When you are looking for the best leather paint, you should know that it is something different from the leather dye. We believe that everyone considers leather color when purchasing products. The reason why we purchase is that we want to find leather with the best color to match another favorite item at home.
Leather paints and dyes are two effective ways for a craftsman to color leather. They sound similar, but these things are different. Leather paint means that you will use acrylic paint specially designed for leather. Meanwhile, a leather dye means that you are mixing some substances and then applying it on the leather to create a chemical bond with the fibers.
So, leather paint will stay on your leather goods, and it will not fade. However, the leather dye can fade by time. Moreover, leather paint can retain color and it will not stain. But, the leather dye is possible to transfer the dye from your leather goods to your cloths. [Source]
When should you have a leather paint? This paint helps a lot when you want to transform the look of your faux or real leather goods, like bags, shoes, and others. This is an inexpensive way, in which you can use a paintbrush and leather paints to renew your leather goods, so you will have more complex or intricate items. [Source]
Since the choices are quite many, it is challenging to find the best one. Therefore, we did a little research to help you find good options. Even better, we provide these 10 reviews to you with some pros and cons. At the end of this article, you could make your own decision through our complete buying guide.
Top 10 Best Leather Paint Reviews
Here are our best ten findings of the ideal leather paints. Each of the findings has pros and cons. Hence, we hope you decide everything carefully to help you meet your needs:
1. Angelus Leather Paint 12-Set
Do you need the best leather paint to restyle your shoes? Take this 12-set of Angelus Brand Acrylic paint. It helps you a lot to customize your leather shoes, jackets, boots, saddlery, tack, purses, and others. Furthermore, this product has good flexibility that it does not peel, crack, rub off, or even fade.
If you wonder about the paints, these are non-toxic, and water-based paint. Therefore, they are easy to use and easy to clean, as well. If you want to do a little more experimental, it lets you blend colors to get a colorful finish.
Pros:
- Works on leather
- Works better than spray enamel, leather glazer, or other acrylic paints on store
- You can use brushes and stencils with good-quality opacity, flexible, and great adhesion.
Cons:
- Good for light cleaning or minor stains, but not ideal for soiled shoes
2. US Art Supply Leather Paint (36 Set) with Color Mixing Wheel
Unlike the first option, this leather paint kit offers a more complete package starting from the primary colors, secondary colors, airbrush cleaners, airbrush reducers, extender base, mixing cups, mixing sticks, and a color mixing wheel.
The good things about this product are the colors that you can use it easily and good-quality airbrush flow. Even better, the company offers the optional feature: airbrush reducer in this kit. As of the colors, these are made of high-quality and non-toxic pigments. The company has made the colors to meet the standard of ASTM D-4236.
Pros:
- Works on wood, paper, cloth, metal, and leather
- High-quality colors with vivid pigments and convenient storage box.
Cons:
- Packaging issue
3. Angelus Leather Paint 12-Set Water-Based
A similar leather paint just like the first option, it is launched by Angelus as the ideal choice for those who want to restyle their shoes, purses, tack, jacket, boots, and others. The leather paint is an acrylic standard paint ideal for leather goods with non-toxic compositions.
In this box, you will get a 12-set of acrylic paints and each of them is 4 oz jar. The paint has good flexibility that you can use it anytime you need it. It does not fade, crack, or peel off easily. Besides, you can clean and use it easily since it is a water-based paint.
Pros:
- Versatile Angelus paints, easy to use, and it has good durability.
- Works best for cloth fabric, Eva foam, and leather without cracks and creases
- The acrylic paint allows you mixing all colors to get the perfect shade
Cons:
- Apply a few layers are important to avoid any colors from peeling off easily
4. Angelus Leather Paint Kit 5-Bottle Color with 5-Brush Set and Preparer
Still from Angelus, they have another paint kit for leather items. In this kit, you will get five bottles of color and each of them is 1-ounce. The colors are black, red, white, blue, and yellow. You will also get a 1-ounce bottle of deglazer or preparer. Other than that, this kit helps you use it immediately because it also comes with the included five brushes from Angelus.
You can use a dawn soap or brush cleaner from Angelus to clean the brush. If you want to make a mural on your leather items like a jacket or purse, it is the ideal choice to start with.
Pros:
- The brushes are from nylon so it is good to paint on leather.
- Good quality paints that you can use it to hide unwanted spots on your shoes
- The colors look good when you blend it
Cons:
- If you have a problem like the color is easy to fall off, make sure that you have cleaned the leather surface first and apply a few layers.
5. Fiebing’s Leather Paint in Black, Edge Kote 4 Oz.
Still, need more options? You can try using Fiebing’s Edge Kote as your choice when you want to work on leather edges of saddles, leather crafts, baseball gloves, and others. Please note that this is a black, great quality water-resistant leather paint with good flexibility.
Additionally, it gives you a deep semi-glossy finish. It is a 4-oz bottle for edge coating leather and faux leather, as well. If you want to use it on scuffed leather shoes, be sure that your shoes are dye-able before dying them.
Pros:
- Ideal to use it anytime you want to fix your worn leather items
- Easy to apply and it dries easily
- Follow the directions so you will get the best result
Cons:
6. Jacquard Metallic Paint Lumiere Exciter for Leather
Move onto the next product, even though it is not specially designed as leather paint, but you can use this metallic paint on different surfaces. You can use it on cotton, wood, leather, clay, and many more. Even better, you can use a stamp, airbrush, brush, or sponge when you are applying this metallic paint.
In this package, you will get nine bottles of color, and each of them is 0.5-ounce. The colors are sunset gold, pewter, russet, halo pink gold, halo blue gold, pearlescent magenta, pearlescent turquoise, halo violet gold, and pearlescent green. Keep in mind that this is not an alcohol-based ink set, but it is paint.
