Leather, Rinse, Repeat

I ran across, on Instagram, a way to clean up leather a few weeks ago. It reminded me of a favorite purse that I have, which I set aside due to some staining and wear.

I bought this Fossil purse at a garage sale several years ago, for something like $2 or $4. It's such a nice leather, and reminds me of a well worn saddle.

Once on vacation I bent down to observe some sea urchins in an aquarium and my purse fell in! The man opposite just stared at me, like "You dumb idiot!" and I wanted to shout "That's the least of my clumsiness!" 

Alas, my purse became somewhat water stained and dingy so I put it away in the closet.

Since I didn't have much to lose, I decided to try this little trick to clean up the leather. These are the before pictures: 

I added some warm water to a bowl and one (just one teeny tiny drop) of blue Dawn dish washing soap. I used a microfiber rag, got it wet, and rubbed the water into the outside of the bag. It's scary, because it does dampen and darken the leather and I was scared the whole time that I was ruining it (worse than it already was).

I then let it dry and it dried to a nice, clean, fawn colored purse, which I'm sure is what it looked like when bought new. These after photos show a cleaner, prettier bag:

I probably wouldn't try it with a $200 purse but when it's clean it or ditch it, it's worth a try to save it! I bet there is actual leather cleaner that you can buy, but I'm happy with these results!