Softening leather shoes without harming them

How can you soften leather shoes and make them pleasant to wear and look at again? We have collected some popular and not so well-known ways to update leather products and invite you to familiarize yourself with them in the material below.

What can interfere?

Of course, it’s wonderful when shoes come in just in time immediately after purchase, but this, alas, rarely happens. Most often, people have to break in their shoes (or something else, even all sorts of Louboutins) or, even worse, wait until calluses form under a particular pair of shoes. In addition, as mentioned above, shoes may lose comfort during use. Be that as it may, most often people complain that something is pressing: either the heels, or the toes, or, less commonly, the middle part of the boot or boot in the foot area. It is worth trying to soften the skin using various means.

Special means

Nowadays, there is no reason to be surprised at the appearance of this or that product on the market, especially since various shoe polishes ceased to be a novelty at the end of the last century, or even earlier. That is why the first thing you should try to renew your shoes is special creams and other products for shoes. You can buy them both in ordinary hardware stores and in specialized stores and look for them in workshops.

Some enthusiasts sometimes use creams intended for human skin to soften shoes.Yes, of course, the leather used in tanning has many similarities with human skin, but creams intended for people have much less potency, and, of course, they are not enough to make shoe leather soft and “obedient.”

How to soften leather shoes using glycerin?

Glycerin, in fact, is a universal substance. It is used in many leather care products. By the way, this will surprise many, but glycerin is an alcohol in its structure, but its non-aggressiveness allows it to be used in many substances. In our case, it can also be used: glycerin helps soften shoes and make them comfortable.

Glycerin, by the way, has a much stronger effect than specialized creams. It is very easy to use: just buy some glycerin at the hardware store and apply it to the problem area, and then leave it to soak. The main advantage of propane-1,2,3-triol (this is the scientific name for glycerin) is that it allows you to cope with even serious hardening of the shoe surface.

A few minutes after application, excess substance is removed from the skin and the surface is polished. Ready! You can check your shoes for softness.

Wax is another substance that can help

Surprisingly, even the wax left over from a candle will be a good help for those who want to soften their shoes. The method of use is simple: the candle is melted and the warm wax mass is applied to the desired area of ​​the skin. Be extremely careful: do not touch the paraffin immediately after it has drained from the candle: it is too hot. After treatment, shoes need to be polished.

A method for non-greedy people

This method is not suitable for everyone.Someone might call it blasphemous and say that in some countries of the world people are starving, while other, more fortunate individuals are wasting food on all sorts of nonsense. Be that as it may, we considered it necessary to mention this method. So, a leather product can be softened with a piece of unsalted lard. The natural fats contained in it will in no way harm either the leather of the shoe or the skin of the person who is experimenting with his own shoes.

Applying lard is a very easy process. A small cube or parallelepiped is cut, and the desired area is rubbed with it. By the way, you can rub the entire surface of the shoe so as not to polish it after treatment - animal fat perfectly protects the shoes from moisture and temperature changes.

How to update leather shoes?

But the question does not always arise in the plane that we outlined at the beginning of the article. Some people simply want to update their favorite boots or shoes that have lost their charm during use: they don’t look so fresh, they press on, cause corns, in a word - they are far from pleasing to the owners. In general, of course, all the methods described above can be used equally to update shoes and soften individual areas of them. But there are several more similar ways of action that we decided to describe.

Firstly, the surface can be rubbed with Vaseline to make it shine, as well as to eliminate small cuts that may have appeared on the skin. Vaseline is not as strong as glycerin (although it is also safe to use), and therefore is sold almost everywhere.

Secondly, you can wipe the leather of your shoes with castor oil (or, in common parlance, castor oil), which can simultaneously correct minor damage to the shoes and even slightly increase their size: castor oil stretches the seams, as a result of which the shoes become larger. This may be relevant if the owner, for example, has daily dressings or has gout. Using castor oil is simple: just apply it to a tampon and thoroughly wipe (several times) the surface of the leather product.

Shoes help us every day to overcome the path without harming ourselves, taking the entire blow on ourselves. Let's take care of what helps us: treat it at least once a season for greater protection and just take certain precautions. We hope you found the article useful. Good luck!