Loving Your Bags – Leather Cleaning

Sometime last year, I wrote a post about “Tips on taking care of your bags”. It was a rather short article but since then I’ve received emails ever so often asking me about the care for bags, especially the expensive brand name ones.

Thus, when LovingYourBags which is the first designer bag care boutique in Singapore and the sole distributer of Apple Brand for Singapore and Philippines, approached me for an advertorial I was really interested.

I’ve been really busy and haven’t had time to test and review all the products in their line but I did manage to try out the Apple leather cleaner. The basic 3 step process to care for leather bags is to clean, condition and then protect it from moisture.

Here’s my video tutorial on how to clean your bag well.

We often buy luxury bags but we don’t take as much effort to protect and care for our expensive investments. It’s really not difficult to clean, condition and protect your precious leather bags from the daily wear and tear.

Just treat it as giving your beautiful bags a day spa treatment to prolong its life span so you can carry them for even more years to come.

Let’s start by cleaning your leather bags.

You will need:

– A soft white eraser (optional)

– one or two clean soft cotton cloths

– a leather cleaner

There are several brands of leather care products on the market but I trust Apple Leather cleaner on my bags as their leather care products are free of waxes, oils or additives and help preserve the natural composition of the leather.

You may get Apple products from http://www.lovingyourbags.com and as a special treat for my readers, just use the discount code LYBRENZZE to get a 5% off plus free local mail!

If you’re using other leather care products, make sure your product does not contain any lanolin oil, mink oil, animal fats or alcohol. Lanolin oil or animal fats causes the leather to rot and destroys your bag. It may also darken your leather. Alcohol content in the cleaner may also cause your color to fade. So be sure to choose a leather cleaner that has been tried,tested and meant especially for leather bags.

First, take a good close look at your bag to see if there are any obvious stains that need more work. I usually use a soft white eraser to remove any ink marks along the leather surface. Don’t rub too hard or you might rub away your leather’s color!

Shake the bottle of leather cleaner well. Then pour a little amount of leather cleaner on your cloth.

First find a hidden area to do a small patch test. Do not skip this step. Check how your leather reacts to the leather cleaner before proceeding to do the entire bag. This is especially important for leather bags with special surface coatings.

Remember to rub gently in circular motions. If you have very stubborn stains it may take a few rounds.

Wipe off excess cleaner and leave the bag to dry for 4 hours or more. It will be best to use the leather conditioner right after cleaning as the cleaning process can be a little drying on your leather. I will post a tutorial on the leather conditioner once I have the time to work on the video.

It’s that easy to get your bag clean and stain-free and if it’s just for general maintenance, it’s so much cheaper then sending your bag to a professional cleaning service.

After cleaning and condition is is crucial to protect your bags with a protectant such as Apple rain and stain repellent so that your bag will be well guarded from water stains and it will make your cleaning much easier the next time round.