Bull polishing

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Bulling, Bull polishing, spit polishing, mirror shining or spit shining refers to a method for polishing leather products, usually leather dress shoes or boots, to give an extremely high shine effect. The finished effect should leave the surface of the leather highly reflective, similar to a patent leather finish. In addition to aesthetics, the wax coating can protect the leather from moisture and scuffs.^[1]

The term spit shining comes from the traditional use of saliva instead of water to wet the cloth. However, the presence of mucus in spit causes a duller shine.^[2]

The first step for a bull polish is to layer the polish with a brush, hand, or cotton cloth onto the boot or shoe. After applying a few layers of polish, use a clean, slightly damp polishing cloth to apply multiple thinner layers of shoe wax. This is accomplished by adding small dabs of polish and a few drops of water to build up the layers rather than removing them.^[3] Finally, place the boot or shoe under a running cold water tap while giving them a gentle final bull with a cloth to remove any micro scratches.^[4]

Due to the brittle nature of the shoe wax, a spit shine has to be refreshed regularly and is usually only applied on the parts of a shoe that will not bend with the walking movement of the foot, i.e. the toe caps and heels. Because of this, combined with the significant time commitment that is needed to maintain a proper mirror shine, shoe polish manufacturers have been selling parade gloss and similar products which promise similar effects with significantly less effort.

Preparing parade shoes might involve the additional step of hardening the whole shoe with melted beeswax before applying shoe wax.^[5] This serves as a fortifying base coat which keeps the mirror shine from cracking easily, but also makes the shoe unsuitable for everyday wear.