Cleaning and Protecting Your Mulberry

Which of these would you pick?

  • Leather Gel

    Votes: 5 38.5%

  • Leather Cream

    Votes: 7 53.8%

  • Leather Wax

    Votes: 1 7.7%
  • Total voters
    13

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#1,381
Does Collonil gel ever go bad? I applied some that is 5+ years old to a bag today, and the texture was just fine, but it a stronger smell than I recall. It had not separated, but maybe some of it evaporated as I had not opened the container in probably 2 years...it seemed to work well. I had a headache already so I can't tell if it caused that or not.
 
#1,383
It turns out yes, Collonil and other similar products can go ”off”. Things to look for are product separation/watery liquid on top or a smell - my friend suggests throwing away, as they won’t give your item as much water protection as a fresher product would, but he says the product itself is unlikely to harm your bag in any way x
 
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#1,384
24shaz said:
It turns out yes, Collonil and other similar products can go ”off”. Things to look for are product separation/watery liquid on top or a smell - my friend suggests throwing away, as they won’t give your item as much water protection as a fresher product would, but he says the product itself is unlikely to harm your bag in any way x
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Thank you for taking the time to look into this! My tub hasn't separated but I do think the smell is off, so I will order some fresh. I'm glad to know it is not harmful to the leather. It did give it a nice gentle sheen which was nice to see. I think the amount of Collonil in the tub is very generous as a little goes a long way, so I doubt I'll ever finish a tub in a reasonable amount of time.

I just checked, and the Mulberry website no longer lists Collonil under its own brand name, but rather markets a "Mulberry leather gel" which I hope is similar/the same. I plan to order the Collonil.
 
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#1,385
Narnanz said:
Giving her a dunk was the scariest thing.....wasnt sure how well I would do. I have dunked vintage Coach, DKNY and a lambskin bag with no ill affects.

So bath water really , towels to the side.....and in she went.
The colour of the water was very strange...wine coloured water for black bag.
Washed twice and rinsed several times to get the water as clear as possible.
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Gosh, I’ve almost had a coronary looking at your photos of the bag in water!
So you ‘decided to do a dunk and give her a good clean’ what did you use in the water and was this action what cleaned up the brass postman’s lock so spectacularly?
You’ve done a fantastic job and I think you were very brave, well done
 
#1,386
TheWitch&theWardro6e said:
Gosh, I’ve almost had a coronary looking at your photos of the bag in water!
So you ‘decided to do a dunk and give her a good clean’ what did you use in the water and was this action what cleaned up the brass postman’s lock so spectacularly?
You’ve done a fantastic job and I think you were very brave, well done
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hi there...
I used Blue Magic cleaner for the turnlock and I cleaned it before I dunked...then with a small amount of fragrance and colour free detergent , I scrubbed carefully and then give it another rinse in water. Stuffed with towels to get the shape I wanted and then after a few hours ussd LEATHER CPR conditioner to condition as it dries. When it had tried fully I buffed both the leather and also polished again the turnlock.
 
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#1,389
Taz said:
Collonil is ab fab, I use my A4 roxanne tote to DEATH, it gets carried everywhere, gym,work and pleasure. So far its had 1litre bottle of water spilage at gym,coffee cup at work and glass of RED wine spilt over it and it stills looks fab with NO marks or stains on it...collonil is FAB !!
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Flipping heck!
I'm sold - thank you for sharing your mishaps x
 
#1,391
24shaz said:
Does anyone have tips for storing a strap that doesn’t detach? My mini ant strap keeps getting kinks in. Do I need to hang it up? Or would that stretch it out of shape?
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I had a similar sized bag (not Mulberry) that I stored hanging up for the same reason. As long as the bag is empty or just stuffed with tissue it'll be fine and shouldn't stretch (it will over time anyway in normal use).
 
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#1,393
Hi everyone,

I'm totally new to Mulberry bags so have zero knowledge! My Aunty has given me her old Mullberry bag and I’m wanting to restore it and make it look as good as I can. After some research I’ve discovered it’s a large Roxanne in Oak (I think!). She bought it in 2009 so it’s quite old. It’s in pretty good condition (apart from a nasty scuff on the plate), there’s no rips or damage to the leather but it does look grubby. It’s got some dark spots on it, especially on the bottom and the inside has got some ugly looking stains on it too.

I’ve used the search function and read a lot on here but can’t seem to find any conclusive advice. Some people are saying that this particular bag is Darwin leather and others are saying it’s NVT (whatever that is!) so some are saying use the Collonil leather gel and others are saying not to! Some of the posts are really old so advice could’ve changed.

I’d like to clean both the outside and inside and then polish it up so what would you recommend? I’ve got a leather and suede cleaner but it requires you to wet the surface first and I don’t want to spoil it if I shouldnt be adding water to it.

I will add some photos so you can see but any advice about how to clean it up would be much appreciated. Thank you.

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#1,394
Is this is a Roxanne tote? It’s hard to tell from these pics. If so, it should be Darwin, which will go darker if you use water, but that may get you a more uniform colour finish. collonil should be fine, but I’d use that last if you’re going to use water as Collonil water protects the bag. Mulberry replace metal hardware via their repair scheme if you can’t live with the plaque.

some of the ladies here have done miracle transformations and it’s definitely worth following their lead
 
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