You won’t believe what castor oil does with old leather shoes.

Any shoe, no matter how fashionable and expensive it may be, eventually loses its original luster and beauty. But there are several ways to extend the life of your favorite shoes or boots. Castor oil for shoes is an effective tool for daily care of leather products, which can be purchased for a penny in a pharmacy. The tool will help soften the skin and reanimate dry shoes, protect winter boots from moisture and reagents, relieve shoes from unpleasant creaking and solve many other pressing problems.

How to treat shoes with castor oil to protect against moisture?

For all its many advantages, leather shoes have one significant drawback - they do not repel moisture. It is enough to step once into a puddle or trample on snow porridge a little, as the boots instantly get wet. To rid yourself of this trouble, you can treat the product with castor oil.

For short-term protection, which will last no more than a day, processing is carried out several hours before going outside as follows:

1. with the help of a brush, the seams connecting the sole and the top of the shoe are carefully smeared with castor oil;
2. a little tool is applied to the front of the product and rubbed over the entire surface;
3. dried for at least an hour.

Not everyone has free time and the opportunity to do such work every day. In order for the shoes to maintain moisture-proof qualities throughout the season, before the rainy season, the products can be treated with special impregnation made from castor oil and beeswax:

1. In an enameled bowl mix castor in the amount of 60 ml (2 vials) and 50 g of beeswax, put on a stove.
2. The mixture is heated, stirring constantly, until the wax dissolves. You can’t bring to a boil!
3. A warm solution should lubricate the inside of the shoe. To do this, remove the insoles and use a soft brush to process each seam and joint of the skin from the inside. The work is repeated 5-7 times until the oily composition is no longer absorbed into the skin. The excess is removed with a cotton swab.
4. Now you need to process the sole. It is also oiled several times with oily impregnation.
5. The remaining mixture is thoroughly triturated on the outer surface of the boot and left to dry.
6. The insoles are lubricated with a wax mixture on the side that is in contact with the sole.
7. As it dries, smudges and spots from the excess applied may appear on the skin. Received droplets of wax should be heated with a hairdryer and removed with a cotton swab.
8. At the end of the work, the entire shoe is lubricated with pure castor oil from the outside, polished and dried upside down for 2–3 days.

It is very useful to treat tourist shoes with such waterproof protection. On a camping trip, fishing or hunting, no one is safe from getting wet boots, so it’s better to take care of your boots and your health in advance.

A method of preparing a cleansing cream

Leather shoes require daily care - only under such conditions will it retain its shape and luster. Today on sale you can find many special tools for shoe care, but expensive creams and sprays, according to customers, are not always as effective as castor oil.

There is an easy way to prepare a cleansing cream at home. To work, you need to take:

• turpentine - 30 ml;
• castor oil - 30 ml;
• wax - 90 g.

Place the wax in an enameled bowl and melt in a water bath. Add the remaining ingredients and mix well. Pour the prepared mixture into a suitable glass container, close the lid and leave until completely solidified.

The cream is applied to the surface of dry shoes. It softens the skin, removes impurities, creates a water-repellent film.

How to protect shoes from salt and reagents?

Residents of large cities in the winter season are constantly faced with the problem of the appearance of white stains from leather and other reagents on leather shoes generously scattered by caring communal services along roads and sidewalks. You can cope with this scourge with the help of castor oil. To do this, it is enough to regularly lubricate the shoes with a cotton swab dipped in castor oil before leaving the house.

If, after another walk through the snowy streets, salt stains appear on the boots, the shoes should be gently wiped with a damp cloth, greased with warm castor oil and set aside to dry completely.

The castor oil, wax and turpentine cream, the recipe of which is described above, will perfectly cope with stains from salt and reagents. If there is no wax or turpentine on hand, you can mix 30 ml of castor oil and 90 g of fish oil and carefully rub the heated mixture into the leather surface.

How to make leather shoes soft and comfortable?

Soft, light and comfortable shoes are the key to well-being and mood, therefore, the issue of choosing a comfortable model should be approached with all responsibility.

The skin can be stretched when worn. Sellers warn buyers about this, advising them not to pay attention to the slight inconvenience of new shoes. If the shoes continue to constrain the leg, they can be stretched using castor oil.

To do this, lubricate the skin in a problem place inside the product with castor oil, put on a cotton sock and wear a shoe on the foot for 2-3 hours. The oil will impregnate the fibers of the skin, make them softer and supple, and the shoe will take the form of a foot.

Castor can even soften old rough and cracked skin. To do this, lubricate the surface of the product with a soft rag soaked in heated oil, wait a few hours until the product is absorbed, and then polish the shoe with a dry cloth.

Castor oil is used only for dark shoes! Dark traces will remain on white boots.

We remove the creak of the sole

It is very simple to get rid of the annoying squeak published by the sole of leather shoes if you use castor oil. The instruction is simple:

1. heat out the outsole by directing a warm stream of air from the hair dryer onto it or by spreading the product on the battery;
2. heat the castor and process the sole with it;
3. leave for a day to dry.

Sometimes not only the sole creaks, but also the bootleg. The upper part of the product can also be impregnated with castor oil, only in this case it is not necessary to warm the boot.

Drying castor

Genuine leather products can not only soak, but also dry out. In summer, shoes are exposed to sunlight, the material loses moisture, crackes, becomes clogged with dust. Having greased the surface of the product with castor oil, it will be possible to protect the shoes from drying out.

Before storing seasonal shoes for storage, it must be well dried, treated with a swab dipped in castor oil, and after 15-20 minutes polished with a soft flannel rag to a shine. The use of this inexpensive tool will help keep the product in its original form until the onset of the new season.

Castor oil is an affordable and effective tool used to care for genuine leather shoes. It softens the roughened product, protects against moisture, salt and reagents, restores elasticity and softness.

However, the use of castor oil has negative aspects:

• the skin loses its natural luster;
• dark spots remain on white shoes;
• the surface treated with oil becomes sticky, so shoes attract dust very much.

The main thing when using castor oil as a means to soften, cleanse and protect shoes from moisture is to observe the recommended amount and follow the instructions.