Leather Conditioner

As with a leather cleaner, with a leather conditioner it is helpful to know what type of leather interior your car has. This determines how important a leather conditioner is in your case. Either way, a leather conditioner can never hurt. But with one type of leather it is much more important that you maintain it regularly with a leather conditioner than with another type of leather.

Do you own a Peugeot, Renault, Opel, a cheaper model BMW, Audi, Mercedes or Volkswagen? Then chances are you have pigmented leather. This is the most common type of leather and is also the most durable type of leather. It's basically just leather that has a colored varnish coating sprayed over it. This makes it feel the least like real leather and also doesn't have that typical leather feel and smell. You can use a leather conditioner for this, but there is little chance that the leather conditioner can penetrate through the colored varnish coating and soak into the leather.

Do you have a more expensive BMW, Mercedes, Audi, Lexus and so on? Then you may have semi pigmented aniline leather. This is a thin layer of premium aniline leather but has been given a protective pigmented coating that they also use in the cheaper models. However, this coating is much thinner than in the cheaper models. This gives you more that real leather look, feel and smell but still has a durable leather interior. When the car is new, this coating is still in very good condition and a leather conditioner will have little effect since the protective coating is still too thick to penetrate the leather. Over the years, this coating will endure and become thinner so a leather conditioner will be able to penetrate the coating easier and better and feed the underlying aniline leather. At this point, regular maintenance with a leather conditioner is definitely recommended. The use of a mild leather cleaner will also ensure that the leather does not become even more tarnished as with an ordinary standard interior cleaner.

Finally, we have the full premium aniline leather used in the most luxurious cars such as the limousines of BMW, Mercedes, Audi and also in sports cars such as Ferrari, Lamborghini, Aston Martin, Bentley, and so on.... Often they also call this leather Nappa leather. It generally consists entirely of real leather that is not sprayed or the like. So this gives you the real leather feel and look and also the real leather smell. Because this is sensitive leather, we recommend using a genuine leather cleaner to clean the leather and not an interior everything cleaner. It is also crucial to maintain the leather regularly with a leather conditioner. This will allow you to keep the leather in new condition for as long as possible without it drying out, starting to crack, discolor, and so on. Depending on how much the car is driven, what conditions it is driven in, how it is parked, and so on. These characteristics all affect how often you need to treat the leather. Sometimes this can be every month, sometimes just every six months. A regular quick maintenance with a leather cleaner and a leather conditioner even if it is only for the driver's seat will do the leather tremendous good and keep its quality optimal.

Before using a leather conditioner, however, it is important to clean the leather first. Except for the Leatherique products. Here the conditioner is used first and then the cleaner. If your leather is still in good condition, it may also be advisable to protect the leather with a coating. In this way, you apply a protective top layer over the leather so that there is less color transfer from clothing onto the leather, it will become less dirty and easier to clean and is also protected from the UV rays of the sun. In this case, it is recommended to simply clean the leather and then protect it with a leather protection. After it is fully cured you can still use a leather conditioner but the effect of the leather conditioner will be limited since the coating repels the leather conditioner.