Leather Nova cleaner, conditioner, restorer products

I was given the opportunity to try a set of Leather Nova products to try recently. While we don't have a lot of leather products, what we do have is in pretty terrible shape, so I was pretty eager to try out something that might help clean and restore a few things in my house.

My husband's had this big Ikea man-chair for 8 years and it's been through the ringer. We've moved several times, we have cats who scratch furniture, and we've never properly cleaned the leather. We also have a dining seat with leather chairs, and while the big issue there is the cat damage, they could use a good cleaning.

Leather Nova sent three products. I tried all three this week so I could see what each product does. The packaging of each is very similar, so when you're shopping online, make sure you are buying the one you want, whether it's leather cleaner, conditioner & cleaner, or conditioner & restorer.

I first used Leather Nova Leather Cleaner on the big chair. You can see in the next couple of images that we have taken terrible care of this chair. It was dull and scratched with unknown markings from animals and children.

Mystery marks on the arm of the chair

Dried out, worn seat of the chair

Leather Nova's cleaner is designed to work on leather, vinyl, and plastic furniture, clothing, purses, gloves, and saddles, and you can use it to clean the leather in your car too. You can use it to clean off dirt and oil and since it opens the pores of the leather, after using the cleaner, you are ready to treat your leather with Leather Nova's conditioning products.

I tried the Leather Conditioner & Restorer next. This step helps protect the leather after it's been cleaned, with water and rain repellant (great for jackets and purses). While the cleaner did a good job getting the grime out of my chair, it is the conditioner & restorer that helped the leather become more shiny, smooth, and soft.

Leather chair after using Leather Nova

While the cleaner did a good job getting the grime out of my chair, it is the conditioner & restorer that helped the leather become more shiny, smooth, and soft.

Chair arm after using Leather Nova

Leather Nova also makes a Conditioner & Cleaner, which had me confused because they sell just a cleaner as well and I'm not sure why I wouldn't want to just buy the one combination product or how exactly it differs from the Conditioner & Restorer (noting that the cleaner version also says it provides instant restoration).

I ended up trying the Conditioner & Cleaner on my dining room chairs and it did a pretty good job. I think they're too far gone with deep scratches and tears from Simba and Little Kitty though. 

I blame these cuties for my scratched up leather

Overall, I'm a fan of the Conditioner & Restorer and think I could find more uses for it than the other products. I also just don't like to have so many similar products around taking up space, but I think if I had more leather, I might feel differently.

One thing that did irk me a bit is the smell. Leather Nova's product description calls out a "rich, leather fragrance," but it reminded me more of the stainless steel cleaner my husband uses, or this shoe protecting spray we use on my daughter's sneakers. Not pleasant. It dissipated after a few days, thankfully.

What's nice is the big black chair looks way better, almost new. The small scratches are less visible and the scuff marks and mystery stains are completely gone. It's worth buying just for that.

Disclaimer: I received a set of products for free from Leather Nova. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I use personally and believe will be good for my readers.