How to Make a Leather Protector for Your Shoes

Leather protectors contain noxious chemicals. Create an Earth-friendly leather protector product with help from Gorgeously Green's Sophie Uliano in this free video on green lifestyles.

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Video transcription

Hi, I'm Sophie Uliano, author of the "Gorgeously Green" book series. And today, I'm going to show you how to make a really simple leather protector, or leather shoe polish. Once you know how to make this, you'll never have to go and buy a regular shoe polish, ever again. The reason I like to make this at home is, that it's very inexpensive, it's very effective. But probably most importantly, it doesn't contain any of the toxic chemicals that regular, conventional shoe polishes do. So, let's get started. You're going to use olive oil, use the cheapest olive oil you can find. Because honestly, you don't want extra virgin olive oil on your shoes or your boots. So, I'm putting in two tablespoons into a stainless steel bowl, like so. The next ingredient and last ingredient that I'm using, is beeswax. Now, this you can get from a health food store, or you can go on-line and look up beeswax pellets. They come in these little pellets, and I use them for many, many skin care and many of my DIY projects at home. So, I'm putting in one teaspoon into the olive oil, just like so. Now, the next thing I'm going to do, is set the stainless steel bowl over a saucepan of boiling water. So, I'm essentially making a little Bain Marie, and I'm just going to let them melt. O.k., so my beeswax has melted into the olive oil beautifully, that's really all it takes. And now, I'm going to just pour this directly into a jar. Use any old jar, you can find in the house, really it doesn't matter what it is. Now, this we'll keep for a long time, shelf life, you know, two, three years. And then, simply when you're ready to use it, it's liquefied now. When it sets, when it cools down, it will set and it will be quite solid. It'll look just like regular shoe polish and it'll have the same texture. However, as it's warm now, that doesn't matter. So, I've got a nice leather boot here. It's pouring with rain today, so I want to protect my shoes. This is really good also, when you have a brand new pair of children's shoes. So before they ever wear them, rather than using Scotchgard and things like that, which can be really, really toxic. Make this, it's good, if not, even better. And then, gently, gently, I'm going to rub this in. It also gives leather a beautiful sheen and a shine too, love it, love it. So, that's how unbelievably easy it is to make your own leather protector and your own shoe polish. So, I'm Sophie Uliano, you can always do it yourself, and do it gorgeously.