Laurela Fashion Guide

Now that we have accumulated a great number of brand name luxurious handbags in our closets, it’s time to think of proper care and maintenance of these bags, because you have to admit that luxurious and expensive handbags are a long term investment.

Most of these brand names handbags are made of leather, a material that is prone to damage from spills, stains, and even the weather. However, leather is the only kind of material that could last longer than any other type, if it’s properly maintained.

Store your handbag in a dust bag, which most of them come with, especially if we are talking luxurious hand bags. The dust bags are usually made of soft 100% cotton flannel. But before putting your bad in a dust bag, I’d fill it with a crumpled tissue paper to preserve the shape.

The most important factor could damage your leather handbag is weather conditions. Both humidity and dryness are great natural enemies of leather. Apart from avoiding to keeping your handbag exposed to these danger conditions, you have to use oil or leather conditioners to maintain the proper level of moisture in leather. Without these conditioners, leather can dry out and crack even though it is kept in neutral temperature. The proper frequency of using conditioner is probably once a week, but it is also depends on the common whether in your area. Applying conditioner too often provides no harm to leather surface, so you may apply it more frequently, but once a week is really enough. One thing that you have to be careful is that do not leave your handbag start to distress and you start to use conditioner, because it could be too late.

Also, when you buy a bag from a particular brand, make sure to find out about their own leather care products. For example, I own a number of Coach leather bags and for them specifically I use Coach Leather Care Products: Coach Cleaner ($10) and Coach Moisturizer ($10).

Coach Cleaner – $10 (above)        Coach Moisturizer – $10 (above)

Water is another thing that may be harmful to your handbag. Even though leather already has great ability to resist from wet but it’s not recommended to expose leather to water to often and for too long. But if your handbag becomes wet, or if you feel you need to clean it with water in a traditional way, I’d use a hair dryer to dry it as quickly as possible. Choose the lowest temperature setting of hair dryer, otherwise the high degree of heat may destroy the leather structure. Do not let the bag dry without using hair dryer, because it could take longer and this will make damp accumulate on the leather skin then moan will finally appear. Keep the bag away from heat sources and be sure that it is stuffed with tissues. Condition the handbag once while it is still damp and again after it is completely dry. After you can make sure that the bag is completely dry, remove all stuff from the bag and stuff it with small amount of tissue paper to maintain its shape and dry it again in the well-ventilated room for about 10 minutes.

In fact, stains probably the thing that easiest to clean but it could be also harmful to your handbag if you clean it in the wrong way. The regular dust and stain usually can be cleaned by damp soft cloth or soft sponge. However, the stain is much and quite difficult to clean, you may use a lightweight scouring pad, but you have to do it with extreme caution to avoid scratching the leather.

Tags: Coach Cleaner, Coach Leather Cleaner, Coach Leather Moisturiser, Coach Moisturiser, dust bag