Have you ever been on a night out ,sporting your new leather jacket only to wake up the following morning and realise that you made an unwitting design decision, sometime during the previous evening, to add a tomato sauce stain to the front right panel of said leather jacket? **insert your go to swear word here**
So what now? Before you take to it with a pair of scissors or start a dumpster fire with it, try a mixture of luke warm water and a mild soap. Using a sponge, wipe the affected area with a lightly moist sponge (yes I used the "m" word). Leave to dry in a shady area - do not put it in the sun. Once it is dry, add a small amount of leather conditioner to a soft cloth, wipe down the entire jacket and leave it over night. If the mark remains, pop out to your local dry cleaner to take care of it or seriously consider a stitch on patch of your favourite band to cover the stain.
When it comes to leather furniture, we've all had our eye on a single or double seater to solidify our single status. Inevitably though, life happens and your single status is challenged by a tiny human that refers to you as mom or dad and their latest fun game is drinking from their sippy cup on the leather couch. It seems to happen in slow motion but you watch the lid pop off the sippy cup and diluted apple juice lands all over the toddler and on the leather couch. **insert your go to swear word here that you've childproofed to something else** Use a soft cloth to wipe up the excess liquid off the couch and apply a generous amount of talcum powder or corn starch to the affected area. Leave it overnight and definitely keep the mini human out of that room or else you will have talcum powder all over the house. Of course you must clean the tiny human too but I'll leave that up to you.
The last leather nightmare is another failed design choice on a night out...spilt drinks on your suede boots. The trick with all of these failed design choices is to catch it early. Wipe off any access and then clean it with a combination of luke warm water and a mild soap. With suede you can use a soft brush and circular motions to clean the whole shoe. Leave it to dry in a shaded area, not in the sun. Once dry add a leather conditioner specific to suede and as a final step, a generous spray of suede protector like Scotchgard or Weiman leather care will seal it up again. Leave over night and you should be good to go in the morning.
At the end of the day, what you need to remember is that the quicker you can clean the leather the better. The longer the foreign substance has on the leather, the more damage it does.
Here's to hoping these scenarios never happen to you.
Yours in leather,
CJ