Famaco Espresso Creme de Beaute 337 – 50ml Near Black Brown Wax

Description

Famaco Espresso Creme de Beaute 337 – 50ml Near Black Brown Wax, a brown so far down the scale that it reads as black in anything but strong daylight, fifty millilitres deep in glass that shows when it runs low, for dark brown leather greyed along the creases.

A fortnight lying flat in the bottom of a suitcase, after a wedding abroad, did more harm to these than a year of walking ever managed. They came home creased across both vamps, and every one of those creases had gone pale grey where the leather had folded and then stayed folded in the heat.

Famaco lists 337 simply as dark brown, which is fair enough as far as it goes and misleading after that. The measurement puts it very low indeed on the brightness scale, with almost no saturation left in it and only a faint cool cast to the hue. On the shoe it behaves like a soft black.

£6.49 buys you the fifty millilitre pot of famaco espresso brown shoe cream.

Why choose 337 for very dark brown?

• Treat this as a black that happens to be brown. The reading gives very low brightness and single figure saturation, which in practice means nobody is going to call it brown across a room. If you want a brown that still looks like brown, this is not the pot to be reaching for.
• It is fourteen points darker than the dark grey. Shade 333, the pewter, measures a good deal lighter and carries no colour bias at all. Between them they cover almost everything at the dark end, but they are not interchangeable and the difference shows up on a pale sole edge.
• Very dark leather fades in a way you never notice. It does not go brown at the creases, it goes grey, and it does so slowly enough that the pair still looks fine to you and tired to everybody else. Putting that depth back is the entire job here.
• Shea keeps a near black cream from cracking as it dries. There is real fat in this formula, which matters more at this depth than it does anywhere else, because a dark film with nothing feeding it turns brittle and then shows every crease as a white line.
• Dark shades are the most forgiving of the lot to apply. Uneven coverage that would be glaringly obvious on a pale tan simply vanishes here, so if creaming shoes is new to you, this is a kind place to make your first mistakes without anybody noticing them.
• Fifty millilitres of a colour you will keep reaching for. Dark brown is the second most common shoe colour in a British hallway after black, so unlike the odder shades on the shelf this jar earns its keep many times over before it runs dry.

How to use the Famaco Espresso Creme de Beaute 337 – 50ml Near Black Brown Wax

Dark leather hides its dirt right up to the moment cream goes over it, and then the dirt shows itself as a dull patch. Clean harder than you think you need to.

1. Free the laces from the top hooks downwards.
2. Brush hard along the welt and the heel seat.
3. Take a damp cloth over the whole upper.
4. Wait until the leather is dry to touch.
5. Load a little cream onto folded cotton.
6. Spread thinly, rest, then brush it up.

My tip as a shoe specialist

Wipe the rim and the thread of the jar clean before you screw the lid back down. It sounds like housekeeping rather than technique, but cream left sitting on the thread sets hard, and in six months you will be standing at the sink running hot water over a jar you cannot open. A dark cream is worse than most for this, because you cannot see what you have left behind on a black rim. Ten seconds with the corner of the cloth saves the entire pot.

Specifications

At a glance

• In the box: 50ml glass jar, metal lid
• Shade recorded: Near black brown, cool cast
• Catalogue code: 337, listed as dark brown
• Key ingredients: Bees and carnauba wax, shea
• Apply to: Smooth calf, box and grain
• Never apply to: Suede, nubuck, patent, reptile
• Also bring: Lint free cloth, dark brush
• Range name: Famaco Creme de Beaute
• Where made, what you pay: France, £6.49

Frequently asked questions

Is 337 a black or a brown?

It is a brown by formulation and very close to a black by eye. The measurement finds a trace of warmth and almost no saturation at all, so it will read as black under a hallway light and as the deepest possible brown the moment you take the shoe outside.

Can I use it on black shoes?

You can, and on a scuffed black pair it will do no harm whatever. It is not quite a true black, so on a good pair of black Oxfords a proper black cream will always look sharper.

Why do the creases look pale?

Because the leather has folded and the finish has cracked along that fold. Cream fills and feeds the crack, which is why the pale line closes up as soon as the panel takes a coat.

Where can I buy the Famaco Espresso Creme de Beaute 337 – 50ml Near Black Brown Wax in the UK?

Order 337 whenever you like from Shoespecialist.co.uk. Carriage is on us above £50, anything ordered before five on a working day is dispatched that same day, and the returns door stays open for a full sixty days.