What is the best still available now leather conditioner out there?
The one that I am looking for must be good, cant smell like paint/gasoline, and must leave a nice leather smell. The REAL leather(or near) smell none of that Autozone scented tree BS. smell.
Is there one like that out there?

Note: leather in my car is still near perfect but I intend to keep it that way

 

I've been happy with Gliptone Liquid Leather GT12 and GT11. The conditioner gives a really nice leather smell.

Car Leather Cleaner

 

I use "Leather Honey" (especially on my leather dashboard) AWESOME stuff. Made my dry, dingy dashboard look smooth, dark, supple, and BRAND NEW!

And it l.a.s.t.s........

 

+1 JKo's liquid leather, haven't tried any others. Search the popular shopping sites, though, I beat the price listed on the home-site once shipping was considered.

 

Anyone know the difference in Glipton GT11&12 in spray bottle form and cream form? Any difference in protection? In the States and only could find one source and was spray... I did an order from ebay and got the cream from GB, but in future anyone notice a difference?

 

I recommend Lexol,

If you have to purchase just one, I recommend the conditioner,
but buying them both will improve leather pretty well.

Ian

 

Can't believe that after 6 posts no one has mentioned Leatherique. That has been the long term standard for the restoration universe, in the US at least.

 

Just trying Leatherique now on my 635 csi - which also requires some panels to be dyed (black) I will trying the conditioner and cleaner shortly on my recently acquired 02 XJR 100 - black. Too soon to see results but I expect it is right up there with the best.

 

tried lexol first as it seems to be widely available. Either my nose is kicking the bucket or someone else nose is. it smells nothing of leather of any leather I ever came across. More like old wet wood. But, it did get the job done more than very well. I kept both the cleaner and conditioner but not yet sure what I'm going to do with them as if it wasnt for the horrendous smell, I'd use it on all the cars, well except the Bimmer ad I have the BMW leather conditioner for that. I'm sure that Jag has it own too but here, the places never heard of it. So it may not exist as the one for MBZs pre-2000 dont exist and the new one is for the new cars which have totally different feel and smell to the leather
Might try Connolly next but the nearest place will take a few weeks at least to get in and wont be in town.
Given the leather is in good condition I'm looking more for the smell than anything like a heavy duty "turn dry cracked leather that been in sun for four decades into like new" stuff.

Ordering the +1 JKo's liquid leather as we speak and we'll see what happens.

Would order the Gliptone Liquid Leather GT12 and GT11 but many things from that side of the world never make it to El Paso and I'm not itching to play the "where's my package" game again where they blame the sender, the sender blames the international shipping company, the international shipping company blames, the local shipping comapny the local shipping company blames the post office, the post office blames the shipping company, the shipping company then blames the sender and repeat process. Usually after days on the phone and months spent looking for the package it is usually either local post office or the local/international shipper error and good luck getting anytype of reimbursement out of them two. If there is a more local stateside supplier of that GT12/11 stuff, point me i nthat direction.

 

I've used many different products on all my cars, and my favorite is still by far Zymol.
I have 3 vehicles, aged 9-15 years and all of their leather seats are in exceptional condition. I've used Zymol's cleaner and conditioner on each of them every 3 months for as long as I've owned them.

You can find it sometimes at Pepboys, or even Target on occasion. If not, you can order on their website but it's much more $$

 

I've always used Lexol leather cleaner and conditioner. Not sure about a conditioner smelling like leather. I thought the leather is supposed to smell like leather. My younger brother used saddle soap and mink oil on some beat up leather seats once. They looked barely used after he was finished.

 

yes it is. But what I'm getting at is that I rather takke care of the leather while it's good now, instead of waiting until it's old and crack to try to return it like new. Although I rather not have my interior smelling like being locked inside a diesel tank just to protect the leather. Some products smells like straight up old wet gym socks, some smell like tires, some smell like some type of windex and some smell like "I'ma explode if I was to light a match in here" environment. I figured there has to be something out there that brings out or maintain that leather smell instead of getting rid of it.

Example BMW- Old leather from 1988. Smelled very non-bimmer inside. Dealership conditioner, one bottle, leather felt a bit noticable softer within a week and a fresh BMW interior smell (albeit more of the ones from around 1994 new instead of 1980s.). Havent applied it in months since as other things took precedence over that project. Yet, till this day when I open the door, it smells like a Bimmer.

