is it acceptable to use it?
Noooooooooo!!
Yeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeesssssssssssssss!
Today’s cheat is tomorrow’s established method - once upon a time black shoe polish was a cheat, real soldiers used beeswax and blacking…
It’s not good stuff to use as a way of looking after leather, but as a way of just sprucing up your shoes before an inspection or parade it’s fine.
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I’d say it is acceptable as a last minute touch up if you have scuffed the shoes somehow, but it can’t replace an actual polish.
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Are you asking about the semi-permanent paint style products that are out there, or the kiwi silicon polish in a sponge type ones?
I have a pair of shoes that have “Shape up Instant Shoe Shine” on the toecaps. I tried it out about 10 years or so, because I was sick of spending time bulling my shoes, only to scuff them whilst driving, or whilst doing stuff at the squadron. The finish isn’t as impressive as a properly bulled shoes, but it looks fairly decent, lasts a lot longer, and takes more punishment. Plus, if you get dirt on your shoes, you can wipe them over with a damp cloth, and they are as good as new in seconds!
I think bulling shoes is a good life skill to learn, and often found it therapeutic, but as you get older, I found that there were more profitable things to spend that time on!
Funniest thing I’ve read here for a while.
Sure, brush-polishing shoes is a useful life-skill (if it can even be called a skill), but bulling is one of those weird military fetishes with no relevance to the real world.
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Fair point! 
the kiwi ones
Ah right.
I’ve used them before, and they do the job reasonably well! I’ve no idea what the ingredients do to polish in the long term, mind! They don’t do much to hide cracks or gauges in polish though!
I’d avoid them.
Nothing will make your future bulling efforts frustrating quite like having a layer of silicone that you can’t shift.
Frankly, if you’re confronted with the need for “instant” results you’ll achieve far more with a quick water bull and a soft cloth than by smearing those silicone sponges all over your shoes.
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Can’t relate, shoes haven’t seen polish since I left phase three training…
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