What Are baby Wipes?
Are They Good For Leather?
Baby Wipe Leather Cleaner
Baby wipes are exactly what they say they are and are for use on babies and not furniture due to the chemicals inside of them causing major harm to leather seats.
People think if they are ok for my baby’s bum then they are ok for my leather seat, very much the opposite.
Basically most baby wipes contain alcohol, which, with continued use will soften the leather surface, breaking down the clear coat lacquer on the top of the painted finish and then breaking down the paint, eventually you’re back to naked leather causing even greater issues.
People will tell you; I’ve just used these on my leather couch and it didn’t do any damage? Damage does not happen instantly as a pigmented leather has a painted finish after it has been aniline dyed and then on top of that painted leather is a clear coat lacquer.
As well as the alcohol contained in a lot of baby wipes, you also get silicones, oils and other ingredients that can’t absorb into the leather.
Some companies confuse things by saying human skin isn’t the same as leather, obviously it isn’t the same as one is human and the other could be from many animals like, cows leather, sheep skin, goat hide and many more. All skin is porous including that of humans, the same as you condition your skin you need to condition leather skin to ensure the leather hides don’t dry up and crack, this is why leather cleaners that contain alcohol products cause drying out of the skin and in time colour loss and cracking will appear.
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Clear Coat Lacquer Baby Wipes
Baby wipes can contain all type of chemicals that cause damage to the surface of the leather, once that surface is damaged the leather becomes more absorbent, if it’s aniline leather then the surface is already absorbent and soaking in all these chemicals breaking down the leather internally.
Some chemicals you may find within baby wipes are:
Aqua, Capryloyl Glycol, Sodium Benzoate, Isopropyl myristrate, Coco-Betaine, Dehydroacetic Acid, Polysorbate 20, Malic Acid, Sodium Citrate, propylene glycol, alcohol, phenoxyethanol.
This is a list of just some of the chemicals that are in baby wipes, surfactants, acids, alcohols etc, not a great mixture of chemicals for your leather hide.
Then you have the environmental issues these wipes cause as they don’t break down, causing major issues for landfill, wildlife, and marine life as they land in our oceans.