Owing to its unique and delightful pattern, Ostrich leather is one of the most expensive and finest leather types that was first introduced in South Africa in the 1850s. As exotic skins are widely used in the manufacturing of various trendy fashion items, Ostrich skin is popularly used to craft fashion items such as Ostrich skin boots, hats, belts, expensive sportswear, and fashion bags.
Ostrich leather is an exotic leather made of Ostrich hide that brings a unique elegance to your leather items by its beautiful pattern, bumps on the surface, and incredible elasticity. The unique yet beautiful quill pattern makes Ostrich leather items look even more charming. The amazing stretch makes it far more durable than other leather types such as cow or goat hide. This elasticity combined with regular leather care helps Ostrich leather remain in its original form for decades without falling prey to seasonal cracking and peeling of your favorite as well as expensive Ostrich leather fashion accessories.
This blog will provide you with an ideal care routine for your Ostrich skin items, helping you maintain, protect, and preserve your leather items by enhancing their longevity.
Features of Ostrich Leather
Abrasive Skin and Scars
Authentic Ostrich leather is an animal hide, and Ostrich, living in a natural environment, shows abrasion, blemishes, and scars on its surface, which is true for any other skin as well.
Shading and Non-uniform Color
Similar to the uniqueness of its skin, Ostrich leather also has a patchy color as natural leather can not have a uniform color and texture. Having some natural shadings is what makes this leather type natural, unique in nature, and authentic.
Follicles on Skin
The ostrich skin naturally has follicles on its surface so, these follicles are quite visible on genuine ostrich leather as well which makes its texture non-uniformed and bumpy.
Stiffness
Ostrich leather contains a high quantity of natural oils that make it temperature-resistant. Items made of Ostrich leather can even survive long exposure to sunlight. Additionally, the presence of a high quantity of oils enhances the strength and stiffness of the leather item.
Durable
Being pretty stretchable, the ostrich skin is very durable which makes your leather products live longer than other types of leather products. As the skin is so flexible it doesn’t easily get cracks on it. In order to test the authenticity of this leather, one may try to make a scratch with its nails, if the leather is genuine it won’t peel off that easily but in case of being a counterfeit leather material, it would peel uproot the skin. However, persistent carelessness in taking regular care of Ostrich leather may lead to the deterioration of this leather type as well.
Expensive
Ostrich leather requires a lot of processing at the time of its manufacturing as well as the use of expensive chemicals in tanning makes it the most lavish leather type. Given this fact, it is used to make various exorbitant items such as Ostrich leather boots, handbags, hats wallets, etc.
Resistant to Water Damage
The inner layers of Ostrich leather are comparatively thicker than the layers of other leather types making it water resistant. Water doesn’t get easily absorbed into the surface of Ostrich leather and it stays unharmed by the perilous effects of water on the leather surface in case of your leather items’ contact with rain and humidity. As the surface doesn’t absorb moisture, it also stays safe from getting mold and discoloration.
How to Care for Ostrich Leather with Whites Pearl Leather Care Products
Besides being highly resistant to various environmental, physical, and biological elements, Ostrich leather still needs proper care and maintenance to survive to its ultimate time limit and endure harsh conditions without getting affected.
Cleaning Supplies
Choosing the right leather care products is the most crucial step in order to avoid any diverse effects. Most of the leather care products contain synthetic and toxic chemicals that can be harmful to your leather items. Therefore, choose the right leather care products that contain all-natural cleaning and conditioning ingredients such as Beeswax and other organic conditioners. Ostrich leather is a delicate skin that can get impaired by the use of harsh chemicals on it.
The list of essential cleaning supplies includes a gentle microfiber cloth, a high-quality cleaning solution, a natural non-synthetic conditioner or mink oil, and a high-coverage touch-to-dry leather protector.
Wiping off the Ostrich Leather
Before moving toward a thorough cleaning, you need to wipe off the dust over the surface of ostrich leather. To do so, take a soft and clean cloth made of microfiber and gently clear away all the dirt carefully considering every part of your leather item without missing any crooks and crannies.
