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Leather Cleaner Tips for Leather Protection

akay | Aug 14, 2009 |

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Leather is often regarded as a luxury material in society. If you compare with buying a fabric upholstered sofa versus a leather sofa, chances are most people would opt for the latter as the fabric of choice. The same goes for leather shoes, purses and jackets. High end leather goes through very little in terms processing cycles, has very few or no flaws but is soft and supple to touch. Unfortunately, expensive leather is also very hard to maintain and clean with leather cleaners so you have to be very careful with not getting it dirty or full of stains.

As mentioned, high end leather does not go through a lot of processing and this is to maintain its original beauty. The reason why it is buttery soft to touch is because it doesn't have extra coatings of protection that makes the leather stiff. Obviously, this has its drawbacks because that leaves the leather vulnerable to spills, stains, and scuff marks.

Another thing to remember with leather is that it's actually animal skin. Just like our own skin, it needs to breath and cannot be left without moisturizers. A good leather cleaner and conditioner will do both in terms of cleaning the leather and putting back some of the moisture preserving it from cracks. This is especially important when you have leather garments that you will be wearing everyday. The weather does play a part in the break down of leather as the sun might discolour it, and rain, ice and snow would also damage leather through absorption of water. Therefore, before you wear the garment or leather accessory, protect it with a cream or spray.

These leather cleaning and protection tips are all fine and good for before the fact but accidents do happen all the time so we have to discuss how to restore leather. There are a few household leather cleaners that you can try such as just wiping a damp cloth on stained leather. Hopefully, it will be a fresh stain so you can get to it right away before the leather absorbs. You don't want to use any harsh soaps on leather because this won't match the natural pH of leather. If you have grease stains, try leaving on talcum or baking power on the stain to absorb the oil. Finally, despite what people say that hairspray is the fix all for ink stains, you don't want to be using that on leather. Instead, use rubbing alcohol you keep around in your medicine cabinet.

If these household leather cleaners don't work, it's time to seek the help of professional leather cleaners. They might have stronger leather stain removers or if worse comes to worse, they can restore it by dying the stain to match the rest of the item. It might be worth it for your leather investment.