Introduction

Boot Black is a Japanese shoe care brand under the parent company Columbus. Artist Palette is considered to be their premium leather cream polish. Its main conditioner is argan oil which is found in many other Boot Black products. Unlike many cream polishes, it does not contain any water. It also has the ability to mimic wax polish which I will get into later in this post.

Cost

The full price of Boot Black Artist Palette is 24.98 USD for 35 grams of product. Meaning that at full price you are paying for 0.71 USD per gram. Saphir MDO is 27.95 USD for 70.87 grams which is 0.39 dollars per gram so Artist Palette is much more expensive than Saphir. However that doesn’t really bother me as a regular consumer because it takes a really long time for me to get through either product. For cobblers or professionals it might be more important.

Impressions

The texture of Artist Palette is very slick and it contains lots of pigment similar to Saphir MDO. Even with a very thin layer, it contains enough wax to produce a very nice shine with minimal white cast. The product also advertises that it creates a water resistant layer. Usually when companies make these claims I ignore them because they aren’t true. However, I can say that even with a thin layer it does add water resistance and prevents water stains while I’m walking around in Seattle. Anders Sundström of Paul Brunngard also notes on the water resistance of Artist Palette and placed the product in the highest tier. Anders believes that water resistance is a core feature of cream polish but for me it’s a nice bonus, especially if you live in a rainy area.

Special Features

Out of the jar you can take some polish and add a couple of thin layers on the toe and heel. Then polish those layers with a cotton cloth and water similar to wax polish. The resulting shine is something in between cream polish and real wax polish. You can accentuate the shine by brushing with a goat hair brush afterwards. There is a video by Columbus that shows how to do this. You can technically do this with Saphir MDO if it is very old and dry. However, Artist Palette is designed to be able to do this out of the jar. For people who think wax polish is cumbersome but want additional shine sometimes, this is a nice product to have. In my experience, it’s not as protective as 5-6 layers of real wax polish but this is still a nice way to create a more noticeable shine or touch up existing wax polish.

Availability

For a long time getting most of the Boot Black lineup was a pain for Americans. You could find Two Face Lotion and maybe some of the suede cleaning products on European sites in the past. However, Boot Black finally launched a US Site in the last few months. Some of the store features are still not finished but it is a usable site. One distribution site is in Seattle, Washington.

Who is This For?

Minimalist

Someone who wants as few items as possible for shoe care could get by with

1. A single horsehair brush
2. Boot Black Artist Palette in Natural (same thing is Neutral for Saphir MDO)
3. Any Cotton Cloth to wipe away excess polish
4. Optional Cleaner such as as Boot Black Two Face Plus Lotion if you want to be responsible

In this setup you would brush away dust, apply cream polish, knock off as much dust off of your brush, and then buff away the polish. Then wipe away excess polish with any cotton cloth. Because there is no pigment in Artist Palette you can get away with using a single brush. There is also less white cast in Artist Palette Natural then Saphir MDO Neutral which is nice. If you want a higher shine you can do the steps in the Special Features part of this post for special occasions. Not enough people talk about how good the clear color is for this product. Even in Japanese videos most people don’t use this color. Sometimes in competition people will use Natural instead of a standalone conditioner.

Patina Artist

I can’t personally vouch for this but there are Japanese bespoke makers that do use Artist Palette for their patinas. I think Saphir and Fiebings are still the most popular products to use for this but if you want to try an alternative I think it’s worth it to test out.

You Enjoy Using Saphir MDO Cream Polish

I think Artist Palette falls in the same category as Saphir MDO because it has high pigment and wax content with a small to moderate amount of strong conditioner. The glow after buffing and wiping looks very natural.

Cordovan

Boot Black Artist Palette is recommended by Horween, the most famous Cordovan tannery. Horween names their colors after numbers. #8 is the most popular color and is a purplish burgundy. On the Boot Black US Site, they actually list #2, #4, #6, and #8 next to 4 colors so you can perfectly match your Horween shoe color.

Conclusion

If you are into shoe care I highly recommend checking out Artist Palette. There aren’t many articles or Youtube videos showcasing it. I was surprised how few Japanese videos there are on this product as well. I think I’ve watched every single one of them so far.