At a pinch, you can shine your leather shoes with floor wax or spray-on window cleaner.
If you have run out of polish for dark brown and black shoes and boots use spray-on furniture polish.
Rub real patent leather with milk- this really brings up the shine. Use spray-on glass cleaner for plastic patent. A thin film of petroleum jelly works well too.
For a high shine, squeeze a few drops of lighter fluid into your solid boot wax it will spread more easily and penetrate better. Or rub lemon juice into the leather after it's polished, then buff.
If you don't have a soft cloth to buff shoes with, use cotton wool or kitchen paper.
To clean suede shoes, scrape off mud and remove excess dust with a vacuum cleaner attachment. Use a special suede cleaner or shampoo and follow the manufacturer's instructions. If the pile on suede shoes has flattened, hold the shoes near the steam from a kettle, and then brush the skin gently to raise the pile. Leave to dry.
You can dye light suede shoes bright colours and black with dyes that are specially formulated for suede. Light leather shoes can also be dyed, but dye colours are limited to black, brown and navy. If you want to change dark coloured leather to light colours, use shoe paints. These can also be used for plastic and fabric shoes, and come in a wide range of colours, but are not suitable for suede.
Use a cotton bud to get polish in that space between the uppers and the soles.
Cover spots on black suede by sponging a little black coffee on them; on white suede, use chalk.
Take spots off the white rubber on trainers with steel wool dipped in detergent.
If your polish gets hard, heat it in the oven or add a few drops of turpentine or white spirit to soften it.
To keep your hands clean while polishing shoes, wear old gloves or cut the pockets out of old trousers and use them as mittens.
Then again you can get some shoe polish