Techniques that will help you accurately distinguish natural leather from artificial leather

There are many effective methods for distinguishing natural leather from artificial leather. True, not everyone can be used, everything

In practice, everything is quite simple, you just need to know what points to pay attention to in what cases. Don’t forget about quality certificates - sellers are required to provide them upon request. If you suspect that you have purchased a counterfeit, do not hesitate to demand money back; you need to insist on an examination.

Pressed and eco-leather - how do they differ from natural leather?

First of all, people who are far from understanding the specifics of creating leather products need to understand one important point - no matter how the leatherette version is called and produced, its quality will never compare with natural material. Today, many people think that products made from eco-leather or pressed leather are made from a natural product, they simply use special technologies. In fact, everything is completely different!

To know how to distinguish pressed leather from natural leather, you need to understand the technology of its production. The material is based on the most common leatherette, to which not even leather is added in very limited quantities, but its residual fibers (clippings, even lint and dust). The raw materials are pressed, obtaining a smooth product that looks like natural leather.You can distinguish it from a high-quality and expensive analogue by the following characteristics:

1. First we just look at the drawing on the material. If it is symmetrical and the pores are arranged in a strict order, this indicates the artificial origin of the raw material. Pores on natural leather are arranged randomly, guaranteeing a unique pattern.
2. Now bend the object a little and allow it to return to its original position. If wrinkles and folds are quickly restored, the material is most likely natural.
3. Pressed leather is characterized by unusual roughness and the presence of creases. It wears out and bursts very quickly, which can be detected when examining even completely new things.

Advice: Unfortunately, even a professional cannot tell you exactly how to distinguish artificial patent leather from natural leather without damaging the product. Here you will have to trust the manufacturer and believe that the complex-shaped label (not a diamond shape) really symbolizes the natural origin of the raw material.

Products made from eco-leather are a separate topic, because modern fashionistas love the prefix “eco” so much, being confident that it can only be found in natural materials. But here everything is not so rosy, because in this case, the product is based on the most ordinary leatherette. The only difference is the use of polyurethane film as a coating.

Thanks to this, eco-leather breathes and allows moisture to escape. As a result, the material does not release harmful components during wear, because they were not used in production. How to distinguish eco-leather from genuine leather? Exactly the same as the pressed counterpart. The manufacturing process in all cases is approximately the same, therefore the properties of the raw materials are similar.

Simple and effective techniques to help identify counterfeits

If the seller actively and confidently offers “leather,” you need to quickly and discreetly verify the naturalness of the material in order to avoid counterfeiting. The following manipulations will help with this:

• You need to smell the material. If it was created artificially, it will give off a strong chemical smell. Natural leather has a specific aroma, but not repulsive at all. Although, today some manufacturers add certain flavoring agents to the raw materials, due to which leatherette begins to smell more natural.
• You just need to hold the material in your hand for a few minutes. If it gets hot and stays warm for a while, then it's leather. Artificial analogues do not even heat up.
• Even if you just touch the skin, you will find that it is much softer and more elastic than substitutes, and has a more uniform texture. In addition, it is filled in a special way. If you press on the material, you will feel a pleasant softness, and the print will quickly straighten out.

Advice: Some “experts,” when answering the question of how to distinguish leatherette from genuine leather, suggest setting fire to the edges of the material. Allegedly, the skin does not burn and nothing will happen to it. They do not take into account that today paints and coatings are increasingly used to give the leather a unique look, but they can catch fire, which will lead to damage to a quality item.

• Natural leather is difficult to stretch, and after such attempts it quickly returns to its original state.
• If a natural product is bent, its color will not change when folded. If you act on leatherette in this way, you will be able to detect several shades at once.
• Quality items always come with a sample of the material.If it is made in the shape of a diamond, then one of the options of leatherette was used in the manufacture of the product. A figured sample with an appropriate inscription indicates the naturalness of the raw material.
• On a section of leather you can see numerous interweavings of fibers. If they are absent or fabric is used as a base, then it is definitely not a natural product.
• Finally, the underside of natural high-quality leather is covered with short, soft pile. If you run your hand over it, the color of the surface will change due to the change in the position of the fibers.

It is worth considering that modern products made from eco-leather, leatherette and its pressed analogue are of quite high quality. Sometimes they are even superior to a natural product in some ways, so you shouldn’t completely refuse to include such things in your wardrobe.