Pros:
- Ideal to apply it on dark fabric, but you should paint a bit more
- Best for shoes or sandals to restyle them
- Good for faux leather items
Cons:
- It is good not to use the color from the cover of the bottle as your guide to the final look on your project. Make sure that you should have a color pallet on the piece of leather you are working with to see how it looks like.
7. ARTarlei Oil-Based 12 Permanent Paint Pens for All Surfaces
Coming out as the nontoxic oil-based paint pens, you can use it for all ages. It is a good tool for art projects with your kids, as well. More about this product, it is a multipurpose paint marker for craftworks, drawings, marking tools, and others. You can use it to paint on different surfaces; wood, plastic, rubber, paper, clay, and leather.
Interestingly, this pen comes with waterproof, high durability, and fadeproof, thanks to the super oil-based ink to make sure that the color will last longer. The product also has been tested to meet ISO standards and ASTM standards. For this reason, this is a strongly recommended choice for you.
Pros:
- It comes with a medium point which will make you easy to write small fonts.
- A good choice if you want to use it on a leather item but there should be no mistakes because you cannot clean it once you applied it
Cons:
- It may need time for beginners to use this pen, which we recommend you to read the instructions and follow the points
8. Angelus Acrylic Pearlescent Paint for Leather
This acrylic paint is the next choice for leather items to paint on. You can use it to paint over any existing color, as well. It is what you need if you want to have platinum pearlized paint.
Pros:
- It comes with a handy built-in brush in its jar lid
- It does not come with odor
Cons:
- Need a big work that you should apply some layers to get the right color you want.
9. ARTEZA Acrylic Paint 20 Colors All Surface Rich Pigments
Get amazing vivid colors, since this kit is good for professionals and beginners. It comes with some colors such as shocking pink, jungle green, electric yellow, and others. The pigments have a rich and vivid look that you can even use it for outdoor paint. Besides, the acrylic paint has consistent shades so it will not fade easily.
If you wonder about the safety of this product, it has passed the ACMI standard. So, it is a safe and non-toxic acrylic paint that makes it perfect for kids and adults.
Pros:
- Good quality colors, and easy to use
- Easy to clean up and
- Good consistency and the paint is quite thick to prevent running
Cons:
- You may need to apply a few layers just to cover up the dark spot
10. Asani Acrylic Market 12-Color Set for All Surfaces with Super Fine Tip
The last product on the list, you can use this acrylic marker to explore your creativity. The acrylic paint works on different surfaces such as glass, ceramic, porcelain, leather, wood, metal, plastic, fabric, and others. If you want to customize mug or restyle your leather items, this is what you need.
What makes it different from other paint pens is quality. The color ink is not easy to fade, not wash out, and it is water-resistant. In this set, you will get 12 colors including black, yellow, white, green, blue, pink, gold, red, silver, orange, violet, and brown. To start using this acrylic pen marker is easy. You should outline first so there should be no mistakes.
Pros:
- Nice paint pens with a small box and each pen are sealed
- The fine point makes it great to draw small detail
- Coming out with tight caps
Cons:
- If you see a little spray when you are using this color paint, it can be because the angle you hold the pen so you should do it extra slowly and hold the pen at the lower angle
How to Buy Leather Paint
If it is your first-time experience to buy the best leather paint, it can be difficult to pick one product. Or, you may have a bad experience during your previous purchase so do not want to choose the wrong product anymore. Here, we give you a helpful tip on how to buy the right choice.
1. Select A Preparer
Anytime you want to apply the best leather paint, make sure that you have something to strip the surface of the leather goods. This is crucial so the new paint will not be chipping or peeling. Most leather paint companies offer premixed deglaze. Alternatively, you can use a mixture of soap and water to complete your need.
2. Choose the Right Pigment
Many crafters buy paint kits instead of single bottles. Why? The reason is that they are working with colorful designs. For this purpose, they should have a complete palette of colors. Multi-color kits help you blend the colors to make custom hues. Also, leather paint has various sheens. Therefore, you should decide at the very first beginning whether you need a flat or a shiny finish.
3. Ease of Use
There are many brushes available to help you apply leather paint. Some leather paint products come with accessory sponges or brush applicator. The best way to avoid a streaky or flaky surface is by pulling the leather taunt when you use any applicator. Additionally, you should follow the instructions from the manufacturers concerning the drying times.
Other than that, it is important to use water or paint dilution solution to dilute the leather paint so it has a good consistency. Applying more layers of paints can be a helpful way to achieve the best opacity just like you want.
4. Other Factors
Whether you want to touch up leather shoes or sofa, make sure that you decide other things like the hues, the applicator included, the safe compositions so the paint is a non-toxic item, and make sure you have a water-based acrylic foundation.
Conclusion
If you don’t have any idea to choose from the 10 products above, then we have narrowed down our selection to the following three best products.
1. Angelus Leather Paint 12-Set
It is a good choice because this is a special paint designed for leather. Even it is better than leather glazer, spray enamel, or other acrylic paints. In our opinion, it is the best leather paint because you can use it easily with stencils or brushes. Make sure that you are using it not on soiled shoes.
2. Angelus Leather Paint 12-Set
Just like the first option, it also comes from Angelus. It has versatile look, and easy to use, thanks to its good durability. Additionally, you can use it on cloth fabric, EVA foam, and leather surfaces as long as there are no creases and cracks. To start using this paint, you can mix one with other colors to get the ideal shade.
3. ARTarlei Oil-Based 12 Permanent Paint Pens for All Surface
As a certified product, it is a safe choice for all ages. The paint pen comes with a medium point, in which you can use it to write small font. If you want to use it on leather, it works but makes sure that you plan everything carefully because you cannot remove it. For this reason, you should use it without mistakes.