I hope you have had a lovely Christmas. I have celebrated with family, on a small scale, but it has been lovely. Now, I still get to enjoy almost two weeks off work and I am going to really make sure I rest so I am ready for the new year.
Me and my boyfriend keep it really simple during Christmas, and we usually don’t buy each other gifts. This year, however, my boyfriend got me two pairs of shoes – something I really needed, since I am getting surgery done on my foot in January. My Chanel Maxi was my Christmas gift to myself, even though I opened it already at the beginning of December…
My Christmas Day outfit included my newest Chanel bag. I love the size of the Maxi, it’s so practical and the fact that it’s a single flap makes it so much easier to get into.
As alwas, I need to put out a disclaimer! I am not a proffessional handbag restorer, I just use my common sense, try to read and do my research before attempting anything and even though this worked for me, I cannot guarantee it will work for you.
With that said…
Here is how I got rid of colour transfer on my new, pre-loved Chanel lambskin bag.
I will start off by saying that due to the eternal darkness we have here in Finland between the months of October to February, the lighting in my pictures is aweful. I apologize for that. The thing is that if I use flash photograpghy to take pictures, then it washes out the colours and you won’t be able to see any details. So I have to rely on the small amount of natural lighting + the lighting in my bedroom, and that really isn’t enough to show all details, either. Anyway, I will try to provide as much detailed information as I can despite this issue and then maybe I can add some better pictures in the spring!
This is the “before” picture, taken by the previous owner. The colour transfer on the back of the bag wasn’t the worst I have seen, but it was noticable. The lower part of the back pocket and the very edge of the bag had the most colour transfer. The strap also had colour transfer, some parts were quite dirty, too.
I wasn’t able to take good before-pictures myself, which is a shame, but you could definitely see darkness on the back of the bag when it arrived to me.
Now, when you google “how to get colour transfer off a Chanel bag” you will find that pretty much everyone tells you to send the bag off to a “bag spa” and to NOT try to remove the colour transfer yourself. However, I felt like it was worth a shot, doing it myself.
From my research, I found that in order to clean Chanel lambskin, you need to avoid all types of leather cleaners that contains oils, as they might stain the bag permanently. I looked high and low for a good quality water based leather cleaner, but with no luck. I have previously used a soap called “galltvål” to clean leather, as it is mild but effective on all types of stains.
So when I found a liquid, organic version, I decided to give it a go. I also bought microfiber cloths, soft and gentle enough not to damage the leathe, and I had babywipes from before, which I always use to clean my bags. They are non-alcoholic and scent-free.
I started off by cleaning the whole bag using baby wipes only, to make sure that any superficial dirt was removed. I then soaked the microfiber cloth in warm water, and added a drop of soap. I then proceeded to rub the cloth against a small area of the bag, to check how the leather reacted.
I don’t recommend doing this. As soon as the wet cloth hit the leather, the leather turned really dark, as the leather started to soak up the water. For a second I panicked, but I simply used a dry cloth to immediately try and dry up the small patch.
After that, I decided that it would be best to use the soap on a dry cloth. So I added a small amount of soap to my cloth, rubbed it into the cloth, and then gently started to rub the cloth against the leather. This worked a lot better, and I was able to remove a significant amount of dirt and colour transfer from the back of the bag and from the corners.
After rubbing the leather with my soapy cloth, I used baby wipes to remove any soap residue from the bag.
I then did the same thing when cleaning the strap – I added a small amount of soap to the cloth, worked the soap into the cloth with my fingers and then gently rubbed the cloth on the leather. Afterwards, I used babywipes to wipe the leather clean
Here you can see that there is a tiny bit of colour transfer left, but it is very faint, and not something that you notice immediately.I got so much dirt off the chain, it looks so clean and nice now!The corners were the trickiest, as they were already a bit dry, and I did not want to risk drying out the leather even more with the soap. I very gently cleaned them, but decided that the darkness doesn’t bother me so I’ll not risk the leather cracking!The front of the bag had very little dirt on it, so I very lightly cleaned that, as well. The flap edges had the most dirt, and that came off very easily.
I have thought of maybe doing one more round ofcleaning the bag, but I want to let the leather dry properly inbetween. Also, the stains are so faint now, that I don’t know if it is even worth it…
I am very, very happy with how it turned out, but whenever you decide to restore or clean a bag yourself, it is always a risk! This worked for me and that’s why I wanted to share it.
Buy the goddamn bag 