Tarrago leather dye colors - how to choose the right brown

[Rinaiyoko]

Hi everyone,

now I'm trying my luck over here. I've bought a pre-loved Balenciaga Day and I know I'll have to do something about her condition since the pictures show a lot of discoloring and a few white spots. It has not arrived yet but I'm planning a few things already.

I dyed a leather wallet a few days ago with Fiebings Oil Based Leather dye. It was a light taupe and I dyed it dark brown. Turned out pretty nice but it's not even. There are some lighter and some darker spots here and there... I see this as a practice project, so to get a perfect and even color something like Tarrago is needed.
But how do you decide which color is the right one? I don't want to change the color of the bag, just even it out so it looks like new. The color charts are not helping that much, I fear that they turn out totally different in real life...
Does someone have experience with how true to color these charts are?

This is a photo of the seller but I assume it's a bit light so of course I'll wait until the bag arrives before buying the dye.
Picture here!

I only found the bag which toety dyed from white to Tarrago #6, a dark brown, but it looks different on all the charts I found

 

[Conni618]

Hi everyone,

now I'm trying my luck over here. I've bought a pre-loved Balenciaga Day and I know I'll have to do something about her condition since the pictures show a lot of discoloring and a few white spots. It has not arrived yet but I'm planning a few things already.

I dyed a leather wallet a few days ago with Fiebings Oil Based Leather dye. It was a light taupe and I dyed it dark brown. Turned out pretty nice but it's not even. There are some lighter and some darker spots here and there... I see this as a practice project, so to get a perfect and even color something like Tarrago is needed.
But how do you decide which color is the right one? I don't want to change the color of the bag, just even it out so it looks like new. The color charts are not helping that much, I fear that they turn out totally different in real life...
Does someone have experience with how true to color these charts are?

This is a photo of the seller but I assume it's a bit light so of course I'll wait until the bag arrives before buying the dye.
Picture here!

I only found the bag which toety dyed from white to Tarrago #6, a dark brown, but it looks different on all the charts I found

AAAaaack!
Please, please reconsider the idea of dye! Your bag has gorgeous leather, and the uneven color will probably be vastly improved with a a gentle cleaning, and some conditioner. Once you put dye on it, the leather will be super shiny, and lose it's natural, fluffy "feel."

Handle will probably be impossible to clean, but you can try using a good leather cleaner, and a white eraser to lift some of the dark out. If you can't improve the handle enough, dying it would be an easy match for Loving My Bags professional leatherologist. I wouldn't hesitate to dye the handle, but when you feel that bag's leather, you'll understand my "AAAaaack."

 

[Rinaiyoko]

Hmm... it's true I really don't know how it looks in reality and maybe it's not even that bad but I somehow fear that it's the opposite. Not sure But I'm sure the natural leather will feel great and I do believe that dying will change that.
Here are 2 more photos form the seller:
Photo 1
Photo 2

I won't be able to send it to LMB since I live in germany and this would be way too expensive for me.
So I guess I should do some research on how to clean the bag properly...

 

[Conni618]

Hmm... it's true I really don't know how it looks in reality and maybe it's not even that bad but I somehow fear that it's the opposite. Not sure But I'm sure the natural leather will feel great and I do believe that dying will change that.
Here are 2 more photos form the seller:
Photo 1
Photo 2

I won't be able to send it to LMB since I live in germany and this would be way too expensive for me.
So I guess I should do some research on how to clean the bag properly...

I usually caution people to be careful of Leather Honey on light colored bags, but if the bag is as dark as it appears in these later photos, I'd definitely consider it. After a cleaning and gentle conditioning, if it looks uneven, you might try a couple of coats of the Leather Honey on the lighter areas.

You might have luck dying the handle yourself, but you will no doubt have to mix some combination of the dye you choose to use, in order to get close enough to the right hue and shade.

I hope this will be a fun and successful adventure.

 

[Rinaiyoko]

Thank you Conni for the advice!
Leather Honey sounds like a very interesting product! I just looked through the thread and the results are promising. Haven't heard of this before, I'll try to find a seller that sends it to my country or if there's a similar product available here.

The seller wrote that it's Marron but I'll just wait and see what it really looks like. I don't mind if it get's a bit darker, I just don't want dark and light spots. So if I can somehow get it all quite even I'm happy. Ahhh, I don't want to wait any longer!!:shame:

 

[riiche]

Hello, don't know if this will help but my Twiggy was a Marron too, that I redyed (professionally). The bag specialist picked out the colour closest to the tassels (tarrago 50 - mahogany) but ultimately the bag, when completely dyed, was not anything close to the coveted marron colour. Bal colours have subtleties that can't be replicated by dyes, unfortunately. That said, the marron I had was discoloured and the dye strengthened the leather considerably. I'm completely happy with it but I do regret not keeping the marron colour for awhile, as imperfect as it was. I agree with Conni, try the leather honey first (it's worked absolute wonders for another one of my Bals).

I wrote a post for my Twiggy redye if you're interested - http://forum.purseblog.com/balencia...-a-bag-needed-repair-881390.html#post27413730

Hope this helps!