How I Refurbished my Louis Vuitton Speedy...

I bought an authentic preloved Louis Vuitton Damier Speedy bag a few months back. While I was so excited to finally get the bag and wear it, I realized (at that time of buying and when I received it) that the bag had some wear on it that could use some fixing up. After searching online, I found a blogger, Lollipuff, who posted an article on how to refurbish LV bags.

Based on the recommendations in the post, I used the following products: Mr. Clean Magic Eraser, Blue Magic Metal Polish cream (tube) and Cadillac Boot and Shine leather conditioner. I also used laundry detergent and baby wipes. All of the products used can be used on any bag to spruce it up. Read on for the deets, to see how you can spruce up your handbag!



Before

At first glance, the bag had some sheen on the exterior. Most of the brass fixtures had green tarnishing (which happens with aging of brass). The leather handles were dull. The bag had lost some of its shape. The inside was the kicker! The red interior was terribly stained. It was a combination of hair, dirt, dust and dried up candy.

Yuck!

The brass had lost its luster.

You can see some of the green tarnish around the ring

The Process

I added water to the Mr. Clean Magic eraser and wiped down the entire bag, inside and out. I used a microfiber cloth along with the Blue Magic Metal polish cream and polished the brass fixtures, which made the green tarnish disappear and it polished the fixtures to a brand new shine! The last thing I did to the exterior- was apply the Cadillac Boot and Shine leather cleaner to the canvas and the leather handles.

Dirt from the bag on the Mr. Clean Magic eraser

I have used other leather cleaners before but the Cadillac Boot and Shine leather cleaner is the best that I've used. It can be applied to a variety of materials like canvas, exotic skins, vinyls and patents in addition to leather. It cleans and conditions while retarding water spotting and cracking. It also gives a nice luster, I applied two coats of it to the bag and let it sit overnight. 

After the bag had been wiped with magic eraser

Sidenote: I also found out that Cadillac Boot and Shine leather conditioner is great for lightening vachetta leather that has patina (darkened) over time. 

Applying the Cadillac Leather cleaner...

Now for the inside! I used baby wipes to wipe down all of the dirt and hair that I could from the inside. I also used a small butter knife to scrape off as much of the dried candy as I could without cutting through the interior...this is when I found out how sturdy LV bags are-because the interior didn't buckle, budge or crack under the scraping.

This is one of many wipes I used to clean the interior...

I used laundry detergent (which gave the inside a nice smell) and applied it to the wipes to rub off the remaining dirt and to remove the dried candy stain, I used several wipes to do this. Once I removed the stain, I also took a bit of alcohol and applied it to the lining of the bag to disinfect it. 

Making some progress!

The Results

The end result is that I was able to completely remove the hair, dirt and candy stain. I was also able to remove some of the black stains. There are a few ink stains that remain that I can live with. 

All of the hair and dirt have been removed and the candy stain is completely gone...

The zipper no longer looks dull but polished and more gold in color...

No more green tarnishing around the ring...

The extras

The Speedy bags originally come with a lock and two keys. The bag I bought didn't come with one from the original owner. I was able to purchase an authentic LV lock and key set at a good price. Of course, it was used and had aged, so I polished it up with the Blue Magic Metal cream.

Before: The lock is dull and tarnished...

All of the dirt from polishing...

After: The lock is polished, brighter in color and it looks new!

After 

The bag has a beautiful luster thanks to the leather cleaner. The brass fixtures have no tarnishing and a new shine to them. The inside looks 10x better than before now that it's much cleaner, and the bag's shape has been restored thanks to stuffing it with wrapping paper.

The lock looks brand new and the canvas has a beautiful finish...

The bag was stuffed with wrapping paper to restore its shape...

The finished look!

I'm really proud and amazed at the end result. I have spruced up several preloved handbags before and this is (by far) my favorite refurbished project :-)