Leather is skin
Leather (like skin) is porous. It cannot be fully disinfected without ruining the leather. This can affect the ways you can safely use your leather for play – we’ll talk about that in the next section.
Leather (like skin) needs to be kept moisturized. Think about what happens to your skin when it gets dried out! It’ll start to crack or flake, it won’t bend or stretch as easily, it won’t look or feel as healthy – the same things can happen to your leather!
It’s also natural for leather to have flaws! If anything, minor imperfections can be a sign that the piece is made of real, high-quality leather! Your piece should never be so covered in marks that it affects the structure of it, but just like you probably have some scars, zits, and stretch marks from living life in your body, don’t be surprised if you see those sorts of things on the leather pieces you buy!
Safe(r) play with leather
Since leather is porous, it can absorb any fluids it’s exposed to – and again, it’s not possible to fully disinfect leather. Sometimes, that’s no problem! Other times, some extra care is needed for safer play.
Harnesses and impact toys will often make incidental contact with bodily fluids – think about a paddle on someone’s bare, sweaty ass in a dungeon; or a chest harness with straps running across your armpits. Impact play can also break the skin in small, hard to notice ways that could spread bloodborne pathogens, and mpox (aka monkeypox) is spread by skin contact, and can remain on surfaces for days. After this sort of incidental contact, most of these bacteria and viruses will lose their ability to infect within one week if simply left to sit.
Certain pieces may have higher exposure to fluids though - the leather close to the O-ring on a strap-on harness is likely to get covered in some combination of vaginal or anal fluids, cum, sweat, and lube nearly every time it’s used. Even if you leave it to sit for long enough to technically be safe, lots of people wouldn’t want to be fucked with a strap covered in someone else’s juices, and some fluids may discolor the leather or leave a smell.
Some tops reserve their leather straps for use with just one other person, or bottoms may have their own strap for anyone who tops them to wear! If you plan to top multiple people with one strap, another material may be a better option for you – like something non-porous, or machine-washable. If you do choose to use a leather strap with multiple bottoms, clean the leather soon after use (see the next section), and leave it to sit for a week!
Cleaning your leather gear
While leather cannot be fully disinfected, cleaning your leather is still important! It can remove some of the contaminants that can put people’s health at risk, and it removes dirt and grime from your leather’s surface, which will keep your leather in better condition for longer.
To clean most leather, you can use saddle soap. My go-to brand is Fiebing’s - it’s easy to find online, or you can look in craft stores, hardware stores, or the shoe-care section of well-stocked supermarkets and pharmacies!
This basic process will work for most leather (harnesses, boots, collars, jackets, belts, etc.):
–Rub the saddle soap with a damp sponge, horsehair (or similar) brush, or rag until it forms a lather
–Massage the saddle soap into your leather in a circular motion using your sponge (/brush/rag), applying more lathered soap as needed until you’ve cleaned the whole surface
–Once fully covered, buff the soap in using a clean, dry cloth, again using circular motions, until the leather feels dry and a little bit softer than before. Repeat this whole process if needed
To clean a piece like a flogger, you can use a similar process to run a soaped-up rag down the length of the falls and rub them dry - a more extended guide to flogger care could (and maybe eventually will) be its own zine. I would avoid using this method to clean suede or other napped leathers – there are special suede care kits you can buy, but that guide is also a topic for another time.
Conditioning your leather
If leather is skin, conditioner works basically like a moisturizer – in fact, most conditioners tend to make pretty effective skin moisturizers too (among other off-label uses).
If you ask most leatherqueers, myself included, Huberd’s Shoe Grease is the best conditioner out there. As I’m writing this guide, there are no less than 17 different fetishes listed on Fetlife involving Huberd’s, and the leather freaks have been known, on occasion, to dip into their Huberd’s tins when they need some more lube (though I can’t say I know enough to vouch for it being body-safe in that context). It’s an excellent conditioner, but there are plenty of other conditioners out there, and it can’t hurt to explore your options!
Use your fingers to rub the conditioner into the leather, making sure that the entire top surface of the leather is covered in a thin coating of conditioner, and leave it to soak in, for anywhere from an hour to overnight. Once it’s soaked in, rub any leftover conditioner into the leather until it’s fully absorbed. If the leather still feels dry or stiff, condition it again.
Be aware that almost all conditioners will darken the color of your leather slightly. For darker colored leather, the change is usually minor, and often an improvement. But for lighter colors it can have a big negative impact on the color. The only conditioner I know of that doesn’t darken leather is Bick 4. I highly recommend this conditioner for any leather you don’t want to darken.
Storing your leather
The way you store your leather can have as much impact on it as the way you maintain it. Some things to consider when storing your leather:
–Extended exposure to bright light can darken your leather and cause it to dry out and crack
–Leather needs some amount of humidity to avoid drying out, but it shouldn’t be allowed to get too wet either – too much humidity could cause it to mold (I’m talking to you, Seattle), and direct exposure to water can cause leather to warp. If the piece is new or the maker didn’t finish it properly, the dye may bleed on contact with moisture as well
–Both excessive heat and excessive cold can damage leather in various ways as well
–Leather retains the shape it’s kept in – try to store it so that the material only folds in places it’s supposed to
I usually store my leather by hanging it in a dark space with reasonably well-controlled heat and humidity – most often in my closet, or on a wall far away from any windows. Something like this is ideal, but your dresser can be another good spot to store it, as long as it can fit without being bent or tossed around too much.
Keep in mind that aside from darkening from exposure to sunlight, cleaning and conditioning your leather can undo most of these kinds of damage! If your leather is too dry, too stiff, or bent out of shape, give it some TLC and chances are it’ll look good as new!
Other info
Some other aspects of leathercare to think about:
–Make sure you’re caring for the metal hardware on your leather too! Metal doesn’t usually require quite the same level of upkeep as leather, but do your best to keep it clean and dry, polish it from time to time with polishing cloths or oils, and make sure to keep saddle soap and conditioner from building up in the spaces around your metal hardware! If there is a buildup around your hardware, you can brush it out with a clean toothbrush (possibly after softening it with saddle soap)
–Waterproofing can be a good idea for pieces you expect to have a lot of fluid contact, like strap-on harnesses. Like disinfecting leather, it’s not really possible to fully waterproof it, but you can make it very water resistant! Huberd’s adds a bit of water resistance to leather, but I use Rain & Snow from Bee Natural to really waterproof my pieces
–If you want to learn more about leathercare, go find a bootblack and ask them about it while they do your boots. Make sure you tip well!
–If you really get into this stuff, think about becoming a bootblack yourself! Or a leatherworker! It can be really rewarding to provide those services to your community, and it’s an incredibly intimate feeling to make your own gear just to your liking, then put all that work to use in a scene
–In a more private context, leathercare can be an excellent way to serve your partner! And even on your own, it can be a great ritual to lose yourself in the task of caring for your leather, and a great excuse to spend an evening taking care of yourself and your gear