Frequently Asked Questions

Once or twice a year, use URAD leather cream to condition, protect, and shine your leather seats.

That's right, using this product, you take care of conditioning and protecting your leather seats, all while giving them a nice natural shine, all in a one-step application!

Car seat leather will fade and dry out over time because of exposure to the sun and even just because of normal wear.

Even if you take great care of your car’s interior, natural deterioration will always be a threat to its appearance.

If you clean up every spill right away and always park in a garage, you still have to be well versed in how to protect your leather car seats from wear.

First, you should pick out the best leather conditioner for cars – one that will moisturize and protect your vehicle’s interior.

We recommend Urad Leather Cream – not only because it works a charm but because a little goes a long way. And to make its application smoother and easier and, to make your leather more soft and supple, we recommend you mix Urad Leather Cream half-and-half with Tenderly Leather Softener.

Once you’re ready to start conditioning, make sure you do a small patch test, in an inconspicuous spot, before you commit to the entire interior.

This will also let you know how much product you need to use and if the ratio of Urad-Tenderly should be adjusted for the rest of the job 

The key is to use only very little Don't try to cover up your leather, you only want to moisturize it!

A good thumb rule: you should not see any of the cream left on your leather, you should only see a nice clean and shiny leather! Also, make sure not to fill stitches. Finally, don’t apply the leather cream while in direct sunlight.

Using your test patch as a guide, go wild. Go over the rest of your car’s leather interior with the same amount of product that will give your leather a nice shine and keep it protected from wear and tear.

When it comes to cleaning your leather car seats, it’s a simple process. You just need to follow a few steps to ensure a thorough clean: first, clean the seats regularly. Sounds simple enough?

It is! Nevertheless, it is critical. Even more so for a light color leather were dirt and body grease can make their way through any protective layers and permanently stain or, for the armrests and headrests where most of the build-up will occur.

Clean leather, vinyl, and even material car seats and upholstery with AQUILA gentle leather cleaner every month or more often if needed. This will prevent greasy dirt build-up because, in time, these build-ups lessen the leather's breathability and dry up leather.

AQUILA is simple to use, clean your seats one panel at a time, so you can focus on each one and make sure all parts of your car interior are evenly cleaned.

Pay special attention to armrests and headrests, as this is where most of the build-up will occur.

Spray your all-purpose cleaner on the panel and then wipe it off. If you have dark-colored seats, you can spray the solution directly onto the material. If they are lighter-colored, it is best if you spray the solution on the cloth and then apply it to the leather.

Once you’ve wiped the cleaner off, then let it dry until you move on to the next step.

Many leather cleaners contain glycerin, silicone, or other substances that may damage or accumulate onto your leather.

With Aquila, there are no such substances or accumulations which makes it perfect for cleaning your leather furniture often.

But just how often should you clean a leather sofa? Grease and sebum accumulation must be avoided at all costs because once leather is stained and/or « burned » with these, it is very difficult if not impossible to clean or restore.

Cleaning, regularly and often, is your best long-term protection against these stains. We recommend cleaning at least once a month (or more for light colors or heavily used furniture) even if only to quickly clean the armrests and the headrests.

Here is how you do it:

Simply spray Aquila (Urad's gentle leather cleaner) on a soft cloth and gently wipe the surface of your leather sofa. Pay special attention to the armrests and headrest areas. Repeat if needed.

On certain types of leather (especially Top Grain or Corrected and Pigmented Grain), and in certain situations (for example to remove grease stains on headrests), Aquila can be sprayed onto leather directly.

Always test in a hidden area first.

After cleaning, leave to dry before moving on to the next step.

Under normal circumstances, it is recommended you moisturize, condition, and protect your leather furniture once or twice a year.

This can all be done in one single application!

To do this, we will use both URAD and TENDERLY, mixed together. URAD will do most of the heavy lifting work by cleaning, conditioning, moisturizing, and protecting your leather.

And TENDERLY will soften and help condition the leather all while making it a faster, easier, and safer application.

While for some types of leather, you might get away with using only one of these two products, a mixture of Urad leather cream and Tenderly leather softener is the easiest way to apply smoothly and uniformly to large surfaces and is also, luckily, what generally produces the best results!

The rule of thumb is the more porous the leather, the more TENDERLY should be used in the mixture.

For example, for a very porous calfskin, a recipe containing about ¾ TENDERLY for ¼ URAD might be used whereas on a not as porous Full grain aniline, the proportions might be half-and-half or completely reversed to ¼ TENDERLY for ¾ URAD (see notes for more on mixture ratio).

Apply this mixture like you would apply skin cream — it is better to use very little and spread it as thin as possible, helping it penetrate leather by quick but delicate wipes.

