Are You Damaging Your Shoes with Your Leather Cream & Polish?

Discussing wallets in the preceding post reminded me of something that isn't discussed often enough when it comes to shoe care and leather care more generally. I've ruined a few pairs of shoes because of my youthful ignorance despite having thought that I was giving them decent care. When I brought one of the pairs back to the makers to have them re-soled, they had a look at them and asked me what kind of care products I was using.

It turns out that using care products from longstanding, well-known brands is insufficient. You need to know what's in them lest you damage the leather and ruin your shoes or other leather products prematurely.