Easily clean, protect and care for leather car interiors

Leather care advice from our Chemists

Many years ago now we sat down with some specialised industrial chemists who have worked in the leather manufacture and care industry for over 35+ years. They were a lot smarter than us (not that hard really) in understanding what the ideal product is for maintaining the leather surfaces in cars. When researching what was being used currently, we sadly found a variety of products that simply were not suitable for current automotive leather.

For the reason of dollars rather than sense, nearly all the array of products contained oils, silicones, paraffins, waxes, petroleum distillates, or a lethal concoction of these. All of which ARE NOT SUITABLE FOR POLYURETHANE (PU) COATED LEATHER, as used in nearly every car since the mid 1980's. If used on a regular basis, they can damage the PU top coat of the leather. Most actually do the opposite of what they claim, by damaging the coating, and making it vulnerable to accelerated wear and even de-laminating. So it initially feels nice and soft on the outside, but it's being killed by the products permeating into the coating and disrupting the structure.

What not to use on modern automotive leather

One of the biggest misconceptions about leather care is that all leather should be treated the same. While older vehicles often used uncoated aniline leather that benefited from traditional oils and conditioners, the vast majority of modern vehicles use pigmented leather protected by a durable polyurethane (PU) coating. This protective layer changes how the leather should be cared for.

Because this coating sits over the leather surface, traditional conditioning ingredients such as oils, lanolin, hide food and leather balms cannot penetrate to the leather beneath. Instead, they remain on the surface where they can leave an oily residue, attract dust and grime, create an artificial shine and, in some cases, interfere with the natural feel and appearance of the leather.

The same caution applies to silicone based dressings. While they often produce an immediate glossy finish, they can leave the leather feeling slippery, encourage dust build up and mask the leather's natural matte appearance rather than genuinely caring for the surface.

Products containing strong solvents, petroleum distillates or high levels of alcohol should also be avoided. These ingredients may gradually degrade or soften the protective PU coating, increasing the risk of premature wear, colour transfer and permanent damage over time.

Likewise, products designed for saddles and equestrian leather such as saddle soap, hide food and many traditional leather conditioners. These are formulated for completely different types of leather. Many are alkaline, wax heavy or oil rich, making them unsuitable for modern coated leather found in most modern vehicles.

Even some modern treatments, including ceramic and nano coatings, are generally not recommended for automotive leather. While they can provide excellent water repellency, they may alter the natural feel and appearance of the leather and are often unnecessary for a surface that already has a factory protective coating.

If you're unsure what type of leather your vehicle has, a simple water drop test can help. If a drop of water beads on the surface without soaking in, your seats almost certainly have the protective PU coating found in most modern cars. Only older or specialist aniline leathers absorb water readily and require traditional leather conditioning methods.

For modern automotive leather, the safest approach is to use products specifically formulated for PU coated leather like Leather Love and Leather Guard. Avoid traditional ingredients such as neatsfoot oil, mink oil, lanolin, beeswax, hide food, saddle soap, oil based conditioners and similar products that were developed for older, uncoated leathers rather than today's automotive finishes.

What should you use?

Modern automotive leather is best maintained with products specifically formulated for polyurethane (PU) coated leather. Unlike traditional oils, waxes and heavy conditioners, quality water based formulations are designed to clean, protect and preserve the factory finish without leaving behind greasy residues, artificial shine or ingredients that can interfere with the protective coating.

After years of development and extensive real world testing, we created a simple two step leather care system. Leather Love is designed to safely clean and maintain modern automotive leather, while Leather Guard provides an invisible sacrificial barrier to help reduce everyday wear, dye transfer and UV exposure without changing the natural look or feel of the leather.

Both products are water based, pH neutral and specifically formulated for the coated leather used in the vast majority of modern vehicles. Rather than relying on outdated oils or heavy conditioners, they help keep leather looking clean, feeling natural and performing as intended for years to come.

Proudly developed and manufactured in Australia, Leather Love and Leather Guard were created specifically for Australian conditions and represent our modern approach to caring for modern automotive leather.

How often should I use it?

