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This DIY leather conditioner and polish recipe is so simple to make! Your leather furniture, garments, couches, or décor will absolutely shine after a coat of this simple, all-natural polish. Make this recipe in about 10 minutes and add a beautiful natural shine to your leather for months.

This DIY beeswax leather conditioner and polish couldn’t be easier to make – it has a few simple ingredients which you may already have around your home. We actually used the beeswax we had leftover from our beehives last year! This wood polish recipe is perfect for making any old furniture shine like new. The beeswax wood polish protects and conditions, leaving a natural finish.

leather polish recipe homemade leather conditioning wax all natural DIY leather softener recipe for scuffs.

Table of Contents

We have a lot of great leather furniture in out home – a giant sectional couch, a nice office chair, and our new favorite piece of furniture: a giant black leather recliner. It was Brett’s dad’s recliner, which we disassembled and drove down to our home last year. It’s a beautiful chair, but the leather was getting a little worn and cracked in a few places.

Instead of buying a leather condition – I decided to make a simple conditioner that would keep our leather soft and repair some of the damage. This great 4-ingredient wax is made with simple ingredients, and takes about 15 minutes total to make. And as you can see from the photos – our old leather chair is sure shining!

This Homemade Leather Conditioner Is:

Clean & simple
Easy to make
All Natural
Made with a few ingredients
Great to shine up old or scuffed leather furniture

diy leather conditioning recipe with beeswax and mineral oil, soften leather with a leather balm and a rag to buff the leather.

What’s In This Beeswax Leather Polish?

Be sure to visit the recipe card below for full ingredient amounts and recipe instructions!

Natural Beeswax: I used beeswax from our beehives, but I’d recommend an organic cosmetic-grade beeswax. Why organic and cosmetic-grade? Because if you have any beeswax leftover from making furniture polish, you can use it for some simple and easy hand and skin products. I have 2 great recipe for DIY Beeswax Lip Balm & DIY Beeswax Beard Balm that gets rave reviews. If there’s a local beekeeper in your area, I’d recommended starting there for wax, but if you buy online, make sure you get the good stuff!
Food Grade Mineral Oil: Same with the beeswax, it’s important to get a good food-grade mineral oil so you can use it on kitchen surfaces too. You may have leftover mineral oil from the furniture polish and you can use it to condition cracked or dried-out wooden cutting boards. The mineral oil conditions the wood and give the polish its long-lasting shine.
Coconut Butter: helps to condition the leather and make it super soft and supple.
Olive Oil
A Double Boiler: the safest way to melt the wax is over a double boiler on the stove top. Remember: wax is flammable, so take care to not melt the wax directly in a hot pot. A double boiler is heated with hot water, and acts as a buffer between the heat and the wax.
8 Ounce Wide Mouth Mason Jars: I like to use these larger wide mouth mason jars (rather than the taller skinny jam jars) as I found these are easier to dip a cloth or paper towel in to apply the wax. Regular mouth jam jars are too narrow for my hands, and these jars allow you to reach down to the bottom of the jar better to get that last drop of polish on.

I like that this is all-natural, and only has 4 simple ingredients. No chemicals, no junk, no ingredients you can’t pronounce. Just like with the food we cook, I like to be able to know exactly what I am using and eating around my house.

leather conditioner recipe with beeswax mineral oil coconut butter and olive oil recipe for shiny leather.

Where Does Beeswax Come From?

As a beekeeper, we have a lot of wax left over from when we harvest honey from the hives. Bees make the wax to create “cells”, which form that hexagonal honeycomb pattern. The cells can be used to lay eggs, raise brood, and keep honey that the bees store for the winter. The honey is stored in these hexagonal cells, and when the moisture has been cured out from the honey, the bees will cover the cells with a wax seal. This is called capping. It preserves the honey for the winter, and keeps the moisture from ruining their honey stores.

When we harvest honey, we scrape the honey and wax from the frames. Once the honey gets filtered into a separate bucket (which we then jar up and enjoy!) we are left with the wax. We melt the wax to remove any impurities, and then keep it to make great products like this!

Here is a frame full of honey, perfectly capped in beeswax:

a frame of honey capped with natural beeswax straight from the hive inside the beehive of a beekeeper

How Do I Make Leather Conditioner?

The first step to making this leather polish is to melt the beeswax and coconut butter. The best and safest way to do it this is over a double boiler on the stove top.
Let hot steam melt the wax and coconut butter. Be very careful not to spill any on the stove because beeswax is flammable (like candles)!
One the steam has melted the mixture, add in the olive oil and mineral oil. Allow the 4 ingredients to heat up in the boiler by continuing to stir the ingredients together for a few minutes until all solids have completely melted. Carefully pour the leather polish into 8 ounce wide mouth mason jars, allow the jars to cool overnight, and you’re ready to use.

leather salve for dry or cracked leather repair balm recipe gently buff conditioner into leather with a cloth.

How To Use Leather Conditioner

Using the conditioner is a simple process: use a soft towel or microfiber cloth to apply the wax directly to the leather surface. Allow the wax conditioner to sit on the leather for 5 minutes, and then gently rub the conditioner into the leather using soft circular motions. Apply more conditioner to areas that are dry or chapped, taking care to not rub too hard to damage the leather.

I’ve been using this leather conditioner on everything I can lately. It worked wonders on our old chair. I put one coat on each day for a few days, and it’s super soft and the cracks appear better. I’m going to take down my old cowboy boots next to give them a shine! We’ll be using this recipe for years to come.

Other Great DIY Recipes With Beeswax!

If you have any extra beeswax, I’d highly recommend these fun recipes. The method of melting wax is the same, and you can make great homemade all natural products at home.

DIY Beeswax Furniture Polish Recipe (2 Ingredients!)

Headache Balm with Mint and Pine

DIY Beeswax Beard Balm Recipe

DIY Beeswax Lip Balm Recipe

how to make old leather shine like new balm for leather conditioner recipe homemade diy craft projects to make leather soft again.

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