Natural Leather/Water & Sweat stains

[Guyute]

Guys, I got rain and sweat stains all over my brand new belt from Unlucky.... what are my options for evening the color back out? I'm hoping to maintain the new/natural color of it for now, and rectify the situation if possible. Should I try to uniformly wet the whole thing with a damp sponge? Use saddle soap or some other gunk? Really disappointed in myself, I hope I'm able to make this look like new (or close) for now... These are how the blotches look... there are a bunch but I couldn't capture them all very well Thanks in advance

 

[zissou]

I would think your best bet is to gently wash it with a bit of saddle soap on a damp cloth, then once is dries, perhaps treat it with mink oil. The natural color will not last long.

 

[dibadiba]

don't use saddle soap on undyed veg-tan leather. it'll royally mess up the color (atleast in my experience)
get a sponge or cloth and wet the leather uniformly

 

[KitAkira]

I really like the effect of rain drops on the leather, if you don't use something like Obenauf's, mink oil, etc. that will darken it a bit and give it some waterproofing

 

[Guyute]

thanks for advice... I dampened the whole thing with a sponge and it looks normal again... I'm going to do some reading on oils and saddle soap and may have more questions... but thanks again for now.

 

[dibadiba]

Originally Posted by Guyute

thanks for advice... I dampened the whole thing with a sponge and it looks normal again... I'm going to do some reading on oils and saddle soap and may have more questions... but thanks again for now.
honestly, don't even worry about it too much. the less you worry about your belt, the better it'll look. For example, I've spilt soy sauce, oil, and all sorts of crap on my veg-tan bag. I even had a bad cold and spat a huge loogie aiming for the garbage bin and it landed on my bag. to this day theres a massive stain visible whenever I lift the flap to open it. I just say it adds character

 

[Crane's]

Treat the belt with Filson boot oil or Lexol conditioner and you won't have this problem anymore. If you want an idea of how it looks go here for before and after pics.