USE THESE PRODUCTS AT YOUR OWN RISK. WHAT WORKS FOR ME MAY NOT WORK FOR YOU. ALWAYS TEST PRODUCT ON A SMALL AREA ON THE BOTTOM OF THE BAG TO MAKE SURE IT DOES NOT DARKEN LIGHT LEATHERS.
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Collonil Suede Protector – I find this excellent for waterproofing my suede and nubuck leathers.
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Collonil Carbon Pro Spray – Great for waterproofing my non suede leathers. I primarily use this for shoes. I’ve read of people spraying it on canvas and toile with success.
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Blackrock Leather’n’Rich – I’ve used this on my auth Hermès with great success. I use my fingers to rub this into small areas of leather. I Don’t rub too hard because it can start removing color. Wipe off before starting a new area. I usually use this on leather that needs to be cleaned. After first application I usually use Obenaufs and then follow up with a final coat of this (for auth Hermès) or Kiwi (Rep Hermès and other reps). Not to be used on suede or nubuck.
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Obenauf’s Heavy Duty LP – I use in between Blackrock applications. I’ve used this to waterproof my auth Hermès Gulliver, Swift, and Box leathers as well as rep Celine Box bags. I use my fingers to massage it in to small areas and have used a blow dryer on the leather (not too hot and not for long!). The heat opens the pores in the leather and allows it to better accept the treatment. Wipe off before beginning new area. Once done I let bag rest overnight before applying anything else. The next day I use Blackrocks again to shine the bag (on auth Hermès) or Kiwi (on reps).
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Kiwi Leather Oil – MY FAVORITE for my non suede reps! I wasn’t really satisfied with the shine I was getting by using Apple or Cadillac and happened upon this at Walmart one day. I don’t think I’ve used the Apple or Cadillac since. I’ve used this for a quick shine/protection on my bags as well as applying this and using a bit of heat from a blow dryer for reps that had dry leather (would NOT recommend this for caviar).
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Lexol Vinylex Protectant – It shines my Vuitton coated canvas. It will require reapplication on occasion as the shine wears off.
I know I didn’t say anything or give links to Apple, Lexol Leather, or Cadillac (which I just ran out of and ordered Saphir Creme Universelle in it’s place) because I find the products listed here work better for me.
Lessons from a Patina-Crazy RL
So this goes out to all my fellow “Patina-Cray-Cray”-RL-members, in short PCRL, if I may call us so moving forward? Since joining this sub about a year ago and several purchases (some unwarranted, some unnecessary, some great, some better, some the best,…) I always struggled with patina on my Louis Vuitton purchases from various Trusted Sellers. At this point, it has become a serious issue/condition for me (and possible other PCRL) which are as in love with some nice honey-brown patina as much as I am and equally as impatient as I am, then this is quite an issue to deal with. (yes, you may so why not just go with second-hand authentic/vintage? Because I am being difficult and don’t like used bags.)
In this thread, I would like to share my probably slight to a severe obsession with patina (certainly ridiculous to some others) and the lessons I have learned from applying some of the techniques mentioned below to achieve patina and/or clean your vachetta leather. Bear with me and grab a cup of tea or coffee or flute of champagne or glass of wine whatever floats your boat….
1) the long wait to see some change in the initially very white vachetta leather
You finally get your long-awaited (2-3 days DHL when OC ships out 😉) bag and can’t wait to wear it out but something bugs you a bit: The leather is WHITE. Almost as white as snow. Hmm, that makes you wonder: “Does it make the bag look even more like a rep?”, “Who will believe me that I just bought a +1K bag brand new?”. Again my dear PCRL, shine your shine, your yé is different from their yé, let me tell you that. Using your bag a couple of times during a very warm sunny day will certainly kick-start the patina process. I once read somewhere, that once upon receiving a new item you should let it sit in your windowsill for a few days, turning the item over every other day or so to allow the patina process to kick-start. This supposedly will allow for less irritation to occur on the leather as well as protect the leather itself. The good: you will certainly see a difference in a week in the look of your bag and if what I read is true you will have created a natural protection film for your bag. Apparently, the all-white leather is more prone to stains, water-stains, oil stains, dirt and the like. Having some initial patina will guard it better.
TANNING: the sunbathing/solarium bathing/car bathing (you name it)My dear PCRLs that do either of these are serious about not wasting any time on getting their patina-game started! Basically, you continue what you started above or take it to a next level: You sunbath your bag by allowing it to sit under the open sun for hours, turning it once in a while to achieve an even darkening on all sides. This can be literally done anywhere: in your garden, at your window, in a parking lot, in the park, at your rooftop, etc., the list goes on and on. You do this for however long you wish to until you feel you have achieved the patina of your liking. Through the direct exposure to light and heat the leather processes faster.
