Cleaning Secondhand Leather Naturally

I was having an easy day at home (Craigslisting free stuff) when I came upon a really nice leather chair with an ottoman. I'm pretty street-savvy so I'm very skeptical at first, but it was being given away in a pretty ritzy area and the chair didn't show any off-putting dirty or scruffiness, so it looked pretty nice. I had been in the market for a new seating option, but with no luck. My head petitioned Houzz, but my wallet pleaded cheaper..

I had looked online for natural ways to clean leather, especially lighter colours. I ended up mixing two of the best recipes:

equal parts avocado oil and white distilled vinegar (I used 2/3 cup)

10 drops lemon essential oil (I use doTERRA, but I figure any brand would do if it's steam distilled)

As you can see, the darker coloration came off very easily. I'm pointing to the part that I had scrubbed. I used a standard yellow/green kitchen sponge with the cleaner, and it worked like a charm! I had very good success. Although, be careful when scrubbing, as you can take off some of the leather material if you scrub too hard... oops!

Here's a before and after of the leather. Definitely better looking in the after! The avocado oil even helped a bit with the leather's wrinkling.

I had gotten the avocado oil from Costco, they have a large container for around $10, and the white vinegar most likely also from Costco. Mixing in the oil really added on a few years to the leather. I think that was the factor that had smoothed out the wrinkles.

The essential oil really added a fresh smell to the chair, which I liked. It actually was in pretty good shape when I had gotten it, but anything you get online should be cleaned well.

Good luck!