We have polished our shoes before ... from the time that Mum and Dad finally decided that we should polish our own school shoes if we were going to jump in muddy puddles, to first job interviews and hot cocktail parties. Having polished shoes is an essential part of having a polished overall appearance, but more importantly, it helps ensure your shoes stay in good condition for their entire wearable life. Today we look at how to properly polish leather women's high heels, from buying the polish and equipment, to storing your shoes afterwards. 

1.      Buy the correct polish 

Liquid polish is recommended for most high heels and leather shoes in general. Solid polish is a more traditional material, but it tends to crack and dry out after a while, creating quite a bit of waste unless you have a whole family of leather shoe-wearers to polish for. 

2.      Clean shoe 

Clean your shoe to remove dirt and dust. If you can run it under warm water without getting any water on the inside (which may encourage mould growth), then do so - this helps soften the leather and prepare it for being polished. Otherwise simply use a cloth and water to get he dust and grime off your shoe. 

3.      Use a brush 

We recommend using a soft lint-free cloth, or a brush with very tightly packed bristles to polish your high heels. A brush is often more useful for shoes that have a lot of fine detailing and stitching - it gets into places that your fingers cannot. 

4.      Polish with one finger, the cloth only or the brush 

Apply a tiny bit of polish to the shoe - use enough to shine an area half the size of your palm at once. 

If you are polishing with a cloth, you can use either the 'magic finger' technique, where you use a single finger to polish the entire shoe, or the 'cloth only' technique, where you hold both edges of the cloth and pull it back and forth across the surface. If you're using a cloth, you'll probably find that a combination of the two is most useful for the entire shoe. If you’re using a brush, simply apply and scrub away! Don't push too hard, to avoid scratching your high heel shoes. 

5.      Leave to absorb 

Once you have covered the entire shoe in polish, leave the shoe in the sun, or a safe distance from the heater, to help the polish be absorbed into the surface of the shoe. You'll only need to leave it for 2-3 minutes. The polish will melt and be better absorbed into the shoe.  

6.      Wet shoe 

Stuff the shoe full of rags or tissue paper (to keep the interior dry), and spray it with an atomizer. Polish the shoe dry with the same brush or cloth that you used before. 

7.      Polish again 

Repeat steps 4, 5 and 6 until you've got a good level of shine on your high heel. With experience, you'll begin to realise that you get abetter shine by applying only a thin layer of polish to start with, and repeating over and over again, rather than adding a single thick coat of polish. When you can see the reflection of your face in your shoes (in a brightly lit room), they're pretty well polished!  

8.      Leave to dry 

Leave your shoes to dry, preferably in the box that you store them in to help keep dust away from the surface. If, once your high heel shoes have dried you notice any areas that the polish wasn't quite even, you can fix them by misting a couple of breaths on the shoe, and rubbing across the smudgy areas with pantyhose. 

Caring for your high heels is an essential part of owning them … and since you can only wear so many pairs of shoes in the day, a great way to enjoy their beauty!