However, be aware of “grilling” or “frying” your bag. This occurs when the bag has been exposed for too many hours to too much light exposure. So do this at your own risk, keep an eye on your bag throughout the process and make sure you flip it like an omelette once in a while. 😉Same goes for the solarium bathing.
DISCLAIMER: I haven’t done this myself, however, I have read on here a couple of times of fellow serious PCRLs of purchasing tanning time in the studio and pushing their bags under the sun-bed for a couple of minutes.
I believe it wasn’t for all that long (approx. 3-7min) with rotation and repeating the process weekly or every other day.
Yet to see some progress pics, so if you dear reader are one of those serious PCRLs, kindly share your process pictures with us. Love to see them When it comes to car-bathing/tanning which I too haven’t done yet, it seems to be the simplest form and very easy to do. It’s like microwaving your bag: simply park your car in the sunny spot and lock your bag up in it and that’s it, done.
This is probably a great option for the forgetful PCRLs among us who tend to leave their purses in their cars anyways. Still, I wouldn’t recommend this to all, due to car theft and the possibility of actually melting your car ?!
3) the pink/salmon coloured patina stage
For many PCRLs, the pink stage is a very difficult one to bear that is if they are seeking to quickly obtain the beloved honey-brown colour ASAP. It seems to be a strange in-between stage with no certain end in sight. When your leather starts getting that salmon-touch of pink you start to worry: “Does it make my bag look all call-out-able?” “Uuuurgh when will this start to get honey-like?” “Will it ever get honey-like?” ”I don’t like this!!!”.
An ongoing cycle of worries and you start wearing your bag less and less. BUT do not do that! That’s exactly what the evil spirits of RL-haters want you to do. DO NOT PLEASE them but stride your shine.
Take your beloved one out, live your best life and enjoy that baby. Trust me it will thank you later for that, through (now take a wild guess) a beautiful honey patina (hopefully).
4) the olive/mink oil/leather conditioner situation
Now this my dear PCRLs I believe all know is the most debated patina-enhancement process of all. Some say it destroys your vachetta leather. Others swear by it, saying it makes the leather settle, subtle and evenly “patinad”.
The tale is as old as leather. The issue being: applying any great amounts of oils on your bags may create severe leather issues or damages in the future such as breakage, dissolving of the leather and leaking of the oil back to the surface causing oil stains, the leather going rancid and the mere application of foodstuff on your bag being weird to some. Additionally, oils tend to have their own colours and as such may leave some colouration on the leather of your bags making it take up an orange-like, pink-like, dark-brown-like colour later on.
The benefits some love about applying oil is that its an easy fix for changing the appearance of the leather and also makes the leather softer.
Leather conditioners, on the other hand, seem to be a safer alternative for those looking to enhance the patina process. Most of them do not change the leather colouration too much and also do not speed up the process of patina as much as the above mentioned, however, they manage to keep the leather soft and guarantee for fewer chances of breakages and cracks. Your bags will certainly be nicely taken care of.
A few products that commonly used:
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Honey Leather Conditioner
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All Armour Wipes
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any type of leather conditioner available in your region, to be honest
5) the baby wipe method
This method seems to be a very promising one in keeping an even patina on your leathers by wiping down your bags regularly with oil-free baby wipes which will remove excess oils and dirt from the vachetta leather, allowing for a clean even leather to peek through. It will however also slow down the patina process, as you keep removing the top-layer of patina (dirt, oils, stains…) from your bag. Nonetheless, it will certainly leave your bags with an even patina on all fronts.
6) the Patina Champer
This is for the serious of the serious PCRLs. In fact, this process is much more of a cleaning process than an actual patina-enhancement process. It is still worthwhile of mentioning as it does affect your patina process, is able to remove severe dirt from the bags, as well as oils and a certain level of stains.
There are several threads on here and TPF as well as Youtubers that explain the patina champ method vigorously detailed and are easy to follow. Google is your friend – if I try to type it up, I’ll probably make mistakes. Given this article aims to bring to you a few lessons learned from a PCRL, I, unfortunately, have no real lesson learned from the patina champ method, however, have read only good things about it.
All in all, the true lesson learned that I can say is (which ultimately goes back to basics):
Use your bag,
use it a lot and WAIT.