Leather Love should be used to clean and rehydrate/condition your seats at least every 1 to 2 months, using it more often in the hotter, summer months. Leather Guard should be re-applied on every 2nd or 3rd application of the Leather Love. This is due to the wonders of modern chemistry, as the Leather Love does not want to remove the protective qualities of the Leather Guard. It is however, a sacrificial product and the protectant slowly dissipates over time, so doing it several times every year will maintain the protection the leather surface needs.

And don't worry, you can never over do it with either of these two products, use as often as you feel you need it. 

Using this system will give your leather the best possible chance to survive our harsh climate, as well as keeping it looking and feeling like new for many years to come.

If your seats are feeling a bit harder than you would hope, or they are very neglected, we recommend doing the above cleaning process with the Leather Love twice, even three times. This in effect will give deep re-hydration to the leather hide and bring back the suppleness. Use as per above for the first initial clean, then for the 2nd clean, don't wipe the Leather Love from the surface, instead, leave it there for 3 to 4 hours or overnight. No need to wipe it off when you get back to it either, just apply a third coat, leave sit for a minute and then wipe it down. You should note the leather feels a lot more supple after this process. Finish up by applying the Leather Guard.

The quick clean

Step 1 

Firstly, get rid of any grit or bigger particles by cleaning the seats down with a vacuum cleaner, (soft brush extractor on the end is best). Make sure the car is in a cool area and the leather is not warm to touch, as heat tends to evaporate the products good stuff before it can get into the leather hide.

Step 2

Spray the Leather Love into one of our Square Bear microfibre applicator pads. It's made for this type of product application, long loops in its weave give effective cleaning on the leathers undulating surface.

Step 3 

Gently massage away into the leather, using a gentle circular motion. Cover the entire surface and let the product do the work; you don't need to rub hard or apply extreme pressure. Pay extra attention to high wearing points, as well as areas that your skin or sweat can come into contact with; seat backs, side bolsters and your steering wheel.

Step 4 

While the Leather Love is still wet, wipe off with a folded, low pile side of our Plush Daddy interior microfibre cloth. This wet residue will contain all the dirt and grime that was built up on the surface, so fold it to a clean side often, so you don't wipe the same dirt back into the leather. 

Apply the Leather Love a 2nd time as per above with the Square Bear (not a brush), but this time leave it sit for a couple of minutes before buffing off any remaining residue. This is good to do if the leather is older, extra dirty, or seems quite dry.

When the Square Bear pad is starting to look a bit dirty, it will pay to hand wash it in a bucket of water, rather than continually rubbing the built up dirt back into the rest of your leather. Wring it dry and continue with your cleaning.

The deep clean

We have a product in our range for deeper cleaning of leather, the super versatile Orange Agent cleaner. This citrus based, uniquely pH neutral all purpose cleaner works a treat on more stubborn built up grime. 

Step 1

As with the quick clean, remove any bigger particles of dirt and grit by vacuuming the area first with the soft brush attachment on your vacuum, and make sure the car is in a cool area and the leather is not warm to touch.

Step 2

If your leather is quite dirty, or there is ingrained dirt and grime in the porous holes of the leather, we recommend using the first application of Orange Agent with a brush that uses super soft horse hair (like our leather specific Plush Brush or Foursome Brush Set), to really help release the built up dirt and grime. These brushes can also be used with the Leather Love for some extra cleaning power.

If your leather doesn't need the extra oomph of the brush, spray Orange Agent to lightly dampen one side of a Square Bear microfibre applicator pad. Work in small sections at a time, applying in a gentle circular motion to the affected leather surface.

Step 3

Now this is the important bit; wipe off the Orange Agent with a folded, clean, low pile microfibre cloth like our Plush Daddy or Dirty Deeds while it's still wet. You remove it wet, so the embedded grime you've cleaned off is wiped into the cloth with the cleaning solution, as if you let it dry, it will bond back onto the leather surface you're trying to clean. Be sure to inspect the cloth after each use and fold to a fresh, clean side when you begin seeing any dirt and grime building up in it. 

If you notice the microfibre applicator getting slightly dirty, (especially when cleaning more grime affected surfaces) you can hand wash it out in fresh water, then wring it out till it's dry/damp, apply Orange Agent and carry on cleaning. 

Continue doing this system of cleaning, till the leather is clean. Follow up with Leather Love and Leather Guard.

