SAPHIR RENOVATEUR Review and HOW TO USE: Does it Work? 

My boots always lightened back to the original color after about 4 days to a week depending on how much I wore them after the Saphir treatment. They won't stay that dark. Good video👍🏻

I use this on everything expensive & cheap, cost maybe a dollar to treat a pair of shoes, a pot easy lasts 15-20 pairs. If I consider the shoes good enough to wear then they are good enough to be looked after correctly

For oil tanned leathers you should use Saphir Medaille Dior Oiled Leather with Neatsfoot oil. It won't change the texture by putting waxes in it. They make it in a neutral if you want to keep your patina. I am of the opinion you should only use Saphir Renovateur on leathers that are waxed and shined like the black calfskin in the video.

Great video Mate!

Great video, I really enjoyed it. Keep up the great content sir.

Loved the video! Learned a lot!

Thanks for the info! Just diving into Saphir as a product line so this was some good info. Just started experimenting with the renovateur today. To maintain more of a matte look, I tend to lead towards either Obenauf's Heavy LP, or Huberd's Shoe Grease, depending on how heavy of a gauge the leather is.

All the Saphir Medaille d'Or Renovateur gets shipped to the US or sold in Continental Europe. We can't get it in the UK, without importing it ourselves, at considerable extra expense. All we can get is the, non-Medaille d'Or, cheaper version from Saphir. The main difference, I've read, is it contains less mink oil. It still made a great job of finishing off some burgandy Chromexcel boots that I bought for renovating, after all the videos I've watched. They were thirsty and drank up 2 coats of Saphir Greasy Leather Cream, that I gave them, in no time. I thought that was going to darken them a bit and mask the minor slice-scuffs on the toes but they lightened up again the very next day and the slice marks reappeared. They were minor but a tiny bit deep. The Renovateur darkened the boots, slightly (in a good way), but this time the effect remained the next day. It made the little cut scuffs almost completely disappear (masked them really well by darkening the exposed, lighter, leather) and it really made the colour pop! I decided on a good brush-buffing after removing it, after 3 minutes, with a chamois (or you could use a clean cloth), like the instructions tell you to do, before you decide whether you want to buff them to a healthy looking sheen, or not (I wouldn't call it a shine). You can choose to do it after cleaning the Renovateur off, depending on the level of sheen that you want. If you had just stopped after wiping it off, vigorously, with a chammy, microfibre, or old t-shirt, like the instructions say, you wouldn't have had the excessive shine that you had a slight problem with, by skipping that stage and going straight to the brush. You don't actually HAVE to brush them. Although, I chose to. I'm pretty sure there's a little emulsified beeswax in it. It's never going to give Chromexcel a mirror-like shine, as you say. It just made my boots look very like another, brand new, pair of Chromexcel boots that I'd recently bought, giving them a 'just out of the box', looking, sheen. I was really happy with how they turned out. I sanitised the inside with a couple of doses of rubbing alcohol, too. With new laces, insoles and heel units they've cost me about £95 for boots that were, originally, $295 RRP in the US, back in about 2010. Here's some more interesting/ boring stuff because I have time but, obviously, you can sod off and 'TLDR' it, if you want. Wolverine have no distribution in the UK and, probably because I am relatively new to this interest/ hobby, my current grail boots are the Cordovan No.8 Wolverine 1000 Mile, seen above. As tax makes them extortionate to order from abroad and they practically never come up on eBay, in my size, I did a kind of thing I've seen on the watch forum that I follow, where there's a thread called 'I like that, so I bought this' where people show the watches they bought because, for whatever reason (usually financial) they weren't able to attain the watch that they really want. So I searched for Chromexcel boots and found something in burgundy, I liked the look of a lot. This is where (I think) it gets interesting. I'll cut to the chase and say: they're by Ugg. 'Ha ha', I hear you say but hear me out. They're Goodyear welted and have a label inside that says 'Made In The USA For Ugg'. So they're not ACTUALLY Uggs, other than that they have Ugg stamped on the tongue and were bought, and then sold by, that company. They're called Ugg 'Harrisburg' boots and there is very little about them on the Internet but, with a little Google-Fu, I found out that they were made by the Addison Shoe Company in Wynne, Arkansas, which was open from 1953 and made boots, mostly, for military contracts and 'other labels'. Sadly closing in 2007 due to their orders drying up. Presumably, as the military cut costs by sourcing cheaper made boots, elsewhere. So now I own, both, Wolverine 1000 Mile, lookalike and made alike, boots AND the most un-Ugglike boots, ever to have been sold under the banner of Ugg. They're looking great and I'm happy with that. Cheers if you managed to read this far and you have a great day, too!

Thanks, I was wondering what product I could use to prevent leather staining

I have 5 high end boots from RM Williams, Gaziano & Girling, and John Lobb... and I use EXCLUSIVELY Saphir product including Renovateur ... on my one suede boot, I use the Renovateur spray designed for suede.

How long do you put the cream on? Do you brush it later? And how can I make it even more shiny? Do you recommend wax polish? I'm. New to boots and want to use this on black smooth leather.

Hi, great video! Btw I just got a pair of boots but there is too much screech on them everytime I move, mostly because the laces are made out of leather too, do you know if putting a conditioner like this on them will help to reduce/eliminate the noise or got any other tip?

