Vaseline Petroleum Jelly: For Shining Shoes

What do you use to shine your shoes? Did you know that you can shine those shoes that are dull and are in need of some tender loving care with Vaseline Petroleum Jelly? Good old Vaseline is exactly what you need to shine your shoes with. Vaseline Petroleum Jelly can be used for so many things and one of them is to shine shoes.

When I was a little girl, I had a pair of black patent leather shoes, which after wearing them for a while, became dull looking. My mother would take out a jar of Vaseline Petroleum Jelly and apply it to my shoes and then she took a cloth and buffed them thoroughly which gave my shoes a remarkable and brilliant shine. As a little girl I did not know that you were expected to use a black, brown, or white shoe polish to shine shoes. To me, using Vaseline Petroleum Jelly to shine shoes was a normal thing to do at home since that is what I saw my mother do so often.

Vaseline Petroleum jelly has been around since 1859 and the material for petroleum jelly was discovered in 1859 in Titusville, Pennsylvania. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved it as an over-the-counter (OTC) skin protectant and it is often used in cosmetic skin care. I believe that if Vaseline Petroleum Jelly can protect the skin from being dry and brittle, it can also protect shoes from becoming dry looking and provide a conditioning shine to dull shoes.

I must say that Vaseline Petroleum Jelly works extremely well on darker shoes, such as brown, black, navy, dark gray, darker red shoes, and it works well on patent leather and genuine leather material. I have even polished my leather purses with Vaseline Petroleum Jelly.

If you have never tried to polish your shoes or purses with Vaseline Petroleum Jelly, then I highly recommend that you give it a try. Simply take a clean rag, dab a little Vaseline Petroleum Jelly on the rag, apply it to your shoes, take another clean rag and start buffing away. My shoes really sparkled after this treatment and I believe that your shoes will too!

Vaseline Petroleum Jelly will not change the color of leather, but I would not recommend using it on light colored leather, because I have not used Vaseline Petroleum Jelly on lighter leather material and I am not so sure what the results would be. If you choose to use Vaseline Petroleum Jelly to shine a lighter pair of shoes, it may work great or it may not. I do know that it is a very inexpensive way to give your shoes a brilliant shine.

A small amount of Vaseline Petroleum Jelly plus a clean rag to buff your shoes with and you are on your way to shiny, sparkling shoes!

Vaseline comes in various sizes- 1.75 oz. to 13 oz. and ranges in price from $1.92 to $4.99. You can find Vaseline Petroleum Jelly at many drug stores, grocery stores, and online at www.planetrx.com, www.nextag.com, and www.walgreens.com.