A mum discovered an unlikely way to shine up her daughter’s school shoes ahead of picture day with a common pantry item. 

The woman said she had run out of black shoe polish so instead gave the footwear a lick of vegetable oil. 

She shared the impressive results online wowing hundreds of mums who discussed their best hacks for cleaning shoes from using things like Vaseline and baby oil. 

‘School photo day and I forgot to buy a new black shoe polish… vegetable oil to the rescue!’ the mum wrote in a post to the Cleaning and Organising Inspiration Australia Facebook group. 

She added a before-and-after photo of the two shoes, one before cleaning and one after she applied the vegetable oil to show how effective the pantry staple had been.

A clever mum has shared how she made her daughter’s leather school shoes look like new again using vegetable oil

Here’s how to clean leather shoes with vegetable oil

What you’ll need

How to

‘I was so happy with how they turned out so I thought I would share,’ she said. 

‘I am very interested to see what my daughters shoes look like when I pick her up from school soon and if it lasted.’ 

One group member asked if the shoes came out slippery and greasy and the mum replied saying they didn’t guessing the leather absorbs the oil. 

According to Favored Leather, vegetable oil seeps into the durable material protecting it from water damage and staining and keeps it moisturised to stop it drying out. 

Other mums shared their handy tricks for shining up leather shoes.

‘I use to use baby oil. I hated polishing my school shoes,’ one woman said. 

‘Vaseline will rescue them too and waterproof them,’ another explained and a third said: ‘Banana skins work too apparently’. 

‘Black felt tip over the scuff marks works wonders,’ a fourth suggested.  

Pros and Cons: Can you clean leather shoes with vegetable oil?

Pros

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How this thrifty mum used vegetable oil to shine up and clean her daughter’s leather school shoes

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