Saphir has a newer product for oil-based leathers like CXL or S.B. Foot. It’s called “Oiled Leather Cream”. It’s neatsfoot oil based like Bick4. It works pretty good and leaves a matte shine

$25! It’s still expensive here in the UK but I get it for about $15, makes it a reasonable investment especially for my dressier boots.

Can u use this on new leather hiking boots and use polish on top afterwards ?

Did the boots return to the normal colour and natural finish? How long did it take? Have you tried redwing leather cream neatsfoot oil?

What would you recommend for the iron ranger rough and toughs? Think its nappa leather.

As they said on RU-vid. Will the saphir renovateur damage the shoes?

I was wondering about this exact thing the other day. Would you test more products from this brand?

I heard conditioning is very important because leather gets dry and it cracks. How much time is needed for that to happen?

Great review 👍. If you don't want to darken the leather of your shoes/boots, just get the shoecream from Red Wing. I use it on my brown boots/shoes. It's a neutral shoecream with neatsfoot oil. Great product.

Just recently picked up some captians, Arizona Adobe, what would you suggest for that texture? The other product you mentioned?

It was perfect job. How about white Luther shoes?! It does work for it ?!

Just got this stuff for my boots. I got red wings in “copper” and I don’t want to lose the look and darken the leather too much. I’m hopeful this will work.

Renovateur is my go to. On my Iron Rangers, it does appear to darken after applying, but they lighten back up after wearing. If you don't want the shine, brush minimally, rub the boots with your hands and the shine will tame down.

Is Crème Rénovatrice the same thing?

Trying it out on a pair of boots that are a little more beaten up would've been a lot more helpful...

Did your boots return to the original color

This may be a stupid question and I'm not a shoe shiner. But could this be applied to leather car seats. I have a family member with an expensive car with really nice leather seats, and I'm not sure if this would be a waste on the seats.

What do u mean by buff it out?

Great video! Thank you for the comparisons. Quick question, what does Renovateur smell like? I heard it smells like lotion but mine smells more chemical-ish. I got it on Amazon.

Do you recommend these for use on Common Projects Achilles Sneakers or will it make the leather to shiny?

Ppl bought their shoes in that dark color and after years of wearing it they have critic on the conditioner that brings back the color

Why do you compare price of whole jar of Renovateur to a price of cheep boots? You don't use a whole jar, you use small scoop, and that small scoop can really make cheap boots look three times their price. I've used renovator on my cheap bit neglected daily boots and it's just amazing how they look after, definitely worth the price

Used it on my Iron Rangers and it didn't change the color of the boots at all, however, they became a bit shinier, which I didn't want at first but alao didn't mind that much Funny that I've been searching the net for a week or so to figure out which conditioner wouldn't change the color of my boot while the renovateur was sitting in a box of Saphir stuff my girlfriend gifted to me last year. Anyway, I still went out and bought Red Wing leather cream, protector and cleaner set. Gonna try that out in a few weeks

Hey! Can someone please tell me exactly what pair of Iron Rangers that is? They're so sweeeeet!

Can you make a video comparing the color of the shoes after 2 - 3 weeks using Saphir RENOVATEUR with the original color?

I never seen a video using this product on a white leather shoe/boots. Is this not allowed to use on white leather?

The Saphir Renovateur BootSpy SHOULD have reviewed is the one that is NOT Mink Oil based. The Macadamia Nut version really saves color, something Mink Oil doesn't AND it's actually more sustainable, as the fur industry is dying. (I know the cost difference is pretty high from Mink Oil).

Question: what's the difference between a leather conditioner and a leather cream? (I'm not telling a joke, I'm actually asking)

It’s clear he doesn’t understand the purpose of the product and keeps focusing on “shine”. Totally irrelevant byproduct. It’s about reconditioning and rehydrating the leather. Smoothing out the deep creases on the camp to rolling wrinkles. No one who knows anything about shoes would put this on their shoes and say “done”. Also, why work boots? Why keep framing saphir as a “boot” product? Lol

What is the difference with Pate de Luxe?

Red Wing Leather Cream is amazing for SB Foot tannages.

Great vid. Hopefully I'm not being too picky, but can you pronounce it the French way instead of the English way lol. Thanks for the vid 👍👍

Good review. Saphir is wonderful stuff. High quality, but way over priced. Bick 4 and Venetian Shoe Cream are the best.

Just a heads-up: none of your before and after ogotos are actually before and after. Thay are left and right. I would have much rather seen the same shoe's before and after

I like pure polish way more, it penetrates leather way more and it's cheaper than saphir

U can see from the Edge/sole of the shoe. Those before and after pics are not at the same shoe man sorry.

So, this is going to be THEE most pretentious sounding comment ever, but....it’s pronounced REN-UH-VUH-TORE. It’s not me. They’re French!!!

Saphir is seriously over priced. I mean outrageously over priced when compared to how much $$$ per ounce your paying. It's not going to preform 10xs better just because it costs 10xs more 🤦🏼‍♂️ Have you Ever Tried Black Rock Leather N Rich? Not sure if it darkens the boot any. I've only used it on Black Boots. But it does apply really nicely and leaves boots feeling soft and supple.