Teinture Française shoe dye

In this guide, we focus on recolouring your shoes with penetration paint. The following steps will guide you through the entire process from preparation to recolouring and shining the leather.

1. First, we need to get rid of all the old layers of shoe polish and other dirt that has built up on the leather. A product that lends itself very well to this is Renomat from Saphir. Apply the Renomat to a cloth and rub it into the leather of the shoe. You will notice that the cloth immediately starts to take on the colour of the shoes during polishing. If you have never cleaned the shoes, a lot of shoe polish and dirt will come off in the beginning. In general, two full cleanings with the Renomat should suffice to get the shoes clean.

2. Start by preparing your brushes and/or cotton ball. You will have to decide for yourself what you need to colour the shoes neatly. If you have a pair of shoes with a lot of fine detail, you'll probably want to use a few different-sized paintbrushes.

3. Apply the penetration dye in small amounts to test how the leather absorbs the dye. After the first coat, you can determine whether a little or a lot of paint will suffice to achieve the desired colour. Allow the paint to dry for at least 60 minutes after application. In general, you need to colour the shoes several times with penetration paint before you have a beautifully coloured shoe with rich and deep colours. Experience shows that we usually need two coats of paint, but again, this completely depends on the type of shoe/leather.

4. Seal in the paint by rubbing the shoes with Pommadier shoe cream. A neutral-colored shoe cream is often best suited for this. This also strengthens the applied colour of the paint and gives it a richer appearance. Protect the shoe against scratches and bumps by applying a layer of Pate de Luxe shoe wax and shining.

Please note that this guide has been written based on our own experiences and experiments with different types of leather. Results may vary by shoe type and leather.