A question that pops up every now and then is whether it works to mix products from different brands of shoe care products. For some reason, it’s something many are reluctant to do, one often buys from one brand and then think that you have to continue with that. That’s not the case, the answer is that it is perfectly possible to mix wildly.
One explanation for this perception may be that many are taught that cheaper shoe care products with silicone isn’t too good for the shoes, and that you should remove these products from the shoe before putting on the silicone-free natural products that are better for the leather, since otherwise it might not go into the leather’s pores thoroughly. That’s correct, and is recommended. But once you get started with the silicone-free products it’s fine to use another such product from any brand.
To put it simple one can say that virtually all the better shoe care products, such as Saphir, Collonil, Burgol, Turms and so on all contains almost exactly the same thing, just different mixtures of them. There are various natural waxes and oils for care and protection, as well as some sort of solvent, usually turpentine (oil from pine trees). For pigmented cream or polish some sort of dye is used, the finest products contains natural dyes, otherwise synthetic pigments are used.
Shoe care products not only are similar between brands today, they have been similar over many, many years. Picture: Executive Style
One can think this a bit like if you have different cans of raspberry jam or similar. It wouldn’t be a problem if you would mix the two jams into one, it would still taste like raspberry jam and work great on the pancake. It might taste a bit different, maybe even be tastier together, at least it would be guaranteed to work. It’s more or less the same thing in both jars of jam, just different recipes.
So do not hesitate to try products from different shoe care manufacturers. You may find a wax polish that suits your way to polish a lot better and you get a good shine faster than before. And you might notice that you get a really nice tone on that brown shoe if you mix the shoe cream from this and that manufacturer. And so on.
