Cleaning leather

[RubyToogood]

I have some red boots which have got quite grimy and rather than just polishing over the top I'd quite like to get some of the grime off first. It's slightly nubucky kind of leather too, not shiny. Any ideas?

 

[Manter]

I used autoglym leather cleaner. It's designed for car upholstery but worked really well, not streaky or colour changing or weird smelling or £40

 

[dessiato]

I used autoglym leather cleaner. It's designed for car upholstery but worked really well, not streaky or colour changing or weird smelling or £40

If your boots are nubuck you probably need something very specific.

 

[Ponyutd]

Tableau from Robert Dyas. Around eight quid I think I paid. Does a fairly good job and seems to go a long way.

 

[Manter]

If your boots are nubuck you probably need something very specific.

I used it on a suede bag with leather handles and it worked well. But def worth testing a small area

 

[RubyToogood]

I discovered the correct answer to this in the end, which is: go over them with a damp cloth with some shampoo on it. Then another damp cloth without shampoo to get the shampoo off. Not too wet. Thanks to my local shoe shop!

Following this and after letting them dry I mixed together two shades of red shoe cream (one too dark and one too light) to get just the right colour, put a liberal amount of this on, left it overnight and buffed lightly in the morning. Came up great, looking almost new.

They're not as nubucky as they were because of the shoe cream but I can live with that, they are properly red again and not grimy.

 

[weltweit]

Reminded me, I have two pairs of leather shoes to clean (yes deck shoes if anyone is wondering), they are looking a little unloved, just got to remember where I put the polish!