This product leaves a very stark finish, so use our Leather Love cleaner/conditioner on the area straight afterwards to get the leather looking and feeling back to how it should be, then follow up with the Leather Guard to help protect the leather from wear and tear.

IMPORTANT TIP: If the leather you're treating is extremely dry and in desperate need of hydration; after you've completed this cleaning step, you can apply Leather Love very liberally and leave it to penetrate the surface overnight. This will help the leather to absorb the product and become supple again. Come back next morning and apply another layer of Leather Love, then remove any remaining residue. Always finish with Leather Guard too!

Cleaning even FASTER?

Our Palmy brush makes short work of large leather areas and also deep cleans stitching and seams effortlessly with ultra soft and pliable bristles that spread far and makes cleaning so easy. This has become a favourite of ours for this kind of interior work where you have a lot of ground to cover.
 

Protecting your leather

The Leather Guard gets applied exactly the same way as the Leather Love. With these products being water based, just wash the applicator pad you've been using with the Leather Love out in a bucket of water, then gently wring it out. If it's really dirty, add 5mL of our Microfibre Wash to the bucket and hand wash. After this, the pad is ready to be used again with the Leather Guard. 

Use the Leather Guard exactly the same as the Leather Love above. It's very important to pay extra attention to the high wear areas of the seats; side bolsters and support areas, to help stop the gradual wearing away and degrading the PU coating each time you get in and out of the car.

Leave it sit for 5 minutes and then wipe away any remaining residue with the low pile side of the Plush Daddy microfibre cloth.

That's it, all done! Look, feel and smell that leather. This quick process is all that is needed to help keep it like new for a long time to come. 

Vegan leather

Recently, manufacturers have started using what's being referred to as "Vegan leather". This is a type of non animal derived material consisting of polyvinyl chloride (PVC) and/or polyurethane (PU). Tesla have made the material popular in all their models, with more manufacturers possibly following suit in the future.

The important thing to note here, is that these materials all have a polyurethane (PU) top coat, which means that Leather Love and Leather Guard are both still suitable to use. While the material itself may not technically need to be hydrated like leather does, it still needs to be cleaned regularly to avoid the build up of skin oils on the surface, and premature degradation due to abrasion on bolsters and other high wear areas.

Other names for this type of material are: MazTex (Mazda), V-Tex (VW), Nuluxe (Lexus), Sensatec (BMW), Artico (Mercedes-Benz), plus many more.

 

Caring for uncoated/Aniline Leather

If you've done the water drop test and discovered your vehicle has uncoated or aniline leather, then the advice in the previous section no longer applies. Unlike modern PU coated leather, these beautiful old hides are exposed directly to the environment and rely on regular conditioning to replace the natural oils and waxes they gradually lose over time.

That's exactly why we developed Leather Balm. Hand crafted in small batches and developed over many years of testing on our own collection of classic cars, Leather Balm is specifically formulated for older, uncoated automotive leather. Rich in nourishing oils and soft waxes, it penetrates deep into the leather to restore softness, suppleness and that beautiful natural matte appearance without leaving an artificial shine or greasy finish. It also helps preserve the leather for years to come while enhancing the unique grain, character and rich aroma that only genuine aniline leather can offer.

Leather Balm is intended only for uncoated or aniline leather and should not be used on the polyurethane coated leather found in the vast majority of modern vehicles.

 

How to use Leather Balm

Before applying Leather Balm, ensure the leather is clean and completely dry. Using a clean and dry Square Bear or Circle Work pad, apply a small amount of the balm onto the applicator and gently apply in small overlapping motions, one section at a time, ensuring full coverage.

Allow the balm to soak into the leather for around 10 to 15 minutes before buffing away any excess with a Plush Daddy cloth. Older, very dry leather may benefit from a second light application after several hours or the following day, rather than applying one heavy coat.

Leather Balm is designed to soak into the leather rather than sit on the surface, so a little goes a long way. Regular applications every six to twelve months will help keep older aniline leather soft, supple and beautifully preserved.

Any questions?

Looking after your leather correctly is an important part of taking care of your car. I'm glad we can offer an easy and concise how-to guide such as this one.

All of our leather care can be found at your local retailer. See the list of retailers below in our Stockists link for your closest store.

If you have any questions, please email us at info@bowdensown.com.au or call our office on 1800 351 308.

Happy detailing!

Brett Hobbs