How To Protect A Designer Leather Handbag

Once you’ve taken the leap and bought the designer handbag of your dreams, the smartest thing you can do is to take great care of your new investment. Fine leather needs to be kept clean and dust free. It also needs to be kept away from things that can stain or damage it. You don’t want your beautiful new handbag exposed to anything that could potentially cause heartbreaking damage.

There are great leather cleaners, conditioners and moisturizers available that do an outstanding job of caring for fine leather. A very important thing to remember is to look at the ingredients in leather products to be sure there is no silicone in them.

Here are some important things to remember if you want to take the best care of your stylish new leather handbag:

• Shortly after buying your new leather handbag, treat it with a high quality leather conditioner that is water-repellent. This helps your bag to last longer and look gorgeous.
• Always check any cleaning and leather protecting advice that came with your brand of handbag. These instructions give you the best advice for proper care.
• Be sure the cleaning product you use is suitable for leather handbags. Some cleaners, especially for furniture, are too abrasive on fine handbags.
• Keep things like makeup, perfume and leaky pens away from your bag. Use a little extra caution to prevent potential damage and your bag will last a long time.
• When you want to store your handbag for some time, use a breathable cloth bag for storage. It is important for fine leather to have some room to breathe.
• If you aren’t going to use your bag for a time, put the original paper stuffing that came with it into the bag to help keep its original shape.
• Make sure any cloth you use to clean your leather handbag is soft and light-colored. Using a colored cloth is risky due to the possibility of color coming off and causing damage.
• Use a bit more leather conditioner on areas that receive extra wear, like seams and corners.
• Be sure to work the leather care product gently into leather for best results
• If you use a separate cleaner for brass or other metal fixtures on the handbag, be sure to protect the leather with plastic to keep metal cleaner from coming in contact with leather
• When using leather cleaners or conditioners, work it into the leather evenly in thin coats. Allow to dry thoroughly before using your handbag.

Before using any leather product, it’s advisable to test the product on a small area that is not visible just to be safe. This ensures that it will work on your leather handbag. Gorgeous leather handbags add so much to your style. The best thing you can do is to take great care of your beautiful investment.

These helpful tips were submitted by Jim McGowen, founder of Leather Honey, Amazon.com’s #1 selling leather conditioner for exotic leather.