theory about water clean up was correct and some several weeks later I was able to remove all the polish down to the very same leather I started with using cotton balls and water. I can now start anew with paintbrush application. I recommend that users treat this like an acrylic paint. Do not rub on and expect the stuff to adhere to the leather outright (I had the perfect canvas for this stuff to stick to... a raw, matte, open-pored nubuck). Assume it will lift itself in multiple applications and lay down layers with no opportunity for these to lift with additional rubbing.Of note, when I returned to the shoes to remove my first attempt, I noticed that the thickest area of application had cracked. I hadn't worn them at all, so this occured without stress to the base leather. The cracking was very fine... in ceramics it is called 'crazing' and that's a good description of what I witnessed. Very fine cracks densely dispersed in the areas where the cream had built up excessively. I flexed the leather in these areas to see if there was any sign that the cracking would lead to peeling, and there was no indication that the polish was separating from the leather. I would consider this a superficial characteristic of the polish, and it would not bother me if it occured on my final preparation. Certainly not when I can simply wipe this stuff off over time and reapply to freshen up my shoes. At any rate, I believe that if I apply consistent layers with the brush/painting technique and keep the overall application thin and consistent, the crazing may not even occur or become an unmanageable issue.And, my Manolo Blahniks look positively metallic silver. They look incredible. I will be buying more of this stuff. If you want metallic leather, this is your bliss. Because it is water soluble and highly soluble over time, know it might now be a long-term solution for something that gets a lot of surface contact like a handbag or billfold. If I were thinking of an appropriate product for those applications I would want this same product, but oil based.

Product arrived quickly. I needed something to cover scuff marks on the heels of gold dress sandals I was wearing to a wedding. The cream came quickly- it wasn’t the exact same color as the shoes, (hard to tell by an online picture of a color) but was good enough. Provided coverage for the scuff marks, not 100% but was definitely an improvement.

My shoes were scuffed, but this did the trick.

nice

The color matched my spouse’s shoes perfectly. The polish was easy to use and of high quality.

I am sure the product is fine. Unfortunately, the color was not a match for my gold shoes. Thank you for making the return so easy.