How to make patent leather matte

According to fashion standards, oily and shiny facial skin is considered ugly. It doesn't look very cool, so it's worth making it matte. This is quite possible to do both at home and in a salon. But the latter is a bit expensive. Therefore, it’s worth figuring out how to make your skin matte on your own without the help of expensive products.

December 23, 2016

What causes oily skin and how to make it matte?

As a rule, the problem of shiny skin on the face occurs when the air temperature is quite high. Therefore, you need to cool down sometimes and not interfere with the body’s natural reaction. If you clog the pores on your face under such conditions, you can expect inflammation and the appearance of many pimples.

However, you can get rid of oily shine without the danger of getting some kind of unpleasant rash or overheating. You just need to follow some recommendations that can solve the problem: how to make matte skin. They will not require expensive products, but will be very effective for facial beauty.

How to make your skin matte at home?

Several useful recipes can help deal with oily shine and skin problems forever, even in summer conditions. But you need to follow them correctly, without overdoing it.

1. To wash, use soap for oily skin. It makes the face a little drier, while narrowing the pores and preventing sebum from penetrating out.
2. You can wipe your face with thermal water. It has a slight matting effect and can refresh the skin. Before cleansing your face with it, you need to wash your face or treat your face with a damp cloth to remove dust and dirt.
3. At home, you can use a contrast wash. To begin with, you can wash your face with hot water, but it’s just important not to get burned, and then immediately with cold water, ice or snow, if conditions permit. This will tighten the pores, warmed up and cleansed with hot washing.
4. A clay mask can draw out excess moisture from the skin and pores, while narrowing the latter. Therefore, you need to do it at least once a week according to the instructions.
5. Baby powder can get rid of the matte shine. To do this, use a powder brush to apply a small amount of it to your face. It is hypoallergenic and will not allow excess moisture to spoil the appearance.

Now you don’t have to worry about your skin starting to shine again. If you carefully combine all these methods without going too hard on them, you can achieve a perfectly matte face throughout the year.

Your fashion advisor

There are now so many fakes entering the consumer market that we cannot say with certainty which material is real and which is a fake, albeit of high quality. How to deal with leather products in this case? How to distinguish patent leather from artificial dermantine or another substitute and, finally, how to check patent leather for naturalness?

First of all, tactile sensations and smell will help us. “China,” as we have long been accustomed to calling it, smells like rubber, unpleasant and pungent, so when entering a store, we immediately determine what we are dealing with. Appearance can also tell a lot. Genuine leather, if we are looking for a non-varnished version, is softer to the touch and has natural curves.

The outer bend of the edges, which can be observed in the places where the main part turns towards the sole, is more rounded and not sharp, I would call it cardboard when the edges are folded like a construction set. Also, the thickness of the leather product will tell us whether the leather is genuine. Natural leather is characterized by a small thickness, that is, it is simply thin, pliable, and not rough and resistant, without changing shape.

Patent leather, when pressed, can leave a dent if it is not a natural product, but after such manipulations genuine leather, on the contrary, will return to its previous external shape, straighten again, without leaving folds or, especially, a dent in the form of a finger, which we used to check it for naturalness. When purchasing shoes, it is better to provide this function to a sales consultant, so as not to pay for damaged goods (rules for checking leather in this way are not very common in our country) - just like with an umbrella, which needs to be closed and opened several times, but only the seller, so that if the umbrella spoke breaks, it is not in your hands.

In addition, I very often came across advice to drop a drop of water on leather shoes - if it is absorbed, then the material is real. A leather substitute does not have this function, because it consists of artificial materials that, on the contrary, repel moisture, so a drop of water will remain in its usual place - where you applied it.

Another natural and simple way to check patent leather for naturalness is thermal sensations. With brief contact with the skin of your hands, the natural product will also heat up and transfer the heat back to you. If you hold your hand on artificial leather, your palm or fingers will sweat slightly, which will indicate a high content of those same chemicals in the “leather” product that create a greenhouse effect. This action is probably familiar to you, because when we wear non-natural leather, our legs feel worse than a Turkish steam room - the body does not breathe at all, and an unpleasant sensation and smell immediately form.

