Two of the newest products in Saphir’s top shoe care range Medaille d’Or range have replaced mink oil with the organic macadamia oil which has similar nourishing properties. It’s one version of the Renovateur Crème and one of the smooth leather lotion.
Saphir hardly needs an introduction, the leading premium shoe care brand from France, where their finest range named Medaille d’Or has been the gold standard for shoe care for a long time now. For their most nourishing products, they’ve used the very popular mink oil, known for its high grade of the fatty palmitoleic acid which deeply moisturise and soften leather. However, given that this is derived from animals farmed for their fur, some find it problematic to use products containing mink oil.
Macadamia-based leather lotion. Pictures: Saphir
With this in mind, Saphir has developed new versions of their most popular nourishing products where they’ve replaced the mink oil with macadamia oil, derived from macadamia nuts. It has a similar amount of palmitoleic acid, which makes it equally suitable when it comes to moisturising leather. They have Macadamia versions of the famous Renovateur Crème, the sort of miracle product which gently cleans leather and moisturises plus gives a shine, and then the Leather Lotion which is even more nourishing, perfect to condition all types of leather products.
Is renovateour appropriate to use in dress shoes? Some argue that even a little bit of mink oil makes your shoes “greasy”. In my experience it can be a little bit to strong in some shoes and removes a lot of pigment. Do you personally use it?