Through usage, all your oils from your hands and hand cremes and what not drops the leather will patina with it. Also the more you use your bag the more sunshine and air it gets exposed to and as such it will develop a patina faster.
Bags that sit in storage will eventually also develop a patina, as these aren’t vacuum proof and air/sunshine will still seep through and cause oxidation and as such darken the leather, albeit slower than when in usage.I have included a few links to pictures here and there of my different “looks” achieved (some bags I have long sold, others still in my dear possession and care).
Also, I am encouraging other PCRLs to share some of their patina-process pictures no matter what stage you are at now and your experience with patina. The more the merrier.
EASY FIX for touching VU on LV Damier Print.. Used on OC Neverfull MM DE
I recently purchased the Neverfull MM in DE print from the Old Cobbler (TS). I was really glad with my purchase BUT was upset to see all of the VU’s in Louis Vuitton were touching, which can be a call-out for a rep. I was trying to find a guide post about how to fix this, and found that some people have used nail polish remover to fix this problem. Although the nail polish remover did help, I needed a little more to fix the print problem. I used a stubby tiny pair of beauty scissors to fix the remaining touching VU’s. Below I listed a description of how I did this as well as photos!
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First, I used a small makeup brush dipped in nail polish remover to brush where I wanted the text to disappear.
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Next, I took the scissors and made it so I was only using one half of the scissors. I pushed the blade between the V and the U and pressed down lightly and pushed up. I repeated this step if I felt that the V and U were still connected.
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Finally, I wiped off the excess nail polish remover with a cotton swab.
Now, I am really happy with how this improved the appearance of my bag. I hope this helps anyone else who loves this print of LV bags but doesn’t want to be called out for a rep!
Transformation of Red Glazing
Disclaimer: I am new to this sub & the speedy is my first rep ever. I haven’t seen many before & after pictures with the markers so I figured I would provide a few in case there are others out there like me.
ANYWAYS!
I received my speedy 30 from Tina this Monday (review is posted). I have no eye for LV but the red glazing is a big giveaway for me. When I received the bag everything seemed fine to me, until I was walking into work at 8 am & the sunlight exposed my worst fucking nightmare. This cherry red I read a bunch of reviews and order these lovely Rejuvenate markers. I used the mahogany which is #5 I thought it looked a bit too purple but I trusted the RepLadies! Also #2 was a dried out train wreck so ignore that.
I do have a auth mini pochette with small glazing which is the color I was aiming for.
The handles seemed perfectly fine to me compared to the rest of the bag.
Here is a upclose before and after. Before & after of the side of the bag.
After I finished the handle compared to the small piece of authentic glazing I own
Here are some outdoor after pictures
Poodles included. As well as some of my mistakes I made on the handle. Oh well.
Before and after pictures if you don’t want to go through all the pictures I posted
No more sunlight but I’m sure you all get the point
How To Fix Long Tab on a Louis Vuitton Pochette Metis
In this tutorial I will be walking you step by step through shortening the tab on your Pochette Metis. I got mine from the Buy & Sell forum, and I’m really happy with the quality but like almost all other reps of this bag, the tab was too long so I decided to give mine the snip! All in all this is not difficult, a little scary but it only took me about 20 mins and wasn’t nearly as difficult as I imagined.
Here is what my tab looked like before fixing it. Approximately 17-18 mm.
Here is a picture of the tab on an auth generously provided by /u/savinforcollege. Approximately 15 mm.
Here is an auth with a horribly wonky tab in the correct length in the black Empriente.
AS you can see I needed to shorten mine by a couple of mm to have a more accurate look. Let’s get to it!
Here are pictures of each step, with these same descriptions in the appropriate places and a few extras descriptions here and there, but the main instructions are all here.
Materials: Scissors, a hair straightener, Loctite glue, 80-grit sandpaper, a measuring tape or ruler that has mm and cm, a precision screwdriver kit and a little piece of a dryer sheet.
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Start by removing the hardware from the bag, using a small piece of dryer sheet to protect the screws from getting scratched.
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Lay all of your materials out and measure again.
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If your tab is glued together at the bottom like this, pull it apart carefully.
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Cut it right on the line where the indentation from the hardware stops. This is the scariest part, obviously try to cut straight!
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Put the hardware back on and check the length.
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Sand the inside edge of the piece you just cut. I used 80 grit and that worked well but anything rougher will work too.
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Flatten out the tip you just cut with the straightener, set to high.
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Put hardware on and check length again, overlapping your new edge into the indentation where it will be covered by hardware and figure out where it needs to sit.
