Louis Vuitton - restoring/lightening the vachetta leather on my old LV bag

Hello Roger,

I have been reading up on your threads in this forum for how to clean and lightening the vachetta leather on Louis Vuitton bag. I just received the Leather Doctor Kit V3-vachetta leather browning removal kit and start cleaning the vachetta leather on one of my old LV bag. I have applied the vachetta 2.8 cleaner quite a few time with a cotton swab but no where close to your before and after pictures. The vachetta leather on my bag was in a golden brown. After cleaning, it seem to be a little lighter but not by far. Is there any other cleaner I need to use in order to get the leather lighter. First 3 is the before and the last 3 is the after photos. I have not use any conditioner yet. Thank you in advance.

>>> I have applied the vachetta 2.8 cleaner quite a few time with a cotton swab but no where close to your before and after pictures. The vachetta leather on my bag was in a golden brown. After cleaning, it seem to be a little lighter but not by far.

Tips:
The cotton swab is best to be saturated and transferring to the leather in a circular motion allowing the product to saturate the leather with continuous motion until it picks up the soiling or change color. This is repeated with fresh application until no stains is pick up from a fresh cotton-swab.

Allows the leather to crispy dry and erase the surface with horsehair Brush-1, terry towel or Eraser-4. Repeat the cleaning and inspection process until satisfaction.


>>> Is there any other cleaner I need to use in order to get the leather lighter?

Leather Eraser-4 helps to erase surface residue to further lighten up.
Pictures are not sharp enough to see the detailing difference of the result, do not think you would need Degreaser-2.2 > Acidifier-20 as there are no signs of darkening effect from body contact.


>>> I have not use any conditioner yet.

Your first two pictures show leather is too dry with cracks. Vachetta leather is very thirsty of Fatliquor-5.0. However the present dryness leads to stiffness and when flexed cracks. So handle with care to avoid further cracking when the leather dry before Fatliquor-5.0 replenishing. Hydrator-3.3 is the preconditioner for Fatliquor-5.0. It is recommended that the entire leather is saturated until moisture ooze out when press between finger and thumb. Put the bag into a plastic bag to prevent evaporation and leave it continuous saturated for up to 72 hours. There after apply the Fatliquor-5.0 to the almost dry leather. Transfer the product onto the foam brush for easy application (without over-spraying). Continue to re-apply after each almost drying application until the leather is fully saturated. This Fatliquor-5.0 application will soften and strengthen up the leather from further cracking.

See info on these two products, vital for the health of this leather.

Leather Doctor® Hydrator-3.3 is a waterbased pH 3.3 leather-safe hydrator. It is a fatliquor preconditioner with multi functional abilities. Surface application is primary to check for even surface tension free of blotchiness prior to fatliquor replenishing. Structural application will require saturating to an optimum level with moisture oozing out when gently pressed between thumb and fingers.
The multi functional abilities include:
a) to check for surface tension for an even appearance free from blotchiness prior to fatliquor replenishing.
b) To plumps, relaxes and separates crushed, shrunk and stick together fibrils for manipulating away-unwanted creases and wrinkles.
c) To rectify alkaline overexposure areas by facilitating colloidal water movement to redistribute the leather constituents from surrounding areas.
d) To activate the dormant dyestuff within the leather structure for color refreshing.
e) To facilitates colloidal water movement within the inter-fibrillary spaces for wicking foreign soiling particulates to resurface.
f) To stabilize, pH balance and charge the protein fiber below its iso-electric point (pI) ionic positive to hydrogen bond with the ionic negative fatliquor more effectively.



Leather Doctor® Fatliquor-5.0, a micro emulsion of fat, oil and water is an anionic charged pH 5.0 fatliquor for rejuvenating all leather types. It relaxes coarse breaks, creases and wrinkles enhance suppleness and prevent cracking. It softens the leather with stretchability, compressibility and flexibility, while enhancing its rip tensile strength greatly. It is for replenishing the original fat and oil that diminishes thru sun-bleaching, ageing, heat and alkaline overexposure or cleaning. On application, the water-encased molecule breaks free when hydrogen bond attraction takes place between the fat and oil with the protein fiber. The excess free water content wicks out leaving a breathing space behind for leather natural transpiration. The fat plumps the leather with fullness from easily collapsing into creases and wrinkles during stress or flex, while the oil lubricates the fibers so that they slide over one another smoothly like millions of inter-connecting hinges. Thus helps to keep leather at its optimum physical performance and prevent premature ageing. This universal Fatliquor-5.0 is for all leather types including pigmented, aniline, vachetta, nubuck, suede, hair-on-hide and woolskin.

Instruction:

1. Apply Fatliquor-5.0 and redistribute with foam brush until saturation.
2. Repeat application each time water contents evaporate until fully saturated.
3. Drive remaining surface remnants free of milky fat and oil until it turns clear with Hydrator-3.3.
4. Allow natural drying for extra softness.

Tips:

1. When crispy dry, prior surface contaminations/damages may darkens as soiling particulates resurface.
2. Removes soiling particulates with Eraser-4 for all leathers including nubuck and Eraser-5 for suede.
3. Stretching the darken areas lightly will also lightens the appearance.

Hi Roger. I have completed the step as above. When using the vachetta 2.8 cleaner, I repeated the cleaning process and let it dry each time but the cotton swab never came out clear with a fresh swab. I give up and moved on to the hydrator 3.3 and repeated and fatiquor 5.0. After drying I buff it with a eraser and was able to get the vachetta color to a light pale brown. I was quite happy with the result and move on to the last step with the protector D. After the application of the protector dried. The color of the vachetta turned back to a deep golden brown almost as the original color. Seem like all my hard work went down the drain. Why is that? What did I do wrong? Can I repeat the whole process again except the last step (without applying the protector D)? If so, will it distress the vachetta too much? I didn't provide the after pictures due to I can not resize the pics and it's not clear enough. Please help! Thank you.

Option:

You may leave out the protector-D for future after cleaning and conditioning if appearance is the priority.

To reduce seasoning appearance – a little stretching may help to lighten up – while still leaving the leather Protector-D still in place.

When stretching does not accomplish the desire appearance – Eraser-4 may help – however the Protector-D is thus removed partially as well.

The last resort is to clean them all over in this sequence Vachetta-2.8 > Hydrator-3.3 > Fatliquor-5.0


Roger Koh
Leather Care Consultant
www.LeatherDoctor.com