Faux Leather: Cleaning and Maintenance

• Products: Faux Leather Cleaner, Faux Leather Protective Lotion.
• Manufacturer: COLOURLOCK
• Size: 150ml (ready to use).
  
  

COLOURLOCK is a brand specializing in leather care as well as its derivatives (faux leather, alcantara, etc.). It is equally important to maintain these materials as it is real leather, otherwise your interior will lose all its appeal. A greasy appearance to the eye and touch, cracking, and loss of elasticity are just some of the disastrous consequences for your faux leather.

Today, we show you how to best maintain your interior surfaces made of faux leather, raw grained plastics, and other vinyls (vinyl/PVC, etc.)

Faux Leather Overview:

Before you start buying all the care products for leather or faux leather for your interior, it is important to know how to distinguish the two materials.
Leather and faux leather are completely different, although in appearance it can seem difficult to tell the difference for an untrained eye.
Without going into detail, one of the two materials is natural (leather) and the other is purely synthetic (faux leather).
This is why COLOURLOCK has two distinct product families depending on these two materials.

So how do you tell faux leather from real leather? Several tips exist. The first is the visual observation of the appearance. Real leather is perfectly matte from the start, whereas faux leather always appears slightly more satin due to the surface plasticization.

The back of leather has a velvety feel (animal hide), the back of faux leather is perfectly synthetic (mesh). You can see this in the photos below.





One last tip: when you pinch a faux leather surface, the edge is sharp and clean. With leather, that is impossible — you will get a rounded shape regardless of the thickness of the hide chosen (see photos below).






Using the Faux Leather Cleaner:

The Cleaner and the Protective Lotion are products to be used undiluted. Of course, cleaning a surface is essential before applying any nourishing or protective treatment, otherwise nothing would be absorbed and you would simply be greasing everything up...

The Faux Leather Cleaner is a glycerin soap base like those used for leathers but with a more detergent cleaning action, because the surfaces are plasticized and can tolerate a slightly stronger cleaning power than leathers.

You can use it directly with a foam sponge like the one sold by Colourlock, particularly on new or very recent faux leathers that do not require deep cleaning. The ideal approach otherwise is to work it with a classic leather brush with soft bristles.

The faux leather cleaner comes in a 125ml foaming pump bottle, identical to those of the Strong Cleaner and Mild Cleaner for leathers from the same brand.



You can also use your Faux Leather Cleaner with the InnerScrub glove from CARPRO, which is perfect as it saves considerable time compared to a brush, especially on large surfaces.





The texture of the Faux Leather Cleaner is comparable to that of the Strong Leather Cleaner, although slightly less greasy nonetheless.

The cleaning power is in any case very convincing. Faux leathers that appear shiny (and therefore greasy) come out perfectly matte.









The Faux Leather Cleaner is a versatile product as you can also use it on hard grained plastics before then applying the Protective Lotion.
Effectiveness remains equally good. The recessed areas of plastics that may appear slightly white from dirt over time return to their original look, with a nicely matte finish.





A 125ml bottle is enough to clean your faux leather interior twice over, including the plastic door panels. Do not hesitate, however, to arm yourself with several microfiber cloths as they saturate quickly.

The Faux Leather Cleaner is truly very effective — most of the time a single pass is enough. It does not damage surfaces and the product wipes off cleanly without leaving a difficult residue to dry. Furthermore, the foaming pump is very practical as it prevents the product from running everywhere when used with a cleaning brush.

Then wait until the surfaces are perfectly dry before applying the Faux Leather Protective Lotion.


Using the Faux Leather Protective Lotion:

A clean faux leather is good, but a clean and treated faux leather is better!

By definition, faux leather is purely synthetic, with a surface plasticization — there is no top coat (a kind of varnish) as there is with leathers. There is therefore no point in using protective lotions based on vitamins and other nourishing creams on this material. You will only end up greasing it.

The Faux Leather Protective Lotion has been designed to protect surfaces from wear by friction (faux leather is very prone to this), aging from UV rays, and to deliver a truly matte finish as original.

The Lotion should once again be applied either with a small foam sponge like the one sold by COLOURLOCK, or even better in our opinion, a microfiber pad. The latter will absorb less product and the application will be more even.



As the product is quite liquid, do not pour too much onto your applicator. You will then need to spread the Faux Leather Protective Lotion evenly over a complete area, pulling the product as you go (typically one seat cushion, one backrest, one bolster at a time).
You will then see a fine, wet film appear.



Allow the product to dry on its own — do not wipe it off! Little by little, the wet layer will disappear (you can speed up drying by fanning the treated area with a microfiber cloth) and will leave a beautifully matte finish.

In the photo below, you can see the area currently drying with some parts already perfectly dry (matte finish).



The Faux Leather Protective Lotion is also designed to be applied to raw grained or foam-backed plastic parts. This will protect them from UV-related deterioration in particular.



It should be noted that the feel delivered by the Protective Lotion is very silky. This is one of the distinctive features of this product. It is particularly pleasant on control elements (steering wheel, gear knob, handbrake).



In the end, we will conclude on the finish of the Protective Lotion and its feel, which are truly unique to this product. You will not find a real equivalent if you are looking for a protection treatment for your faux leathers and plastics with a look as close to the original as possible, while also having such a soft touch.



General Conclusion:

We knew COLOURLOCK's reputation for leather care and restoration, but we were less familiar with their product range for derived materials. In this case, the Faux Leather Cleaner and the Protective Lotion are of excellent quality and above all offer a genuine, specific care solution for this well-known yet ultimately misunderstood material.
For those who appreciate an original-looking finish and care about regularly maintaining their interiors, these products are undoubtedly made for you, as there is nothing to fault them on. No unpleasant smell, no bad surprises (don't overdo it with the brush and the cleaner...), all for a quick result. Even the price is not excessive (€15/125ml) when you consider that the cleaner treats your interior twice over and the lotion many more times. It is worth knowing that COLOURLOCK offers these products in larger sizes if needed, for an even more cost-effective price per liter.


Advantages

+ Effectiveness (cleaner)
+ Finish and feel (lotion)
+ Foaming pump bottle.

Disadvantages

- None.