Once you have removed all the dust, now it’s time to identify the spots and stains that might have become the part of leather surface due to no instant treatment.
Deep Cleaning and Cleansing
Without proper and timely cleaning, dirt particles start to accumulate deep into the pores of Ostrich leather and begin consuming the natural oils that pre-existed in the Ostrich skin. Due to the lack of oils on the leather surface, it gets dried up and dehydrated. Moreover, no proper cleaning also results in losing the original texture, color, and shine of your treasured leather accessories. Whereas, regular cleaning helps to eliminate all the dirt and grim long heaped up in the pores.
Whites Pearl leather cleaner is one of the highest-quality leather cleaners that due to all-organic and non-toxic cleaning ingredients works gently on the Ostrich leather. For the cleaning purpose, use a gentle cloth and pour a small quantity of Whites Pearl leather cleaning solution on it. Now proceed with spreading the formula all over the leather surface without leaving any part. In order to deal with stubborn stains, take a little more solution on the fabric and score them out by scrubbing that particular area gently. Keep on rubbing until the marks get erased completely but avoid applying too much force on the delicate surface of the Ostrich skin.
Condition to Revive, Restore and Maintain
Once you have done cleaning the leather surface completely, now step towards the second leather care step, conditioning. In order to maintain moisture in the leather surface is imperative to bolster up the original charming shine, smooth texture, fresh color, and flexibility of Ostrich leather. Whether you need to keep the original form maintained or to restore it in case of already done damage, you would need a high-quality non-synthetic leather conditioner.
Use White Pearl’s leather conditioner or the mink oil for conditioning purposes. In doing so appropriately, take a reasonable quantity of conditioner on the fabric and apply it on the leather surface. You are supposed to massage the leather surface for about a minute or two until all the solution gets absorbed into the leather pores. The conditioning treatment will blow life into an even dying piece of leather item and rejuvenate its shine, color, and texture.
Preserve Ostrich Leather Items
As you have cleaned and conditioned the Ostrich leather, now you need to preserve it through protecting the harmful elements. A high-coverage leather protector is all you need to maintain and preserve the original or newly gained form of your leather items. With the use of a fine leather protector, you can save your leather products for years to come by maintaining them in their original form. In order to keep them safe against the environmental effects, a leather protector creates a layer that doesn’t let the sunlight, fluids, mold, heat, and cold reach the leather surface and damage it.
Use Whites Pearl’s leather protector spray bottle and spray the required amount of protective solution on the leather surface. As the fluid covers the area, leave the leather accessories at peace for a few seconds to dry. Once it is done, you are all ready to go.
Precautionary Measures to Avoid Damage
1- Direct exposure to sunlight as well as extreme heat can cause irreversible harm to your expensive leather items by soaking their natural oils and leaving them dehydrated. Dehydration leads the ostrich leather to crack and peel in no time. Therefore, in order to ensure the safety of your favorite Ostrich leather item, Keep them away from sunlight in order to mitigate its exposure to detrimental UV lights.
2- Keeping safe from extreme weather conditions such as heat, cold and rain is imperative to increase its lifetime. Therefore, store your Ostrich leather items to such places that are neither too cold nor too hot. Moreover, there must not be any chance of reaching water or humidity. With this precautionary measure, the unique color of your leather items would stay stable and they won’t get any issues such as discoloration and fading its natural color away.
3-Avoid placing your Ostrich leather items in places where they could get any scars by scratching in case of any sharp items around them. Instead, choose a smooth surface with any gentle fabric on the surface to ensure the safety of your luxury items whether these are Ostrich skin boots or ostrich leather wallet.
4- Don’t overlook regular cleaning and conditioning of Ostrich leather items as the process of leather spoiling starts when dirt starts accumulating in the pores of the leather surface, any spots are left untreated for a long time, and the leather skin loses its natural oils and you don’t maintain essential moisture in the leather surface timely.
5- Use leather care products in a proper portion: don’t increase the amount of care solution more than recommended as the excess of this product can also be harmful to the leather surface. Therefore, don’t let the quantity exceed the suggested limit of leather cleaning and conditioning formulas.