1. If needed clean leather with Aquila. Spray and wipe gently using a lint-free soft cloth. Do not scrub. Repeat if needed. Leave to dry.
2. To facilitate mixing, shake the URAD jar until the product liquefies.
3. Then for

A) Porous leather: Mix 3/4 Tenderly for 1/4 URAD.

B) Non-porous leather: Mix 1/2 Tenderly and 1/2 URAD.
The lighter the color and the more porous your leather is, the more TENDERLY is used. A white lambskin jacket might be treated with 9/10 TENDERLY and only 1/10 URAD, if any.

1. Test your mixture in a small hidden area first.
2. Once you are satisfied with your test, apply with the applicator sponge provided, gently rubbing it in without scrubbing.
3. This conditioning should be repeated once or twice a year.

To clean your saddle after each use is wise and time well invested and under normal conditions, it can be done in only a matter of seconds. 

Also, the sooner dust, dirt or mud is removed, the easier it is to do!

Aquila gentle leather cleaner cleans remarkably well and it can be used daily.

It contains no wax (that can build up when used on such regular basis), no alcohol (to dry out leather), no glycerin (that stays sticky and builds up), no silicone (to make leather slippery and burn and ruin leather...), no chlorine (to dry leather and burn colors). You can clean everything with AQUILA: gloves, chaps, saddles, etc.

To clean porous leather (such as calfskin), spray AQUILA onto a soft cloth and quickly wipe. Otherwise, you can spray AQUILA directly on the leather.

If the leather near the stirrups is muddy, remove excess mud with a cloth or a soft brush before cleaning with AQUILA.

Moisturize and condition your saddle with URAD natural one-step-does-it-all leather cream. URAD will replenish your leather with natural lanolin oil, bringing back life and beauty to your leather. URAD's natural carnauba wax protects your saddle from sun UV rays and rain, and restores a natural shine.

The key to using URAD is to use it like a skin cream e.i. use very little and spread it thin until it is absorbed into leather. To prevent any wax build ups, go over the stitching areas last, when there is barely any product left in the applicator.

Don’t give the snow, the salt, and the calcium the opportunity to penetrate deep into your boots. When you return from outside, wipe off what you can right away using a dry cloth.

Once they are dry, if dirt remains, spray and wipe AQUILA leather cleaner to remove salt or dirt from their surface.

URAD also cleans off salt and calcium from the surface of the leather. So when doing your weekly conditioning (see below) , unless they are very dirty, there is no need to clean them with AQUILA first.

If you notice salt and calcium making swellings on your leather, you can put a soaked wet cloth (soaked with AQUILA) over those areas for a few hours. This will dissolve the salt and calcium and make them easier to extract from the leather. After a few hours, remove the cloth and apply URAD. You may notice white salty spots appear as they dry, it may even become very white! This is due to the action of URAD routing out salts to leather's surface. When it’s dry, gently wipe off the salts with a damp cloth. Repeat if needed.

Moisturizing leather winter boots is essential as the natural oils present in leather will inevitably dry out over time. 

Moisturizing and conditioning should be done every week. 

The good news is that it literally takes only a few seconds to do a pair of boots with URAD one-application-does-it-all leather cream.

It takes care of the cleaning, conditioning (or moisturizing) and it even gives the leather excellent basic water-repellent protection!

The marketplace is full of Neat’s-foot oil, beaver oil, seal oil, mink oil, etc.

These oils do not easily soak into leather and people resort to doubtful methods like heating up the boots in the oven to force these oils in!

But they will just cloak up leather pores with grease buildups, all without actually conditioning and moisturizing the leather!

They just grease up the surface, which attracts more and more dirt and actually contribute to drying up the leather.

This starts a vicious circle since dry leather soaks up muddy snow much more and much quicker than healthy well-conditioned, well-moisturized leather.

So the first step to weatherproof your boots is to condition and moisturize them regularly as above.

High-speed winds push dust and dirt into leather. These must be removed regularly otherwise they fill up leather pores and dry out leather.

For this purpose, a good cleaner must clean well, not leave any residue and must contain no chemicals or minerals that can damage the leather. 

Aquila leather cleaner fits the bill. It cleans remarkably well and it can be used over and over without problems.

It cleans gloves, chaps, seats, jackets, bags, rubber handles, etc. Use Aquila as often and as quickly after riding as possible.

For bugs on leather, areas of accumulated dirt or grease, or rubber handles, spray AQUILA and let it work its way into the dirt, then wipe. Repeat if needed.

Moisturize and condition your leather seats with URAD. URAD’s lanolin moisturizes leather and its carnauba wax provides protection again sun’s UV rays and rain. Alternatively, you can use a mixture of URAD and TENDERLY (about ½ and ½) as Tenderly will keep the leather soft and supple and makes URAD easier to apply.

