Dooney Camden strap - leather color repair, looking for ideas

[BadWolf10]

Hello all!! I have been MIA for a while... just busy with life, all is good. I scored a fantastic deal on a Camden Taupe Hobo on eBay. Its spacious and slouchy and so awesome. I carried it to my nail salon on Friday to get a pedi and a dip-mani. Today I noticed a discoloration on the strap, after thinking about it I realized what it is.... I think some acetone dripped on the strap when he was wrapping my nails to remove the old dip color.... I was in the pedi chair and he came over to wrap them and I remember noticing some acetone drip, but didn't think much about it. Well, it has discolored the Vachetta leather strap. It looks like a smudge (sorry I dont have a pic). Does any one have an ideas of how to try to repair this? I'm stumped about what to do.

Thanks!

 

[lavenderjunkie]

BW: welcome back. Glad all is well. You have been missed.
I've had handbags damaged by random drips/droplets/sprays of
fragrance or hair products when the bags have been in the wrong place
at the time. The chemicals ate away at the coating and the color,
revealing white areas underneath. I feel your pain.

If your strap is vachetta leather that is natural in color, then the challenge will
be to return the look and surface texture to match the rest of the strap.
This might be easier than if the strap has been dyed.

I don't have enough experience with natural vachetta leather. I'm a magnet
for damaging it with water spots, etc. the first time I use the bags, so I try to
stay away from the untreated vachetta. You might find some suggestions on
the LV forum. But remember if the Camden leather is coated (and I think it is)
then you are dealing with 2 issues: underlying color of the leather and the
damage to the coatings. From what you have said, the smudge sounds to me
like damage to the coating. Good luck.

 

[BadWolf10]

BW: welcome back. Glad all is well. You have been missed.
I've had handbags damaged by random drips/droplets/sprays of
fragrance or hair products when the bags have been in the wrong place
at the time. The chemicals ate away at the coating and the color,
revealing white areas underneath. I feel your pain.

If your strap is vachetta leather that is natural in color, then the challenge will
be to return the look and surface texture to match the rest of the strap.
This might be easier than if the strap has been dyed.

I don't have enough experience with natural vachetta leather. I'm a magnet
for damaging it with water spots, etc. the first time I use the bags, so I try to
stay away from the untreated vachetta. You might find some suggestions on
the LV forum. But remember if the Camden leather is coated (and I think it is)
then you are dealing with 2 issues: underlying color of the leather and the
damage to the coatings. From what you have said, the smudge sounds to me
like damage to the coating. Good luck.

Hey!! Thanks for the info... the vachetta is definitely the typical pebbled leather "saddle" type color. So coated I'm guessing too.

 

[BadWolf10]

Woops. Hit post too soon.

I tried apple cleaner to no avail. Not sure what to try next. I may be out of luck and just have to deal with it. I will let you know if I can fix it. I'm so bummed since it's brand new.

 

[Ih82diet]

does anyone know of a paint like Angelus Leather Paint (but not this brand because they don't have the color I need) that would match this strap? One D&B repair site said to use Meltonian shoe cream #6 light brown but I wanted to really cover the leather because it has green paint on it.