The tip – Saphir Medaille d’Or Nappa conditioner – Shoegazing.com

In my opinion, one of the most underestimated products from the extensive range of Saphir Medaille d’Or is their Nappa cream. It is a solvent-free product that contains only nourishing ingredients such as jojoba oil and wheat protein, but no wax, which keeps the pores of the leather completely open. Ideal for many situations, for example when you want to develop a completely natural patina, for sensitive leathers and for the often neglected but very important care of the leather lining.

If you generalize what the main ingredients of most shoe care products do for smooth or embossed full-grain leather, you have different types of oils that penetrate the skin and nourish the material so it doesn’t dry out and stay supple, and different types of waxes that fill the pores of the leather and stay on the surface to protect it and give it shine. Most shoe creams, wax polishes and leather conditioners, lotions and balms are made from mixtures of oils and waxes, and to mix these together one uses some kind of solvent, which can also have cleaning properties.

We continue to generalize: most lotions and conditioners contain mainly nourishing oils and then some wax, most shoe creams contain an even mix of oils and waxes, and most polishes contain mainly wax and a smaller amount of oil. What distinguishes between different brands is that more expensive and often better brands focus on natural ingredients of good quality, while cheaper and less good ones often use more synthetic ingredients and things like silicone.

A product like the Sapphire Medaille d’Or Nappa leather cream stands out because of the above. It is a product that contains only oils such as jojoba oil plus wheat protein with a high content of amino acids and peptides, which nourish and improve elasticity (no surprise that both jojoba oil and wheat protein are widely used in cosmetic skin care products). Because it does not contain wax, it can also be made without solvent, making it an extra gentle product. It also smells really nice, which is a plus, and it doesn’t darken the color.

It has been developed for extra sensitive leathers such as nappa and various exotic leathers, leathers that can be especially sensitive to solvents. While it’s great for that, its properties also make it ideal for other types of leather care. One of these is when you are looking for completely natural patina development, which many workwear boot enthusiasts are, for example. The Nappa conditioner ensures that the leather remains nourished, but without the protective wax you do not prevent the leather from changing color and you get that natural character that many love. I prefer it to Bick-4, which is popular for the same properties, but it contains silicone, which Nappa does not contain. Some leather oils can have similar properties, but I often find them harder to work with and can be trickier to get a nice dry finish compared to Nappa. If you feel that the leather is dry, it can also be nice to use it as an extra nutritional boost before applying shoe cream etc.

Another thing I use the Saphir Nappa conditioner for is the inside of my shoes. As I have written earlier in this article, it is very important to care for leather linings as well. It is exposed to a lot of salty sweat, and there is a reason why the lining often cracks first, because so few remember to take proper care of it. Because Nappa is a pore-filling, wax-free product, it does not reduce the breathability of the lining, making it ideal for this purpose.