URAD will provide enough protection (in the moisturizing step) and it will just be a matter of how frequently you will need to do the treatment. But if you find yourself in the rain often, or live near ocean’s salty air or in other situations that require you to do it too often, you might want to consider a more drastic waterproofing solution. 

Sahara is an industrial strength, long-lasting spray-on waterproofing agent and offer the best possible protection. If Sahara is for you, clean the jacket with Aquila first.

Apply Sahara in thin layers, leaving it to dry between each coat. 2 to 3 thin layers provide protection for 1 to 3 years!

We've covered this in the "What is Nubuck?" section, and the short answer is no, there are not the same.

Suede is made from the "splits" which is almost grainy in texture, it is rough, uneven, and a much less resistant raw material. It is more porous than Nubuck and will tend to absorb water or dirt and thus, it can stain easily.

Nubuck, on the other hand, is made from actual leather (called "grain")  which is a strong, even, and compact structure or material.

As a result, Nubuck is usually much finer velvet and Suede would have more of a coarse velvet.

Unless it is very dirty or stained, it is usually best not to soak Nubuck leather.

Spray Aquila in a fine mist over the Nubuck surface. AQUILA will lock on to the greasy dirt particles, will break them down and turn them to dust.

Once dry, for nubuck leather furniture, gently go over the surface with a vacuum cleaner and a brush attachment to remove dust and dirt.

For shoes, do the same or simply go over the shoes with a Nubuck brush. If needed, repeat this step for as long as you can see improvements.

For heavily stained shoes, you may need to use a Nubuck eraser.

To keep its velvet-like nap, Nubuck must be cleaned and brushed regularly, otherwise, over time it will flatten down and become shiny, and turn into smooth leather.

For Nubuck leather boots or shoes, it is even recommended they be brushed gently after each wear.

For Nubuck leather furniture, special attention should be given to brushing the headrests, harm rests and seating areas.

What is the Best Leather Cleaner for NUBUCK?

The best product for cleaning leather Nubuck leather is the Aquila All Purpose Leather Cleaner. Due to its gentle formula, it can be used regularly and it can be used on all types of Leather, Nubuck, and Suede.

Since this particular leather cleaner can be used often, you’ll prevent the build-up of grease and dirt that can dab down the nap and ruin the velvet-like finish.

How often should I clean NUBUCK?

Both Cleaning very regularly as well as brushing the nubuck, performed as above will prevent losing Nubucks essential velvet-like nap.

Since there are no accumulations when you are using AQUILA, it is best to use it too often rather than not enough!

As soon as you observe the nap starting to flatten you should clean it. For a Nubuck sofa for example, if you always sit in the same spot, you should clean that spot more often.

It can be as often as every week! But under normal conditions, and when your Nubuck has received proper protection coatings, cleaning once a month to once every two months should be enough.

As soon as possible after its purchase, Nubuck should be protected using Sahara industrial quality waterproofing and stain-proofing spray. For optimum protection, use 2 to 3 thin coats, with 8 hours of dry time between each coat.

Notes:

• If leather is not new, clean it and go over its entire surface with a Nubuck brush before applying Sahara protector
• Refresh protection treatment with 1 or 2 coats, once every other year or as needed.
• Avoid breathing in the vapors of SAHARA spray. Wear a mask or scarf, apply it in a well-ventilated area and vacate the room for at least a few minutes after use.

Nubuck is simply sanded or buffed leather, giving it a velvet-like surface. While visually it may be confused with Suede, which is produced from the lower part of the skin (splits), Nubuck comes from the top part (full grain), making it more robust and durable than suede. Its soft and velvet-like touch and its natural look, make it a popular choice for furnishing, clothing and for footwear.

However, these aspects can also be considered its Achilles heel since to obtain them, the leather receives no protective finishing coating. Thus, it is one of the most vulnerable leathers and should be a well thought-out choice.

Nubuck should be avoided if you have domestic animals who like to occupy the living room sofa, or if you have kids of very young age, or for leather furnishing in busy or public areas. But for living room furnishing, for clothing or even for shoes, its beauty and comfort can steal the show from even the finest leathers!

Cleaning

Use Aquila to safely clean your oiled leather as often as needed. Aquila dissolves dirt and dust which are naturally attracted and tend to stick to this type of leather (making dark black smudges).

Simply spray Aquila and wipe. It only takes a few seconds and it goes a long way in preserving your leather.

Moisturizing or Conditioning

Over time, oiled leather naturally loses its oils and the leather dries out. Its color starts fading and the leather starts to crack. Thus, it is of utmost importance to replenish these natural oils periodically.

With its natural and rugged look, oiled tanned leather is used to manufacture hiking and mountain boots, boat shoes and tack, furniture and even clothing items such as cowboy hats, chaps, etc.

