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God that looks bad, I have used alcohol wipes a week or so ago and removed as much of the coating as I could. I dont know if it looks better or worse than yours, you can judge for yourself.

I suspect that in your case there is still some coating left that could be removed but it could be risky to rub it off again.

The only thing I did different was to put a few drops of coconut oil on my hand and massaged the case afterwards for an hour.

There was also someone in this thread who used a damp magic eraser, they have had much better patina in my opinion.

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I really enjoy yours a lot more! You have an homogeneous colour that will dark beautiful. I’ll definitely try to remove the last bit of coating.
 
God that looks bad, I have used alcohol wipes a week or so ago and removed as much of the coating as I could. I dont know if it looks better or worse than yours, you can judge for yourself.

I suspect that in your case there is still some coating left that could be removed but it could be risky to rub it off again.

The only thing I did different was to put a few drops of coconut oil on my hand and massaged the case afterwards for an hour.

There was also someone in this thread who used a damp magic eraser, they have had much better patina in my opinion.

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I was one of the magic eraser people. If you look back at my photos you’ll see. I’ll post a new photo at the 2 month mark which is about 10 days away.
 
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Why do you guys want to remove the coating?
If you use alcohol wipes, you are not getting a natural patina at all. You destroy at dry the leather out.
I use alcohol wipes on my phone, and almost everyday I wipe the cover off with a cloth with warm water. Nothing else.
 
Why do you guys want to remove the coating?
If you use alcohol wipes, you are not getting a natural patina at all. You destroy at dry the leather out.
I use alcohol wipes on my phone, and almost everyday I wipe the cover off with a cloth with warm water. Nothing else.
Because, they want to remove the coating. Leather with coating wont patina. Leather that has been coated is concidered, dead (because its pores are clogged shut so it can't breath or absorb anymore, thus it won't patina, it will only get "scruffed" where there is more usage).

If one really wants leather that developes a nice patina, vegetably tanned full grain leather is the only way to go (the only downside is that they don't come in many other colours than natural variation of tanned, brown, taupe, dark green, mahogony etc).

I suspect Apple leather was not using this much heavy coating previously so they were developing some type of patina in the end so people did contunie buying it.
 
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Bullstrap Sienna on 12 Pro after 1 week. First picture - day 1, second and third picture - day 7. I am a little bit surprised that it darkened so much (maybe not so much, it is only my point of view) just after one week. After 5 days of usage I applied leather balm, but nothing else. Overall I like it a lot, the grip is fantastic, much better than day 1. Looking forward to more patina ?
 

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Because, they want to remove the coating. Leather with coating wont patina. Leather that has been coated is concidered, dead (because its pores are clogged shut so it can't breath or absorb anymore, thus it won't patina, it will only get "scruffed" where there is more usage).

If one really wants leather that developes a nice patina, vegetably tanned full grain leather is the only way to go (the only downside is that they don't come in many other colours than natural variation of tanned, bronw, taupe, dark green, mahogony etc).

I suspect Apple leather was not using this much heavy coating previously so they were developing some type of patina in the end so people did contunie buying it.
Aah OK, didn’t know the new ones are coated, and the old ones were not.
I had a leather case on my iPhone 11, and that got beautiful patina, until corona came, and I started to use alcohol wiped. Then i dried out, and got VERY ugly. Maybe I should have oiled it, or something? Leather grease (if that’s the right English word… am not sure) maybe?
 
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Aah OK, didn’t know the new ones are coated, and the old ones were not.
I had a leather case on my iPhone 11, and that got beautiful patina, until corona came, and I started to use alcohol wiped. Then i dried out, and got VERY ugly. Maybe I should have oiled it, or something? Leather grease (if that’s the right English word… am not sure) maybe?
No Apple has always used bad quality leather, if you look back all their leather has unnatural colour options, so they are not vegetably tanned, they use leather that has been chromatically tanned, killing the leather. Maybe their saddle brown cases had a different tanning process though, so they developed patina previously. But I don't think its the case because if the saddle brown cases were vegetably tanned Apple would have advertised this on their product as vegetably tanned leather is high quality leather.

Yes you have to mousturize the leather after you have washed it or wiped it with alcohol etc if it was excessively done. Leather balm is best, it does however darken the leather usually, depends on the product. Don't use coconut oil or olive oil! It makes the leather too tacky.
 
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My Bullstrap Sienna case for iPhone 13 PM HAS ARRIVED. Great quality, nice smell, feels very good in my hand. Really happy I went for it.
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Actually I am from Europe (Bulgaria) and I received it in the post office station in my neighbourhood without paying any import taxes.. Maybe I got lucky, don’t know. But this case well deserves its price tag.
 
I'm from Denmark, and on their site I can choose their Danish Store. Don't know if it's actually shipped from Denmark, I don't think so. But the price is $105 - way too much for what I'm going to spend right now. Maybe because I already have paid for an Apple leather cover one month ago.

If I'm going for iPhone 14, maybe I will get the Bullstrap cover instead.
 
Definitely going for a Bullstrap on my next phone purchase (or after the new one is introduced and I decide to stick with my 13 Pro). I’m mostly happy with the Apple, Andar and Nomad cases I have so I can’t really justify another case.
 
It darkened so much, was the case under the same lighting conditions?
Exposure definitely looks different, likely because the second shot shows a lot more open sky-lit space whereas the first has a dark vehicle as a background.

I posted a few photos early on that I was able to get in the right lighting to show that midnight blue but with my own eyes, it’s always looked more like the one on the right.
 
Exposure definitely looks different, likely because the second shot shows a lot more open sky-lit space whereas the first has a dark vehicle as a background.

I posted a few photos early on that I was able to get in the right lighting to show that midnight blue but with my own eyes, it’s always looked more like the one on the right.
Exactly. There's no way the case acquired an even patina on the entire leather surface, especially on these new Apple leather cases. That picture is just lighting and exposure differences.
 
Bullstrap Sienna on 12 Pro after 1 week. First picture - day 1, second and third picture - day 7. I am a little bit surprised that it darkened so much (maybe not so much, it is only my point of view) just after one week. After 5 days of usage I applied leather balm, but nothing else. Overall I like it a lot, the grip is fantastic, much better than day 1. Looking forward to more patina ?
Wow, I think it has darkened too fast too. I like patina forming but i dont expect that to happen within a week.
 
If anyone is interested in a new never opened Apple midnight leather for a 13 pro max message me
 
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