Testing Home Remedies for Cleaning Suede Leather

Suede leather has a reputation as one of the most difficult materials to clean. And with good reason! Suede is a lot harder to clean than full-grain leather, because the tough outer layer of the hide has been removed. This means that suede absorbs stain-causing spills much more readily than full-grain leather. Suede can even get discolored by plain water! And the nap (the fuzziness that makes suede so soft to touch) creates more places for stains to hide.

I have seen many home remedies recommended online for cleaning dirty suede, and I wanted to test them out. So do any of the home remedies work to clean dirty suede? What’s the best way to clean suede without making it stiff? Or leaving behind water spots? I was determined to find out! I had a beloved pair of suede boots that needed to be rescued, and its future depended on my success.

I didn’t really want to experiment on my boots, so I needed some scrap material. A friend of mine sells vintage clothing, and some of the suede items she obtains aren’t fit for sale due to holes, stains, etc. She’s graciously letting me use the ones with stained collars and cuffs. They will be perfect to test various suede cleaning methods so that I can see what works and what doesn’t, and then choose the best method to use on my boots.

Here’s a “before” picture of the gray coat’s stained collar area, so you can see the grime we’re working with. Suede absorbs skin oils very easily. If you have a suede coat, it’s a good idea to wear a scarf or a turtleneck underneath, to protect the collar from this type of stain. But life happens, and no matter what you do, the collar and cuffs will probably end up with marks on them after a lot of wear. Let’s see if we can do something about it!

In my quest to rescue the boots, I’m experimenting with six different suede cleaning methods: three home remedies I found online (white vinegar, micellar water, and baking soda), Uniters Leather Soft Cleaner, and two products that I haven’t seen recommended for cleaning suede but they make sense to me, so I’ll give them a shot. (Diluted Woolite Delicates, and a Magic Eraser.)

(In case you're in a hurry and don't want to read the whole instructable, the overall winner of my tests was the Uniters Leather Soft Cleaner!)

Disclaimer: Only one of these products is actually made for cleaning leather and suede. Your experience may differ, because your stain, garment, and application method will be a little different than mine. This post is an honest assessment of my experience. It’s not a guarantee of good results. It is also not a sponsored post, meaning I had to pay for all this stuff myself. I did, however, add relevant affiliate links. So I will receive a commission on Amazon purchases made through these links at no extra cost to you.

The reason: It’s widely recommended online.

The method: I barely dampened a cloth with vinegar, and then rubbed the dirty areas of the suede collar. The vinegar was allowed to evaporate naturally.

The results: It hardly seemed to remove any dirt at all, and the suede was darker after the vinegar had dried. I tried the vinegar two separate times, and it didn’t seem to remove or even lighten the stains. The suede has fully dried in the picture, but the discoloration is so bad that it almost looks damp. It looks much worse than before I cleaned it.

The cloth I was using also started turning pink. I suspect that the vinegar was discharging some of the pink dye from the suede, resulting in a darker color being left on the surface. This makes sense, because I’ve used a vinegar bath in the past to discharge and lighten certain dyes. But regardless of the reason, I think we can all agree that the suede looks terrible afterwards, and the stains haven’t gone anywhere!

This product comes as a kit, along with leather conditioner, sponges, and cleaning cloths. The water-based cleaner is made for every kind of leather, but you don’t use the conditioner on suede or nubuck.

The reason: Home remedies can be great (like how I use ketchup to remove tarnish from metal), but I want to try a product specifically made for cleaning leather. If it works well, then it’s a sound investment compared to the cost of replacing my beloved boots.

The method: I applied the cleaner to a sponge, and squeezed it to produce foam. Then I rubbed the foam into the soiled area of the cuff. I wiped the cleaner off with a cloth, and left the suede to air-dry.

The results: The stains are gone! The leather isn’t discolored, and it still feels as soft as the areas I haven’t cleaned. I’m very happy with the results.

The reason: It’s a cleaning hack I saw online for cleaning suede shoes.

The method: I actually tried two different methods to clean the suede with micellar water. First I tried dampening a cloth and rubbing it into the stain. Then I tried dampening a sponge, squeezing it to produce foam, rubbing it into the stain, and wiping off the excess with a dry cloth. The sponge method worked better than the plain cloth, because it was a little easier to avoid over-saturating the suede.

The results: The micellar water came in second place for removing the stains. A lot of the grime is totally gone, but you can still see some of it hanging around at the top and lower left in the picture. However, the suede is noticeably stiffer where it has been cleaned.

It’s hard to take a picture of how stiff something is, but here are the two cuffs of the same gray coat. One was cleaned with micellar water, and the other one was cleaned with the leather soft cleaner. See how much higher the one on the left is standing up? It also has a strange surface texture, firmer than suede should feel. It wouldn’t be too bad if you were cleaning a pair of sandals or something that doesn’t really need to be very soft, but for a coat, it’s just not sitting right.

