"With the naked eye": How to distinguish skin from artificial replacement

Every woman has several pairs of shoes, handbags, belts, gloves and others. accessories... The materials from which they are made can be very different, but accessories made of genuine leather are always held in high esteem. Now artificial leather is made so well that it is very difficult to distinguish it from natural.

How to identify natural leather

Accessory manufacturers can be understood. After all, artificial leather is cheaper to manufacture. In addition, products made from such material deteriorate faster, which forces buyers to spend additional amounts on new wardrobe items.

Checking a leather product for naturalness is quite simple. If you can, apply a little water to the surface of the product. A dark spot will remain on natural leather. The artificial substitute will tolerate this operation without consequences.

In an inconspicuous place, you can subject the product to a radical check. For example, try piercing the garment with a sewing needle. Artificial leather can be pierced easily enough. Whereas natural is more resistant to such effects.

Another way to test is to set fire to a piece of the item being tested. No visible damage will remain on a natural product from a burning match brought up, but an artificial analogue will receive a tan.

Quality products made from genuine leather have a special piece called a probe. This probe can be used for such manipulations. But in this case, you need to make sure that the probe is suitable for the material. handbags or boot... After all, not all sellers are honest, and in a bag made of an artificial analogue, a piece of genuine leather may well appear as a probe.

In the absence of a probe, there must be a special sign indicating what materials were used in the manufacture of the product. Genuine leather is indicated by a sign in the form of an animal skin outline. If the bag is made of an artificial substitute, then such a material is indicated by a rhombus.

How to distinguish genuine leather

Of course, it is not always possible to set a piece of skin on fire or pierce it with a needle. But there are other ways to check the naturalness of the product. First of all, we advise you to pay attention to the price, a quality product made from good natural material cannot be cheap.

In a store, the easiest way to touch and check the product is:

• Bend the product. Wrinkles will remain on things made of genuine leather, but after the cessation of exposure, all deformations will disappear.
• Examine the slices if you have access to them. The natural leather material is very thick. But leatherette on a textile base or polyamide base will be thin.
• Place your palm on the surface of the product for 30 seconds. During this time, the leather surface will become warm, while the artificial material stays cool and fogs up after removing the palm.

The easiest way is to examine the product for smell. Natural material has an incomparable aroma. Artificial leather smells like oilcloth or plastic. In any case, it will be some kind of chemical scent.

You can also stretch the product and see how it reacts to deformation. The tension in different parts of a genuine leather item may be different, but it will be elastic and smooth. When pressed, the impact dent quickly disappears. When stretching the artificial material, there will be a feeling of stretching the rubber, and the dent remains on the surface for a long time.

Pay attention also to the reverse side of the product. Genuine leather, on the other hand, has some hairiness and resembles a short matted plush. The substitute is created on a fabric basis or on the basis of another material.