Famaco Red Automne Leather Beauty Cream 509 – 50ml Creme de Beaute

Description

Famaco Red Automne Leather Beauty Cream 509 – 50ml Creme de Beaute, an autumn red in name that measures cooler and cleaner, a deep claret on the pink edge of red, with the strongest colour on the bench this week

Red shoes are almost always an impulse. Nobody plans them. Somebody sees a pair in a window, buys them in a colour they have never worn in their life, and then finds that red is the one colour where a scuff shows from across the street. Within a season the toe turns pale and pinkish, and every brown cream in the cupboard would only make it worse than before.

Automne suggests russet and fallen leaves, so the measurement came as a surprise. This is a deep claret with the hue just on the pink side of true red and with real pigment strength behind it, closer to a good burgundy wine than to a conker, which is exactly why it works on faded red calf.

A glass jar of deep claret cream made in France, fifty millilitres, at £6.49.

Why choose the famaco red automne leather beauty cream 509?

• Strong pigment, which red leather badly needs. Red fades faster than almost any other colour under daylight, and a weak cream simply feeds the shoe and leaves the pale toe cap showing. This one measured the strongest of the whole bench, so it genuinely rebuilds the colour instead of glazing it.
• Cooler and cleaner than the name suggests. Expect a claret rather than a rusty autumnal brown red. If you are matching a burgundy or a proper post box red, this behaves the way you want, whereas a true russet would drag the shoe towards brown. Match the side of red correctly and the repair simply disappears.
• Beeswax and shea butter under the colour. The French formula is built on natural waxes rather than solvent, so the leather comes out fed as well as coloured. Red uppers are usually thin dress calf and they suffer badly from anything harsh. Thin dress calf suffers badly under anything harsher than wax.
• Evens out a toe cap that has gone pink. That pinkish bloom on a worn red shoe is pigment loss, not dirt, and no amount of cleaning touches it. Colour has to be put back, and it needs to be a red carrying enough depth to disappear into the surrounding leather.
• Sensible on a bag or a belt as well. Coloured accessories are harder to match than shoes and are usually neglected entirely. A red bag handle that has faded takes exactly the same treatment, in even thinner coats. Straps and handles want less again than that.
• One impulse buy deserves another sensible one. Six pounds and change against a pair of red shoes that would otherwise sit unworn in the box is the easiest arithmetic in shoe care. The jar will see them through many more seasons than the impulse lasted. The jar outlasts the enthusiasm that bought the shoes.

How to use the famaco red automne leather beauty cream 509

Red is the pigment most likely to end up somewhere you did not intend, including the sole edge and your own hands. Work slowly and keep the cloth folded tight.

1. Clean off old wax so the new colour can grip.
2. Take a modest amount onto a tightly folded soft cloth.
3. Feed it into the faded toe cap before anywhere else.
4. Carry the colour outwards until the panel reads as one.
5. Give it five minutes and resist the urge to rush.
6. Buff steadily until the cloth comes away very nearly clean.

My tip as a shoe specialist

Red rewards patience more than anything else in the cupboard. The instinct with a badly faded red shoe is to put on a thick coat and get the colour back in one go, and the result is a sticky surface that picks up dust and looks like nail varnish. Three genuinely thin coats, each buffed properly before the next goes on, gives a depth that a single heavy coat can never produce, because you are building the colour rather than painting it. It takes twenty minutes instead of five, and the shoe looks a different class for it.

Specifications

Product details

• Shade: Deep claret, cool leaning
• Catalogue code: 509 in the range
• Jar size: 50ml glass jar
• Measured tone: Pink edge of red
• Best on: Burgundy and red calf
• Origin: Made in France
• Base: Natural waxes and shea
• Made by: Famaco Paris
• Price: £6.49

Frequently asked questions

Is red automne a rusty autumn shade or a true red?

It measures as a clean deep claret rather than a rusty russet, sitting just on the pink side of true red. Treat it as a burgundy match and not as some autumnal brown red at all.

Will it bring back a toe cap that has gone pink?

That is precisely what it is for. The pinkness is lost pigment rather than dirt, and thin coats of a strong red cream put it back where cleaning cannot.

Can I use it on a red leather handbag as well?

Yes, in very thin coats indeed. Test inside a strap or a seam first, because bag leather is often finished quite differently to the calf used on shoes.

Where can I buy the famaco red automne leather beauty cream 509 in the UK?

You can order this from Shoespecialist.co.uk. Anything arriving here while the packing table is still busy travels the same day, no delivery charge attaches above fifty pounds, and you have sixty days should it not suit.