The reason: Magic erasers are very gently abrasive, and I really love them for cleaning scuff marks. I haven’t seen them recommended for cleaning suede, but I kept coming across suggestions online to use nail files, artist’s erasers, and even wire-bristled brushes to remove stains from suede. The magic erasers seemed like a gentle method that might accomplish the same thing: essentially scraping the grime off of the suede without using any cleansing agents.

The method: The stains on the suede were rubbed with the dry magic eraser. I’m cleaning the area above and to the right of the tag.

The results: It seems to have done a good job with minor surface crud. Random dust and dirt came off pretty well, with no ill effects. The magic eraser did not remove the gray coat’s heavy collar stain, but it did lighten it. I tried it on the pink coat’s collar stains with similar results. But I noticed that the eraser was turning pink after I’d been working on the stain for a minute. So some dye or minuscule particles of the leather were definitely being removed.

As I kept working on the stain, I noticed that the suede was gradually changing texture. It was becoming shinier with a thinner nap, as more material was coming off. So if you do use a magic eraser, you should go easy on the leather and stop if the crud isn’t coming off fairly readily.

I also tried wetting the magic eraser, squeezing the water out, and rubbing the stained area with the damp eraser. (The same way you’d use a magic eraser to clean your bathtub). But, predictably, this left a water spot on the suede.

The reason: I’ve seen it recommended online for removing oily stains from suede. I didn’t have high hopes, because the collar stains seem pretty serious, like years-of-grime serious. But the stains do seem kind of oily, and baking soda is inexpensive and really easy to find, so I didn’t have anything to lose.

The method: I applied baking soda to the stained area, rubbed it in really well, and left it to sit for 4 hours. Then brushed off the suede with a nylon bristle brush.

The results: The stain really didn’t go anywhere. I think it might have lightened a little bit, but I’m not sure if that’s due to some baking soda being left on the surface and actually hiding the stain. Either way, the line of grime is very much still on the coat collar.

The reason: I really like using Woolite to clean fragile garments. I have actually used it to clean full-grain leather and had excellent results, so I thought I’d give it a shot with suede. Although it’s not marketed for cleaning suede or leather, it seems gentle enough that it might work.

The method: I diluted 1 teaspoon of Woolite Delicates in 10 teaspoons of water. I whisked the Woolite and water mixture to make foam, then applied the foam to the grimy collar and rubbed it with a soft cloth. I blotted the excess moisture and allowed the suede to air-dry naturally. The 10:1 dilution ratio and application method were entirely made up; I thought using just the foam would make it easier to avoid oversaturating the leather with water or cleaner.

The results: I was excited that the stains seemed to be fading, but the suede ended up discolored with spots that looks like water stains. The suede was also stiffer after it had been cleaned, like it was dried out. I thought I might have more success with a different ratio of water to detergent, or by using less of the mixture. So I tried using more water and less mixture… I tried it on two different jackets, but the results were disappointing. The Woolite left the coats with a darker, almost blueish spot where the stain had been, and a stiffer texture. I love Woolite, but it doesn’t look like it’s working to clean suede.

If your garment is stained, expensive, or special, I highly recommend the Uniters Leather Soft Cleaner. I don’t have any complaints about it, and I’d use it again. In fact, I have decided to use it on my boots!

If you aren't very attached to the garment, and it's okay if the texture stiffens, you can try using micellar water. It's readily available, and came in second place for removing stains from the suede.

If you have some surface dirt on your suede garment that isn’t exactly a stain, you will probably be able to remove it by rubbing it with a dry magic eraser. Be sure not to overdo it; you can remove some of the suede nap if you’re not careful, and end up with a thin or shiny spot on your leather. If the crud is not coming off fairly readily, then you should stop and use the leather cleaner instead.

If you’re curious how the boots turned out, here are some before and after pics!

Before I applied the cleaner, I used a nylon bristle brush to gently remove any clumps of dried mud from the surface of my boots. Then I applied the Leather Soft Cleaner according to the directions and wiped it away with a clean cloth.

There were a few really dark spots that I needed to go over twice, but the dirt all came out. I think the boots look great!

It was easier to apply the foam to one section of the boots at a time, and then wipe that section off before I moved on to a new area. I tried getting the foam on one whole boot and then wiping it all off at once, but it seemed like the first area had started to dry before I was ready to wipe the foam off. So for the next boot I only did 1/5 of the boot at a time, and it was easier to get everything cleaned that way.

There were some scratches and scuff marks on the plastic heels of the boots. I used a damp magic eraser on those, being very careful not to get any water on the leather. There wasn’t anything I could do about the scratches, but the scuff marks all came out. I’m thrilled to have the boots looking so good again!

Now my boots and I are ready for another adventure! I think I can close the book on my leather cleaning experiments. Next time my boots end up in the mud, I’ll know how to make them look spiffy again. And now you know how to clean suede leather, too!