Condition Leather Boots Naturally

I don’t know about you, but come winter I basically live in boots.  Not only do they keep my feet toasty warm, but they keep water and snow out and they look great with jeans and leggings.  I have one pair in particular that I am almost never without.  I adore them and because I wear them so often they have gotten a bit of a “distressed” look to them.  And to be honest, I like that look, but sometimes I just want to give the leather a nice clean, smooth look that can only come from conditioning the leather.  And what better way to treat my favorites than to condition my leather boots naturally?

I’ve heard quite a bit about using olive oil to condition leather, but since I am obsessed with coconut oil, I decided to run a bit of an experiment.  I used olive oil on one boot and coconut oil on the other to see which oil works best as a conditioner and I was kind of surprised by the answer.

Here is a close up of the olive oil boot.  As you can see, there are lots of scuff marks and the leather looks a bit dry.  I used a white towel (always use white so colors don’t transfer) and dipped it in olive oil.  Using small circular motions I rubbed it into the leather, all over the boot.

And here is the coconut oil boot.  Since coconut oil starts out as more of a solid, you just need a bit more elbow grease to rub it into the boot.  The more you rub, the warmer it becomes and the easier it is to work with.

After I had thoroughly rubbed down both boots I let them sit to dry.  Truth be told, I took my son to hockey which is a four hour long endeavor, so they were definitely dry by the time we got home.

And the results?  Well, it saddens me to say that olive oil is the clear winner.  Not only did the leather feel much more soft and supple, but the the coconut oil left white residue on any non-leather piece that it touched.  So I ended up having to wash off the zipper area and the sole.  More work, less results?  Sorry coconut oil, but you let me down.

Above is the olive oil boot after allowing time to dry.  There is a marked difference in the appearance and it feels great as well.

And below is the coconut oil boot.  Although it looks much better than when I started, it does not look quite as smooth as the olive oil boot and you can see the residue left behind.

So when it is all said and done, I will absolutely use olive oil to condition my leather boots naturally in the future.  In fact, this has inspired me to condition both my leather sofa and love seat as well.  I’ll let you know how that goes!