When you already have a trained eye, hand and sense of smell, you will definitely be able to distinguish natural leather from an artificial leather product, it will not matter whether the leather is treated with varnish or regular matte. Most importantly, after you experience how it feels in real leather shoes, you will not want to just buy fake ones and immediately feel discomfort.

You can’t even imagine the variety of leathers for making jackets that exist in the world. And right now you will learn all the most interesting things about all types of leather: how they differ, how they are produced, all the pros and cons. It will be very interesting! And at the end of the article, a small bonus awaits you.

So, in order.

Smooth skin

Smooth leather is the most popular type of leather. Which is completely deserved. Smooth leather is very practical and beautiful. This smoothness is achieved by spraying the skins with special products made from natural resins and additives. At the same time, the micropores on the skin do not become clogged, and it continues to “breathe,” which is incredibly comfortable to wear.

Faux leather, unlike genuine leather, does not breathe because it has no pores.

If smooth leather is treated with a protective coating, its practicality doubles! Dirt can be easily removed with a damp cloth, and the sleeves, collar and hem are practically not greasy.

Nubuck and velor are no less popular and favorite types of leather. They are made from the skins of pigs or cattle. And to achieve a velvety effect, the skin is sanded with fine-grained materials (for example, sand).

To make velor, the leather is sanded from the inner surface of the hide. And to make nubuck - from the front side. This is what makes them different.

Disadvantages of nubuck and velor compared to smooth leather:

· Difficult to remove greasy stains

· Fade quickly in the sun

At the beginning of wear, nubuck absorbs moisture like a sponge, but over time this goes away.

Suede is one of the most popular types of leather. It is made from pork, deer, elk and goat skins. But more often from goats. The roughest suede is pork. In general, suede is a very soft, porous, durable, fleecy leather that retains its softness even after cleaning with soapy water. Suede breathes well and is very comfortable to wear.

Suede is made using fat tanning. The so-called suede process, when the leather is saturated with fats. Fats inside the skin are oxidized, and a stable chemical bond is created with the collagen fibers of the skin.

And the pleasant velvety feel of suede is achieved by sanding. In this case, the skin is not covered with paint.

Disadvantages of suede compared to smooth leather:

· Requires careful care

· Difficult to remove greasy stains

· Susceptible to fading in the sun

There is also a type of suede - split leather. This is when several layers (from two to four) are cut horizontally from thick cattle hides.

Nappa

Nappa is another type of leather. Is this your first time hearing this name? You will be surprised, but this is the most common type of leather processing with high decorative properties.

Nappa is made from the skins of both young and adult animals. The hides are double tanned, making the nappa leather incredibly soft. It is also smooth, thin and very beautiful. On the front side, nappa is covered with paint and a layer of artificial resins. And, depending on the coating, it can be matte or shiny, perforated or smooth.

At the same time, nappa boasts durability and excellent quality. It is practically insensitive to dirt, moisture resistant and does not require special care.

This is the highest quality type of leather.

Aniline leather is dyed with organic dyes with minimal processing. As they say, a natural product!

She looks natural in every sense of the word. On aniline leather, you can easily find all sorts of natural marks, such as scars and different color shades. Thanks to this, such leather is quite sensitive and can acquire an antique appearance during wear. Therefore, before wearing, it would be a good idea to treat aniline leather with dirt- and water-repellent agents.

Water-repellent impregnations are beneficial to any skin. Don't neglect them!

The exotic part of our article

Crocodile skin is the most expensive and valuable today. They make it, as you guessed correctly, from crocodiles, which, by the way, are specially bred, which is very difficult and very expensive.

Crocodile skin is a whole storehouse of amazing properties. It is very flexible, is not afraid of time or moisture, does not require special care and can be painted in different colors without losing its properties. As they say, buy it and forget it

It takes three months to process crocodile skin! This is a very difficult job, absolutely intolerant of mistakes. By the way, crocodile skin is the only leather that is valued not per meter, but per centimeter. Yes, yes, pedants, that’s not the right word.

