Regular leather care is imperative to keep your elegant and expensive leather items in their original condition. Leather material is acknowledged as the most versatile and timeless material that can stay with you for years without being old-fashioned. Whether you own it in the form of a sleek jacket, handbag, or heavy leather furniture, you would wish it to stay in its natural condition for years to come.
To maintain the quality and ensure the durability of your leather items, you will have to adopt a regular leather care routine. Routine cannot only ensure the longevity of your leather items but also keep them soft, supple, and shiny for ages to come.
This blog will help you understand the importance of leather care and cater to you with some useful leather care tips to not only rejuvenate your leather items but also maintain them as well.
Ultimate Leather Care Guide in 2024
Importance Of Leather Care
Being a natural material, leather could last for decades in case of proper care and maintenance. However, without due diligence, it may dry out, lose its natural oils, get cracked, fade its original color away, or develop discoloration and stubborn stains as well.
Leather contains natural oils on its surface that make it look shiny, smooth, flexible, and pristine. However, with time, no routine care, and unfavorable weather conditions such as sun damage, heat, cold, rain, and UV lights, leather begins to lose these oils and gets dehydrated. Once it gets dried out completely, it becomes prone to cracking and losing its original texture.
Whereas, proper regular care of leather can help you escape these adverse conditions. It helps the leather material to stay hydrated by keeping the moisture level as required. Moreover, you can get rid of stubborn stains, discoloration, and fading colors of leather with the help of regular cleaning, conditioning, and protection.
Regular Leather Care Tips
Following all the leather care tips is the key to protecting, preserving, and maintaining your leather items whether it is your delicate leather jacket, gloves, handbags, or your leather car seats, the regular maintenance keeps it supple, protects its natural beauty, and prevents costly repairs or replacements.
Understand Your Leather Type
Before stepping towards your first step of leather care, you need to understand the leather type your leather item is made of. Leather comes in multiple types such as full-grains, top-grains, suede, and bounded leather. As full-grain leather is comparatively more durable and natural but being this particle type full-grain leather needs gentle cleaning. Top grain leather is more resistant to stains than suede which is soft and textured but prone to catch stains easily. However, top-grain leather is less breathable than the suede leather is.
Owing to being prone to catching stains, suede can get moisture and become moldy. Lastly, the bounded leather is an economical option as compared to other types of leather but it needs more conditioning to stay in its original form and to prevent cracking and peeling. Therefore, we can say that by having a basic understanding of leather type, you can pick compatible cleaning products while saving the leather material from any unexpected mishap such as discoloration. You can also check the care label attached to the product before experimenting with different leather care products.
Dusting
The first step of leather care involves dusting off the dirt and grim accumulated on the leather surface. Without dusting, these dirt particles may absorb into the leather with serums and start spoiling the texture and shine of your luxury leather items while leading to wear and tear.
Leather Cleaning
After clearing the dust off the surface, you need to apply leather cleaner. You can use a clean and gentle fabric to serve this purpose. Some of the concentrated cleaners need to dilute with water and others can be used directly. Take some liquid, as per the length of your leather item, on the cloth and apply it to the leather.
The leather cleaner would help you eliminate all the dirt, debris, stains, discoloration, etc. by cleansing deep through the pores of the leather. After wiping the surface off, leave it to dry for a few seconds. Although, you would witness a clear difference between the before and after condition of your leather item, however, proceeding with the complete leather care steps would help you far better results for a longer period of time.
Before using any cleaner, have a look at the manufacturing materials used in it. Using a mild and pH-balanced leather cleaner prevents damage that may occur in case of using harsh chemicals like ammonia etc. Clean Spots instantly before they settle in order to prevent permanent stains.
Leather Conditioning
Once the leather gets dried completely, move on to the next step of leather conditioning. The conditioning process refreshes the leather surface by returning its original soft texture and color. Moreover, it repairs the rough texture of its surface and reinvigorates it by moisturizing its pores. In order to keep it hydrated and alive for long, condition your leather items after every 2 to 3 months.
Apply a fair quantity of a leather conditioner with the help of a soft fabric and rub it on the surface for a few minutes until it gets absorbed completely. Moreover, the use of an excessive amount of cleaner may leave some residue unabsorbed and make the leather surface look and feel greasy so, avoid excessive amounts of conditioner on your leather products.
Leather Protection
In the last step, use a protective spray in order to keep your leather surface from water and other fluid stains. Protecting spray is used to create a thin layer on the leather surface that acts as a barrier between the leather and other harmful elements including dirt, debris, fluid spots, UV light and oils, etc., and keeps them from getting absorbed into the pores. Thus, apply a protective spray on the leather after conditioning it and spread it with the help of a soft cloth to cover all the leather surfaces with an even amount.
Seasons and Leather Care
When it comes to keeping your leather items safe for longer periods of time, every season has particular effects on leather. Leather care according to the ongoing season is required to provide a compatible environment and suitable solutions for your leather items. In the winter season, the salt and moisture that can get absorbed into the leather can potentially cause harm by drying the natural oils and producing mold that may result in leather peeling. To reverse this situation, regularly wipe the salt stains off the leather and condition it a bit frequently.
Additionally, heat, high temperature, and humidity in summer can also damage the leather surface as well by drying and causing mold. Therefore, ensure the breathability of your leather items by keeping them well-ventilated and protected from enormous heat.
Best Leather Care Kit
Whites Pearl offers a complete leather care package, including Whites Pearl Cleaner & Conditioner, mink oil, and a protective spray with microfibre fabric. Keeping all the necessary steps of leather care in sight, Whites Pearl provides an all-natural and non-synthetic ingredients-based leather care kit to clean, condition, and protect your leather from harmful elements and chemicals.