Famaco Edelweiss Grey Leather Beauty Cream 377 – 50ml Light Grey Cream

Description

Famaco Edelweiss Grey Leather Beauty Cream 377 – 50ml Light Grey Cream, a pale dove grey with no warmth to it at all, fifty millilitres from France, for the light grey shoes that carry the two shoulder months of the year

Grey shoes do the work nobody credits them with. They are what comes out in March when boots feel heavy and pale shoes feel optimistic, and again in October when the same problem runs the other way. Two short seasons, both of them wet, both of them full of the sort of light dirt that a pale upper picks up and a dark one never shows.

Edelweiss 377 is made for that shoe. Measured, it is almost perfectly neutral, with saturation barely registering at all, sitting high and light like the alpine flower it is named after. That neutrality is rare and useful, because most pale greys drift warm in the jar and turn a cool leather slightly beige.

A fifty millilitre pot of neutral pale grey, French production, costing £6.49.

Why choose this light grey shoe cream?

• A grey with no colour cast. The measurement is the interesting part. Saturation comes out at about one per cent, which means no warm or cool bias at all. On cool light greys, where a beige cream shows immediately as a yellow film, that is what you want.
• Pale, and meant to stay pale. It sits high in brightness, roughly two thirds of the way to white, which is the band the soft dove and mist grey leathers occupy. A darker grey cream would flatten those shoes down a step every time it was applied, and after three applications you would own a different pair.
• It covers the light dirt line. Shoulder season damage is a grey brown haze along the welt and the lower quarters from wet pavements. Once cleaned, that zone dries lighter than the rest of the shoe, and a pale pigmented cream is what brings it back level instead of leaving a visible band.
• Wax feeding for damp months. March and October are the wettest months these shoes will see. The beeswax and carnauba base leaves a light film as it is buffed, which slows water entering the grain, while the shea butter underneath keeps the leather from going stiff after each soaking.
• Kind to a soft finish. Many light grey shoes have a delicate surface that heavy waxes and hard mirror finishes ruin. This is a soft cream and not a paste, so it can be built in thin coats and brushed to an even sheen without ever taking the leather glossier than it was meant to be.
• It stays usable between seasons. A jar that only comes out twice a year has to survive long gaps, and the metal screw lid on this one seals properly. Fifty millilitres used at that rate is effectively permanent, so the cost per wear across a decade is close to nothing.

How to use the Famaco Edelweiss Grey Leather Beauty Cream 377

Pale grey is the one shade where cleaning beats colouring every time. Get the surface genuinely clean and dry, then let a thin coat of cream even out what the wet pavements took away.

1. Brush the pair thoroughly, paying attention to the welt.
2. Clean with a barely damp cloth and leave to dry.
3. Check the leather is fully dry before you start.
4. Apply a thin even coat with a soft cloth.
5. Let the waxes settle for two or three minutes.
6. Finish with light brushing until the sheen evens up.

My tip as a shoe specialist

The step almost everyone gets wrong on pale grey is creaming a shoe that is still faintly damp or dusty. Grey dust is invisible against grey leather, so you cannot see it, but the moment cream goes over the top it binds that dust into the surface and the shoe comes out looking dirty rather than merely dull. Wipe the pair with a barely damp cloth, then wait a full hour before you open the jar. Across these two short months of the year that hour is the difference between a clean pair and a grubby one.

Specifications

At a glance

• Size: A 50ml glass jar
• Colour reading: Light neutral dove grey
• Attribute on site: Grey Edelweiss 377
• Recipe: Beeswax and shea cream
• For use on: Smooth pale grey leather
• Do not use on: Suede, nubuck and fabric
• Application: Thin coats, soft brushing
• Part of: The Creme de Beaute line
• Country, cost: French jar, £6.49

Frequently asked questions

Is this the same as a white cream on grey shoes?

No, and the difference shows quickly. White cream on grey leather leaves a chalky bloom in the grain and the stitching, because there is no grey in it to blend with. This carries enough grey to sit down into the colour instead.

Will it turn my cool grey shoes slightly beige?

That is exactly what it avoids. The measurement puts it at essentially zero colour bias, unusual in a pale grey, so it will not push a cool leather warm.

How often should light grey shoes be creamed?

Once at the start of each of the two seasons they get worn, with a wipe down in between. Pale leather asks for cleaning often and colour rarely.

Where can I buy the Famaco Edelweiss Grey Leather Beauty Cream 377 in the UK?

It ships out from Shoespecialist.co.uk to your door. Any basket over £50 travels free of charge, an order placed before five in the afternoon on a weekday is boxed the same working day, and sixty days are yours.