How to Clean Leather

There are three main types of leather, before you start cleaning its essential to find out what type of leather you are dealing with, here are the top three :-

Protected Leather (or Pigmented)

Aniline Leather

Nubuck Leather (or Suede)

Protected Leather or Pigmented Leather is the most durable but less natural in appearance, with its fine polymer surface coating which contains pigments. The surface coating makes it more resistant to fading and scuffing. This leather is the most common type on the market and can be cleaned well using good quality leather cleaning products. This type of leather is also known as Finished Leather, Semi-Analine Leather, Everyday Leather, Pigmented Leather and Painted Leather.

Aniline Leather is the most natural in appearance, its surface having the unique characteristics of the animal hide. This type of leather is coloured only with dye and it has little or no protective coating so is less resistant to soiling. So when cleaning, tread carefully, as aniline will absorb dirt and oils more readily making it prone to staining and damage over time. This type of leather is also known as Natural Leather, Pure Leather, Naked Leather and Unprotected Leather.

Nubuck Leather or Suede is similar to analine leather in many respects however it differs in one significant way... it has been buffed or brushed to create a nap which gives it a fine velvet feel. If the nap is more coarse, the leather type is suede. If you run your hand over the surface the colour will change as you alter the direction of the nap. This type of leather is extremely absorbent especially to body oils which makes Nubuck (and Suede) the most difficult to clean and repair effectively.