Hello All!
I got my beautiful Magenta City a little while ago but (per the ad) she had LIGHT patina on the handles. No darkening in color at all. They looked stunning and like new. However, I could definitely feel the stickiness. I tried to clean them gently with a leather spot remover and that helped a bit. However, there was still a little bit of stickiness left on the handles.
To truly be rid of any stickiness, I decided to give the Applecare Leather Cleanser a try. I used just a little cleanser and gently cleaned the handles. They felt amazing after they dried! No stickiness at all.
I know that some members have had negative results with the cleanser being too harsh and lifting too much color etc. I didn't notice anything excessive when I tried. I didn't rub for too long and I applied no pressure.
I think what helped my results is that perhaps the patina on my handles was truly very light. The handles have great glazing on them and I'm guessing the stickiness/patina was very superficial and nothing really penetrated into the leather yet.
I'm pretty picky about my handles and I had to do something to eliminate ANY feeling of stickiness. I feel confident that the cleanser did its job and I will be happy with my handles in the long run.***
After the handles dried overnight, I applied FHO and they feel like new. YEA!
***Do test on a discrete spot. All bags are different as we can see from some negative results with the cleanser. I'm just thankful that it worked well for me.
I got my beautiful Magenta City a little while ago but (per the ad) she had LIGHT patina on the handles. No darkening in color at all. They looked stunning and like new. However, I could definitely feel the stickiness. I tried to clean them gently with a leather spot remover and that helped a bit. However, there was still a little bit of stickiness left on the handles.
To truly be rid of any stickiness, I decided to give the Applecare Leather Cleanser a try. I used just a little cleanser and gently cleaned the handles. They felt amazing after they dried! No stickiness at all.
I know that some members have had negative results with the cleanser being too harsh and lifting too much color etc. I didn't notice anything excessive when I tried. I didn't rub for too long and I applied no pressure.
I think what helped my results is that perhaps the patina on my handles was truly very light. The handles have great glazing on them and I'm guessing the stickiness/patina was very superficial and nothing really penetrated into the leather yet.
I'm pretty picky about my handles and I had to do something to eliminate ANY feeling of stickiness. I feel confident that the cleanser did its job and I will be happy with my handles in the long run.***
After the handles dried overnight, I applied FHO and they feel like new. YEA!
***Do test on a discrete spot. All bags are different as we can see from some negative results with the cleanser. I'm just thankful that it worked well for me.
I too just received my dream bag, a 2005 magenta city, but my handles are quite warmed 
(not as lucky as you.) I bought the LMB luxury cleanser plus, yet it seemed to do nothing! Somebody told me not to use the apple cleaner on the brighter colors... I'm soo confused. This is my very first balenciaga and I don't want to hurt her... Any words of advice?! Thanks a bunch?