Mink Oil Vs Leather Conditioner: Which is Better?

If treated and maintained in a perfect manner, leather items can remain intact for as long as 5000 years. Researches have proved that the oldest surviving leather is 5,500 years old!

You just need to know the proper ways of maintaining it!

Maintaining the leather includes several steps like cleaning, washing, fixing, etc. but most importantly conditioning the leather every three to six months.

Now, there is a lot of confusion over what is best for conditioning a leather boot, whether it is mink oil or it is a leather conditioner?

We have made a deep study on both the products and have put the two to tests to find the best working as a conditioning agent for your precious leather boots. And according to our study, leather conditioners are clearly the winners!

Why Do You Need to Condition your Leather Boots?

As our skin need good moisturizer to keep the moisture intact and prevent dullness or cracks on it, so does the leather being made of an animal skin. A good conditioning agent not only keeps the leather soft and supple and restores shine, but also acts as a barrier to lock in the essential moisture or natural oils within the leather and on the top of it provides waterproofing to the leather.

Oiling or Conditioning? Which is Better?

Now you know the importance of conditioning your leather boots, but now the question is will you oil your boots or condition it using a leather conditioner? 

To know the answer, you need to consider the following points regarding the ever popular mink oil and leather conditioners:

Benefits of Using Mink Oil for Your Leather Boots:

 Mink oil is extracted from the fatty layer that underlies mink skins. The following are its benefits:

• • • It makes the leather boots flexible
    • It makes the leather boots retain its softness
    • It adds that shine to the leather
    • It provides waterproofing effect to the leather
    • It acts as a protective barrier to retain moisture

The Negative Sides of Using Mink Oil:

Mink oil is definitely an alternative to leather conditioners, but can’t replace them for the following causes:

• • • Over a long period of time, mink oil supposedly hardens the leather
    • It darkens the leather too much
    • It cannot provide that glossy shine to the leather that a conditioner can

How to Apply Mink Oil to your Leather Boots?

While you might contemplate over the point of providing that shine to your leather boots, but mink oil is a superb conditioning agent in terms of providing moistures and retaining the softness of your boots. So, if you want to give a good conditioning to your leather boots, this is how you can use the mink oil.

Things Required:

• • • Mink oil
    • A lint free soft cotton cloth
    • A sponge
    • A hair dryer

Steps to Follow:

• • 1. The very first step is to clean your leather boots.
    2. Heat the mink oil to a liquid using the hair dryer or by putting it near a heating source.
    3. Now using the sponge, apply the mink oil over your entire boot, covering especially the hard surfaces like the seams.
    4. Use the hair dryer to even more melt the mink oil over the enter surface of the boot, making sure that the oils seeps into the pores.
    5. Leave in the oil for 30 minutes to let it fully soak in your boots.
    6. Now take the soft cotton cloth and rub in small circles over the boot. This will make the oil to absorb even more and any excess oil will come off.
    7. Repeat the last step once again to get the required shine.

Pro tips:

• • • You can use mink oil after every two weeks.
    • Do not use mink oil if the stitching of your boots is done with cotton threads. It will rot the stitching.
    • You can use mink oil in boots stitched with nylon threads.

What are Leather Conditioners?

There are plenty of leather conditioners available in the market and you can know about the best boot conditioners from our detailed study.

However, if you want to avoid them, beeswax is one of the best leather conditioners that do its job perfectly for your leather boots.

Benefits of Leather Conditioners/Beeswax:

• It nourishes the leather fibers
• It restores the leather fibers
• It helps in repelling water
• It makes boots flexible
• It brings back the shine of the boots
• It softens and moisturizes the leather fibers
• It makes your boots go a long way

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