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Put a small line of glue at the edge of the indentation where the hardware sits, on the inside, and overlap your new edge onto it. Hold it together until it dries. It dried really quickly.
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If your length is good and everything looks straight, go ahead and glue the second piece back on, making sure that it overlaps the other cut edge.
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Measure and if everything looks good, put it back on your bag, again using the dryer sheet to protect your screws. Make sure that you put the tab back on so that the cut edge is hidden on the inside by the purse and not in the front.
Overall I’m really happy with the way this turned out! It was a bit scary cutting and gluing on a new bag but it worked really well and the glue seems really sturdy so I’m hoping it will hold up. If for some reason it doesn’t, I plan on putting a couple of stitches through the overlapping on the inside.
Good luck everyone! I hope this goes well and we won’t have an influx of ladies begging TS’s to send extra tabs!
Remove random LV Canvas Mono from Your Palm Springs Mini
I did a review earlier regarding my PS Mini bought from Min here.
The canvas was cut a bit low, and while I saw some instances of this in auths, it was bothering me. So I decided to try to fix it!!
I guessed and decided to use 100% acetone lying around my house since it removes nail polish well. (I was really scared when I tried this as I had no idea what the acetone would do.)
Guys. It worked!!! I no longer have rando mono pieces at the top of my bag!!! And it didn’t take off the brown canvas colour either.
Materials:
Thin Paintbrush 100% acetone Q-tips Cup of Water
Instructions and Pictures here.
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Dip thin paintbrush into 100% acetone
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Paint it on the Mono that you want removed.
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Repeat steps 1 & 2 until it’s all gone. You may want to pat the paintbrush on paper towel to get rid of excess colour on paintbrush.
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Dip q-tip in water and rub onto the area to remove any leftover acetone.
Let me know if you try this!! I think it looks really good.
EDIT: when you start, test it out on a unnoticeable area first!
How to Fix the Heat Stamp on your LV Palm Springs Mini
On this episode of Keeping Up with the RepLadies, I’ve noticed an influx of newer members who are looking for the best Palm Springs Mini. So far, the top contenders are OC ($210) and Erica ($170) with Apple ($140) and Nancy ($145) as runner-ups. However… The general consensus is that the PSM is hard to replicate and the critique I hear most often is that the front tab is inaccurate (e.g. heat stamp is too deeply imprinted and/or wrong font is used for LOUIS VUITTON PARIS). Mine from Erica had similar issues (wonky font and waaay too deep). See how I transformed from this to this!
AUTHENTIC REFERENCES
I know some of y’all will complain that you prefer the deeper stamp before. Trust me, I see where you’re coming from, because some of these authentic stamps are barely visible for a $2000 bag! But this guide was made for those who wish to be as close to auth as possible. The tabs on the reps also look too thick and stiff, whereas the authentics look soft and pliable—almost like they’re “worn in.” Here are references of auth tabs that I gathered from various reselling sites.
MATERIALS
You will need:
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A couple of Q-tips
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A small container of hot to almost-boiling water (NOT lukewarm!)
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Caution — Disclaimer: I am not responsible for anything that goes wrong. Please use your own judgment.
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Patience…lots of patience…
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Paper towels for cleaning up
HOW TO GUIDE
This will take approximately 30 min, depending on how deep your current stamp is and what your desired goal is. It’s not hard but extremely repetitive, and I recommend putting on Netflix/YouTube/music so you don’t get too bored.
Here’s the photos for those who are more visually inclined.
Step 1: Grab a small container that can withstand heat (e.g. bowl or Tupperware) and either (1) fill it up with hot water from a boiler or (2) fill with cold water and microwave for 1 min. You should see steam rising, but test the water to make sure it’s not scalding since we’re working on leather.
Step 2: Dip your Q-tip into the hot water and apply over the heat stamp. Focus on the center and avoid the edges/canvas.
Step 3: Keep transferring water until the stamp is covered and you can no longer read the words.
Step 4: Hold the tab in between your thumb and index finger and press down as hard as you can and hold for a few seconds. Visualize yourself flattening the imprint!
Step 5: Massage the tab between your fingers, and roll upwards so there’s a slight curve. This is to create that “soft, pliable leather that’s worn in” look.
Step 6: Repeat Steps 2-5 until you reach your desired goal. If your water gets cold, reheat in the microwave for another min. (I did 5 rounds of this and reheated my water 3 times.)
Step 7: When you’re happy with it, clean off the tab with a paper towel and make sure to press into the leather to absorb the excess water.
And TA-DA! Your new and improved PSM is ready for more music festivals and bougie brunches.
