Famaco Grey Mouse Leather Beauty Cream 531 – 50ml Creme de Beaute

Description

Famaco Grey Mouse Leather Beauty Cream 531 – 50ml Creme de Beaute, a properly neutral charcoal with the colour strength measuring almost at zero, so the shade carries no warm or cool bias to push a grey shoe anywhere

Some shoes are still being paid for months after they arrive. Spreading the cost over instalments makes a good pair reachable, and it also makes people wear them constantly to justify the arrangement. Daily wear on a grey upper is punishing, because grey shows scuffing sooner than any dark colour and no ordinary black polish will put it right without turning the whole shoe a shade it never was.

What the measurement showed here is close to remarkable. Saturation came out at effectively nothing, so this is a genuinely neutral dark grey rather than the slightly blue or the slightly brown greys that most makers supply. Souris means mouse in French, and mouse grey is exactly the flat, honest, undramatic tone the little jar contains.

Neutral charcoal cream, fifty millilitres of it, in a French made jar at £6.49.

Why choose the famaco grey mouse leather beauty cream 531?

• Neutral to the point of measuring almost no bias. Grey creams usually carry a hidden cast, blue in some, brown in others, and it only shows once the shoe dries. This measured as near neutral as makes no difference, which is why it lands where you expect it to land. You find out about a hidden cast only once the shoe dries.
• Darker and cleaner than a greige. If you have compared this with a taupe grey, the difference is obvious. That kind of shade is a pale warm greige for stone leathers, whereas this is a proper charcoal for mid and dark grey uppers.
• Grey shows wear early, so it needs feeding early. On a shoe worn most days the toe goes pale long before the sole gives out. Regular thin coats keep the tone even, which is the whole trick to making a grey pair look deliberate rather than tired. Fading on grey is gradual, which is what makes it dangerous.
• Safer than reaching for black. Black polish on a grey shoe is the classic error, and it is close to impossible to undo. A matched grey cream fills the same scuffs without committing you to a colour you never chose. Nobody has ever taken black polish back off a grey shoe.
• The French wax base handles daily wear. Beeswax and shea butter keep the vamp flexing softly through hundreds of miles of pavement, which is what a shoe in constant rotation actually needs alongside the colour. Miles of pavement ask more of the wax.
• Good value against what the shoes are costing. If a pair is being paid for over several months, six pounds and change to keep it looking worth the arrangement is not a serious expense. One jar covers a great many touch ups. A jar this size covers a great many small touch ups.

How to use the famaco grey mouse leather beauty cream 531

Grey is merciless about contamination, so use a cloth that has never seen black polish and keep a brush aside for light shades. One black bristle will show as a dark fleck.

1. Wash the laces separately and set them aside to dry.
2. Brush the uppers down and clear grit from the seams.
3. Spread a thin, even film across each panel in turn.
4. Pay attention to the toe, where grey pales the fastest.
5. Set them aside in a cool spot for five minutes.
6. Finish with a light brush and a clean dry cloth.

My tip as a shoe specialist

Do a grey shoe every fortnight rather than waiting until it looks bad. Grey fades gradually and evenly, which sounds harmless but means you never notice the moment it has gone, and by then the toe is a whole shade paler than the quarters and one session will not bring the two back together again. A fortnightly thin coat takes four minutes and keeps the whole upper moving down at the same rate, so it always looks intentional. It is the same principle as topping up rather than rescuing, and grey is where it matters most.

Specifications

Product details

• Shade: Neutral charcoal, mouse grey
• Catalogue code: 531 in the range
• Jar size: 50ml glass jar
• Measured tone: Saturation close to zero
• Best on: Mid and dark grey
• Origin: Made in France
• Base: Natural waxes and shea
• Made by: Famaco Paris
• Price: £6.49

Frequently asked questions

Is this a blue grey or a brown grey?

Neither of those, and that is rather the whole point of it. The saturation measured very close to zero indeed, which makes it a genuinely neutral charcoal that will not tint the shoe in either direction.

Can I use it instead of black on dark grey shoes?

Yes, and you really should do. Black fills the scuff but it changes the colour of the entire shoe, and that change is very hard indeed to reverse afterwards.

Will it work on grey leather trainers?

Only on their smooth leather panels, yes. Avoid the mesh, the knit and any suede sections, all of which will need a rather different product instead of this one.

Where can I buy the famaco grey mouse leather beauty cream 531 in the UK?

You can order this from Shoespecialist.co.uk. Anything booked in before the five oclock stop is dispatched that day, past fifty pounds you pay nothing to have it sent, and sixty days, and it can come back.