Leather Care
Aging:
Embrace the aging beauty of leather! Use it, wear it, take it everywhere. Love and use will enhance its life, simultaneously developing the coveted 'patina'. If your leather ever looks dry or matted, condition it. (see below)
Scratches:
Say goodbye to scratches! Give them a gentle thumb buff and watch the magic happen. It's often like having your own personal eraser.
Patina:
What the heck is patina? One way you can identify a great leather is how it develops a patina over time. Vegetable tanned leathers, what Akasha Leather uses, will do this, chrome tanned leathers will not.
A patina is the shiny appearance of leather when the oils from your hands, life and or leather conditioner has been added. You'll notice the leather begins soften, become shiny, and naturally darken in areas with a lot of contact.
People cherish their patina for it conveys the quality, love and life their leather has been through. So when you see your bag develop this, take it as a badge of honor, not only for purchasing quality leather but also for the places and experiences your bag has been with you!
A great vegetable tanned leather product will only get better with age and use!
Conditioning:
When your leather looks dry or matted (vs. shiny) then it is dry and needs to be conditioned. You can use any natural conditioner to add moisture back into the leather to rejuvenate it.
**Note some conditioners will darken the leather. Make sure to test your conditioner on a small hidden section first.
For thicker, firmer vegetable tanned leathers Smith's Leather Balm is fantastic. And it's a family owned business out of Maine. This will darken a leather as it conditions so take note.
For more supple leathers, such as the ones I use on totes, purses and wallets I love Blackrock Leather 'N' Rich. Another family business, this one passed down for generations, based in Nashville, TN. Leather 'N' Rich usually conditions without darkening the leather. But it is always good to do a test patch to make sure you like the result first.