To make regular leather varnished, the hide is dyed in different colors and the varnish coating is applied under high temperatures. And voila - the mirror shine is ready!

By the way, varnishes come in different varieties: glossy, matte, colored and preserving the natural color of the skin.

But, as is usually the case, you have to pay for beauty. Any patent leather is by definition less durable than regular leather, and it is also very sensitive to low and high temperatures. For example, at temperatures below -10°C and above +25°C, patent leather becomes covered with cracks.

The strength of patent leather is determined by the quality of the varnish coating, which must have a certain thickness, the necessary ductility and resistance to repeated bending. And it is quite difficult to determine the quality of this coating by eye. But there are a couple of points you should pay attention to. The color should be uniform and without sagging. You cannot scratch very high-quality patent leather with your fingernail; it can withstand repeated bending and stretches. Usually such leather is made by European manufacturers. You can easily scratch patent leather made in China or South Africa with your fingernail, and when stretched and bent, the varnish layer will burst.

It is almost impossible to find European patent leather in Russia. This is a very expensive and scarce product.

Silka (or nappalan)

Silka is another type of high-tech leather coating. An alternative name for the snare is nappalan.

Silka is suede treated with a special solution with the addition of rubber mass - the so-called liquid leather - a thin, beautiful coating that perfectly protects from rain and sleet. Thanks to this treatment, the tanned skin becomes like leather. The coating itself is colorless, which does not exclude the use of dyes.

The snare has only two drawbacks: over time it can begin to peel and crack, and if it gets scratched, it is almost impossible to restore such a coating. So the moral is don’t scratch the snare!

Rolling is a method of leather processing when a texture with different patterns or ornaments is applied to suede (less often smooth) leather, after which the leather is covered with paraffin.

A very popular fashion trend now is when a genuine leather jacket is rolled up and the leather becomes like expensive fabric.

It happens that rolling is done without a pattern, but only with paraffin - this is the so-called paraffin roll. A paraffin coated jacket lasts much longer than a regular one.

You can distinguish a paraffin coating from a film coating by the absence of a diamond shine.

Laser skin treatment is also often called diamond coating or micro laser treatment. The thinnest protective film layer is applied to the leather, so it does not scratch, is very resistant to external influences, dirt and does not require special care. All pros and not a single minus

Oh yes! The beauty of the skin and its appearance remain absolutely unchanged after laser treatment.

Antique or “pull-up” is decorative aging of the skin. Fashionistas will appreciate it, as this is a very popular trend now.

To achieve this effect, the surface of the skin is subjected to friction, which causes all sorts of cracks and creases to appear on it. It looks very elegant, interesting and unconventional. Moreover, the more you wear this kind of leather, the more vintage and interesting it becomes. Each new crack is another touch to your image.

Getting rid of scratches on vintage matte leather is very easy. Simply wipe it with a soft, clean, damp cloth.

Crack is another vintage way of processing leather.

In this case, an uneven coating is applied to the suede side, similar to tiny scales. During wear, scratches and abrasions appear on the leather, which in no way spoil the appearance, but on the contrary, further enhance the effect of antiquity. The scales may peel off over time, which, as the well-known Elena Malysheva would say, is the norm!

The color of crack-coated leather is easily restored with colored sheepskin care products.

Batik is essentially a protective covering that makes cleaning the leather much easier. The surface of the leather is first covered with hot wax mixed with kerosene, and then with a synthetic dye.

Batik is the most light-resistant leather, but not a panacea. This leather wears well and has an affordable price, which, of course, is good news.

Bonus! Let's reveal a little secret!

To ensure that any textured leather (wrinkled, embossed or crinkled) is worn for a long time and does not lose its appearance, be sure to regularly impregnate it with special products. This will never harm any other natural leather, but it’s a must for textured leather!

That's all about skin for us. We are sure that now you understand it as well as professionals. Choose clothes from the best leather and wear them with joy!