Case 2# 2006 chrysler 300. Leather seats good condition. Lexol incident. Sun city and it's heat + leather seats equals dried and cracked seats with a few months if not taken care of. Lexol, good reviews so figured hey, why not. Had to take a friend somewhere and couldnt ride to our destination with the windows rolled up, both headache and petroleum product smell. Look over a week to get that smell out. Maybe it was the car, tried it on the MBZ and same results.

Case# 3- MBZ- Sheer morbid curiosity, Cadillac conditioner. Wasnt the nuance smell of course. While Cadillacs do seem to still use nuance leather, the smell is alot more airy and light compared to the classic one that lasted seemingly forever and was cadillac trademark (anyone who been in a brand new Cadillac Deville or Fleetwood of the 80s with leather seats know that distinct smell. Oh how I miss that smell). The conditoner worked OK as in so-so. Car ended up smelling like the new 2009 deville I just test drove during that time, which wasnt a bad thing. The MBZ returned ot it's natural MBZ leather smell within a week and half. Unfortunately, thye dont have anymore at the sole Cadillac dealer.

Case#4- The others-Tried every single bottle of stuff at autozone (place I got the lexol). Most didnt do a anything, some smelled like pool water, some smelled like a gas station. None was what I was looking for.

Case #5- Jag dealership. This one says that Jag doesnt have conditioner and of course they didnt carry it. Odd, Cadillac have their own conditioner, Chrysler do, Mercedes and BMW do, even Audi/Volkswagen, and Lincoln/Ford. But this car with high quality leather that rivals Bentley/Rolls-Royce does not have it's own conditioner? but has a cleaner? These guys here will tell you anything. I have already realized that there is a cleaner and conditioner out there. the conditioner is similar to if not the same as the connolly hide food.

I guess at this point I have The Connolly hide food is the last one or else there is none left outside the ones that is already on their way here from shipping.

Anyone know what that connolly hide food stuff smells like?

 

I'm going to have to give the Lexol the sniff test. I don't recall it smelling vile. If it does, I'm not going to be thrilled since I just purchased a vat of each.

 

Props on this stuff ,good priced and works amazing ..

 

know of any stateside suppliers?

 

I will go for the saddle soap and the mink oil too!

 

Interesting discussion.

What I have noticed is that cars of old (let's say 20 years ago and older) had leather that was dyed and was still very porous. My 1989 BMW 635 CSi is that way. The leather in that car just absorbs the leather conditioning products like crazy and will "re-soften."

Newer cars leather seem to have a "painted" finish. This type of finish seems to prevent penetration of conditioning products. I don't find that the seats get "re-softened" like the older leather.

Has anybody else noticed this?

Comments for the best conditioners for this newer way to tan/paint/dye leather?

 

Certainly true for my '82 Volvo vs. '02 XK8. Current surfaces do not appear to absorb the various leather products. The old Volvo leather soaked up Leathereque's Restorer for a week before it slowed down . . . and came back to near original.

 

Robert....you my friend have hit the nail on the head ;o)
Most leathers for the last 20 years have been of the 'coated' variety...not like leathers of old.
Most treatments these days are synthetic based and are 'quick fix' coatings.
we all have our favourites and I have tried just about all of the common ones but truly GLYPTON is my favourite.
being produced in deepest Yorkshire since the 1920's.
I do th seats on my '98 Sovereign once befor summer and one before winter.
This way, they only need 'deep cleaning' once a year and the l;eather is as perfect as the day it was installed.
Mind you my right side bolster of my drivers seat (RHD) is showing some scuffing and will need attention but has lasted well for 200,000klm.

 

This stuff has no equal Cadillac Boot & Shoe Care Leather Conditioner | Nordstrom

It makes lexol (very good stuff) seem like armorall.

Just try it and report back how you like it.

It absorbs so amazingly well and deeply nourishes the leather.

My neighbor bought some reallllly expensive leather chairs for his house (like $8000) and bought "the best" leather conditioner $30 for 8 oz, blah, blah, bs bs. We did a blind test, this won.