I just received a lovely pre-owned caramel city from a seller on febay. I was very impressed that it didn't have dirty handles etc. and it is very smooshy but, it seemed dull in color and no shine except for the sides. I really wanted it to have a little shine as I think that is what makes the bags look impressive. I wanted to protect it since the dullness in leather can make them more prone to dirt and oils.
Before I came over to Balenciaga's I was a very avid LV owner and every LV bag I owned or bought, I used Shining Monkey on them to protect the vachetta leather from oils, water and just dirt. It always made my bags worry free and kept them in tip top shape.
After reading and reading in this area of protecting your bags, I read mostly threads about LB and apple guard. I used apple guard once on an LV bag and didn't like the feel it gave to the leather. It seemed to open the pores and make it a little rough. Plus I don't like any smell what so ever on my bags and it does give a smell for sometime.
Okay, so I finally decided to use my Shining Monkey Fabric protector spray and sprayed it this morning on my old-new carmel city. I am so glad I did. It brought back some of the shine without it looking shiny, but it has that little bit of shine that the bags have when they are new. Not as much, just a little. The bag has a slight shine and yet has the smooshy smooth leather still that it had before I sprayed it.
You have to spray it outside, no matter what, as the aerosol is bad no matter what. It is approved by Cal. standards, which says a lot since Cal standards are so strict. I have used SM on my sons car seats for his car and he had spilled pop, etc. all over his seats, and it would clean up so nice that you never knew he had ever spilled anything. On my LV bags, it always allowed the vachetta leather to still patina but never spot or get those ugly brown handles etc. I think the same will hold true with BAL bags.
I did put on LB handle protector on the handles when I first received the bag which was a couple days ago and then today sprayed it once, let it dry, (which it does right away), and then sprayed it again.
I wouldn't be surprised that BAL bags come with a sort of protectant on the bags to begin with and the reason the handles get dark is that it rubs off eventually.
I sprayed it on my white messenger bag and you can't smell anything or tell that I did anything to it. That is one thing I really liked about using Shining Monkey on my LV bags. You could spray it 3 times, and you would never know that anything was put on it. It is invisible. If you happen to get water on it (the vachetta leather usually water spots easily), it will be dark until the water dries, and then after it dries there is no water spots and you can't tell it ever got wet.
It does let the leather breath!
I will let everyone know after a month of use how it is working out on both the white messenger and this caramel city. I will do it to all my bags if it seems to do the job well. I don't usually carry the same bag two days in a row, but I will try to carry this caramel more often and see how it holds up with the SM spray.
Here is one of the pics from the seller listing when I bought the bag off of eBay. I hope she doesn't mind me using it but it is to give you an idea of the dryness on dullness it seemed to have. As I said, the sides were like new but the front and back and bottom just looked dull and dry. I didn't want to use conditioner as sometimes it just attracts dirt and the bag already seemed so smooshy. This picture of the bag is a little on the light side. The actual color is a little darker.
These are pictures after I sprayed with Shining Monkey Fabric/leather protector twice, once sprayed, then let dry, then sprayed again. I like it!
Shining Monkey on my pre-owned caramel city.
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Re: Shining Monkey on my pre-owned caramel city.
