Protettivo per similpelle di COLOURLOCK

Protect artificial leather from the outside with the COLOURLOCK sealant

What is the artificial leather sealant from COLOURLOCK? The protective level for artificial leather and synthetic leather imitations: COLOURLOCK "Artificial Leather Protector" applies an invisible, flexible sliding film to the top layer, reduces abrasion on seat bolsters and entry areas, and keeps jeans dye and skin oils away from the surface. Developed from the practice of leather repair, now under the umbrella of Koch-Chemie.

Artificial leather sealant from COLOURLOCK is the answer to a material that cannot absorb care products at all. Artificial leather is a plastic skin on fabric, usually polyurethane — not a fiber that stores grease, not a pore into which a cream can soak. Caring for artificial leather therefore means protecting rather than nourishing: COLOURLOCK "Artificial Leather Protector" remains as a thin, flexible film on the top layer and absorbs exactly the stress that causes artificial leather to wear out.

• Friction is the cause of death, not dryness. Artificial leather tears where fabric rubs against plastic: left seat bolster, entry edge, armrest. The film reduces friction between clothing and the top layer. This means for you: the area where you get in and out daily no longer ages twice as fast as the rest of the seat.
• Jeans dye stays on top instead of soaking in. Indigo from new denim migrates into the structure of the top layer under heat and pressure, causing light-colored seats to take on a gray-blue tint. On a sealed surface, the dye sits on the film and comes off during the next cleaning instead of setting in.
• Every three to six months, nothing more. Distribute thinly, allow to air-dry completely, finished — no polishing, no rinsing. Heavily used driver's seats are closer to three months, furniture and second cars to six. The 100 ml bottle will last one car for several applications, the 1000 ml / 1 liter bottle supplies complete vehicle interiors and seating landscapes.

Practical tip from Detailing1: The most common mistake with artificial leather is using off-the-shelf leather care products. We regularly receive inquiries about seats that become sticky, shiny, and attract dust after treatment — and it was almost always a re-greasing leather care product or a home remedy like baby oil on a polyurethane surface. Plastic does not absorb grease; everything remains completely on the surface. Therefore: first clean from seam to seam with a mild leather cleaner, let it dry completely, then distribute a few milliliters of sealant thinly with a soft cloth and allow the layer a quarter to half an hour to air out. Do not polish. And test on a hidden area beforehand, such as under the seat edge — embossed automotive artificial leather otherwise holds more product in its grain than it needs.

Artificial leather ages through friction, not dryness

Artificial leather is a plastic skin on fabric: a thin polyurethane top layer lies on a textile backing, and there is nothing between the two that could store care products.

This is precisely why the mental model from the real leather world falls flat here. Real leather is a mesh of fibers that loses and re-absorbs grease — it dries out and can be re-greased. Artificial leather does neither. What you put on a PU surface does not soak in, but sits on top: it either airs out or remains as a sticky film that binds dust.

What destroys artificial leather instead is mechanical and chemical at the same time. Mechanically, clothing grinds the top layer down micrometer by micrometer until the textile backing shines through. Chemically, hydrolysis occurs: humidity and heat split the polyurethane chains over the years, and the plastic loses its elasticity from the inside. You notice this when: the surface first becomes dull and hard, then it breaks at the first spot that is moved strongly.

Everyone who has ever looked at the inside of a three-year-old car knows which spot this is: the left bolster of the driver's seat, plus the entry edge and armrest. From relevant forums, we know reports of torn seat bolsters after a year and a half and around 30,000 kilometers — not as a material scandal, but as a result of sliding over them about a thousand times. The rest of the seat surface often looks like new.

And this is the reason to act now instead of later: once the top layer is open, no care product is responsible for it anymore. A tear in the artificial leather continues to grow with every movement because the edge is bent open every time you get in. What helps then are repair materials or a new cover. The sealant works exclusively beforehand.

A sliding film removes the surface for friction

COLOURLOCK "Artificial Leather Protector" puts an invisible, flexible protective film on the artificial leather surface and starts exactly where the material wears out.

