Everyone knows the pleasant smell of old leather. Nowadays, you will find hardly any leather that releases this beautiful smell. In earlier times, leather was tanned differently and vegetable tanning was the main tanning method. The tannins and regreasing substances used in this method gave the leather a special odour. Nowadays, most automotive, furniture and clothing leather are chrome tanned. The result of this kind of tanning is more or less odourless. Such leather only has a slight odour. The use of some of the odour-forming substances are now banned. In particular, some nitro-musk substances that characterised the strong smell of leather.
Some new leather bags, belts and jackets have a strong unpleasant odour. This occurs if low-grade fish oils or other malodorous substances are used in the manufacturing process. Therefore, it is important to test the smell before buying leather objects. This phenomenon is more common in cheaper leather goods. Unfortunately, this smell in most cases cannot be removed. We recommend not to buy such goods or claim in time.
Some leather get a bad smell caused by incorrect storage. Mostly its mold caused by humidity. Please refer to our information "How to treat moldy leather".
For customers who have odourless leather or where the old leather smell has vanished, we have a leather smell created specially by a perfumery, the COLOURLOCK Leather Essence Kit. The Essence is applied with a sponge (included) on the piece of vegetable tanned leather (included) or directly on a leather. You can also add a little amount of Essence to COLOURLOCK Leather Protector.
If the essence is applied on the sample leather piece provided in the kit, place it in a hidden area. The odour intensity depends on the applied quantity, the air circulation and temperature. The warmer the temperature inside the car, the stronger the pleasant smell.