The use of natural and/or synthetic oils after the tanning process gives it a high water resistance quality.

Its color will vary depending on the raw hides, the oils used and, in some cases, on the dyes added to the oils.

It is somewhat oily to the touch, without being greasy. It is usually not shiny and sometimes it is completely mat. It's usually thicker and heavier than other types of leather yet is it supple.

Oiled leather is long-lasting, offers undeniable value and return on investment and is easy to care for.

1. Restoration
1. Put 5 ml of Lanolin (liquid Grasso) in a bowl.
2. Add about 30 ml of TENDERLY. Shake URAD jar thoroughly then add 30 ml of URAD. Mix well.
3. Test 1st coat on an inconspicuous area first. (See Additional information 5.)
4. Evaluate if any conditional steps apply or if adjustments need to be made to the recipe. (See Additional information 2.)
5. Apply 1st coat, one patch of leather at a time. (See Additional information 3.)
6. Apply a second coat if needed.
7. Hang to dry for a few hours. The restoration should now be complete. If not, and this is rare, it may be necessary to apply yet another coating. Otherwise, move on to the protection step.
2. Protective Coat
1. Apply SAHARA: Preferably outdoor or in a well-ventilated area and preferably wearing a mask, spray a thin layer of Sahara on the jacket. Hang to dry for 8 hours without moving the jacket. For longer lasting result, repeat this step once.

There are only two simple steps to care for patent leather: cleaning and shining.

Cleaning should be done after each use with Aquila gentle leather cleaner and a soft cloth; otherwise dirt starts attacking the varnish, eventually reducing its shiny finish.

Using Aquila not only prevents the side effects of chlorine and minerals contained in water, it makes it very easy to dissolve dirt or grease accumulations (such as fingerprints marks).

Cleaning the leather as above will go a long way in keeping your patent leather shiny.

Notes:

Some sites recommend petroleum gels and other methods that simply do not work! DO NOT use grease or Vaseline!! Sure it may look somewhat shiny but then, literally a minute later, dust starts sticking, it starts looking kind of muddy, and there goes the shine, the class and the sex appeal!

Patent leather is normal leather with a high gloss finish. To obtain this hard glossy surface, in the final steps of tanning, a varnish or lacquer is applied.

The use of the word Patent most probably refers to the meaning of protection, and ironically, the process was invented by an American named Mr. Boyden who omitted to patent his inventions and did not benefit financially from it...

Its unique high gloss finishes has made patent leather very popular for dance shoes and tuxedo dress shoes but it is also used for handbags, purses and clothing.

A softener that protects. Gives leather a soft touch.

Especially suitable on leather clothing such as gloves, pants and jackets, and for any color. Tenderly suits all leather that won't put up with greasy, wax-base polishes or any regular leather care product. Particularly, exotic leathers, kid, lambskin.

It will also soften cowhide and more robust leather.

Tenderly and URAD are often used together on furniture or clothing. Either one after the other or preferably mixed together. Apply with the provided sponge. Gently rub in and let dry a few minutes.

USE VERY LITTLE! You are not trying to hide your leather, you want to moisturize it!

So use URAD just like a skin cream, not like make-up! It's not a case of "The more I use, the better the result is..."

A good thumb rule is that you should not see the product on your leather. You should only see nice clean and shiny leather!

Also, make sure not to fill stitches.

Dip ½ inch of one corner of the sponge (provided) and wipe it off the side of the jar. Use only the small amount of product left in the sponge. Spread it well by rubbing it in, make sure you do not see streaks of wet product on the leather; keep spreading wider until they are gone.

It's a Vegetal wax gathered from the leaves of the Copernicia Cerifera tree from South America (mainly Brazil).

The tree grows to a total height of 10-12 meters and lives for approximately 50 years. The wax protects the leaves from withering caused by the arid climate.

The leaves are harvested several times a year from the same tree between the months of September and March. It takes approximately 200 leaves to produce 7 kg of wax.

Carnauba wax is the hardest and most resistant of natural waxes. It is yellowish and has a pleasant odor of palms. It is used in URAD cream because of the unparalleled protection it offers and for its exceptionally brilliant long-lasting shine.

Total Leather Care: Cleans, moisturizes, protects and shines in 30 seconds without buffing! 100% natural and biodegradable.

The essential one-step product for complete leather care.

URAD NEUTRAL brings back and revives the original color. URAD is remarkable in restoring damaged or dried-up leathers to mint condition. Also an efficient protection against water, salt, calcium and mold problems.

Preferably use URAD NEUTRAL on furniture and saddles, and URAD COLOR on boots and shoes.

Test color resistance on a concealed part.

Tenderly and URAD are often used together on furniture or clothing. Either one after the other or preferably mixed together.