The active principle is unspectacular and effective: the protective polymer forms a sliding plane between clothing and the top layer — the jeans rub over the film instead of the plastic skin, and the film is the part that gives way. In other words: the abrasion that would otherwise affect your seat cover ends up in a layer that you renew every few months. It must be flexible because artificial leather works under every body weight; a hard lacquer film would crack the first time you sat down.

The second effect concerns everything that wants to stick to the surface. The film changes what dirt, dyes, and skin oils can adhere to at all — they remain on the sealant instead of migrating into the structure of the top layer. In practice, this means: the next interior cleaning requires less pressure and less chemicals because you are removing a coating and not digging out an deposit.

What the Protector deliberately does not do is part of our honesty: it does not grease, it does not shine, and it does not change the feel. Anyone expecting the rich shimmer left behind by cockpit sprays after application will see nothing — and that is exactly the point. The original look remains as it is, matte or silk-matte, depending on what the manufacturer installed.

Because you cannot see an invisible film, a simple touch helps to assess its condition: run your flat hand over the seat surface. As long as your hand slides over it without resistance, the layer is working. If the movement becomes noticeably tougher and the surface feels like bare plastic again, the film has worn off — then the next application is due, regardless of what the calendar says.

First the mild leather cleaner, then the thin layer

A sealant preserves what lies beneath it. On uncleaned artificial leather, you are trapping skin oil, dust, and jeans abrasion under the film instead of out.

The cleaning path for artificial leather is shorter than for real leather because the dirt sits on top: for a normal round, the Mild Leather Cleaner, i.e., COLOURLOCK "Leather Cleaner" (Mild), is sufficient. It dissolves everyday dirt, light grease, and abrasion from the top layer with fine surfactants without attacking it — and it is therefore exactly the cleaner that the manufacturer intends before this sealant. You only reach for a stronger cleaner if a surface has remained uncleaned for years.

After that, the care taken during application determines the result. Shake the bottle, put a few milliliters on a soft, lint-free cloth, distribute it thinly in calm strokes over the entire surface from seam to seam — never just over the area that looks worn, otherwise the treatment edge will show later. Afterward, the film airs out freely, usually for a quarter to half an hour. No rinsing, no polishing, no direct sun during the drying time.

From the Detailing1 daily routine, there is a hint that no data sheet provides: very few interiors are "pure." What is listed as artificial leather equipment in the brochure is often a combination of artificial leather bolsters and fabric or microfiber center panels. The sealant belongs exclusively on the artificial leather surfaces; for the textile panels next to them, the Upholstery, Textile & Alcantara Cleaner is responsible. Anyone who treats both with the same product will get patchy edges exactly at the seam.

Jeans, belt buckle, and entry decide the service life

Three stresses kill artificial leather in a car, and all three hit the same two handbreadths of area around the driver's seat and entry.

The first is color transfer. We often see light and beige interiors where the seat surface has an even blue tint — dark, freshly purchased denim gives off the most dye under heat and friction, and once it has migrated, indigo can only be tackled with a dye remover. On a sealed surface, however, the dye remains in the film, and the film comes off during the next cleaning.

The second is point-specific mechanics, and here the sealant has a clear limit. Belt buckles hitting the bolster, rivets on back pockets, zippers on jackets, and dog claws do not create abrasion, but cuts and notches. No film of a few micrometers helps against a hit from a metal edge. What helps here is grabbing the seat belt when getting out — not chemistry.

The third is heat. A closed car in the summer sun easily reaches twice the outside temperature in the interior, and heat plus humidity is exactly the combination that accelerates hydrolysis. This is why the sun-exposed side always ages first. For sunny parking spots and convertibles, it is worth setting the interval on the short end and checking the surface in between, instead of working strictly according to the calendar.

The sealant does not repair cracks and real leather needs something else

The Protector is prevention, not reparation: it keeps an intact top layer intact and does not restore one that is already open.

We tested this on an already burst seat bolster, and the result was clear: the film lies over the crack, the edge remains visible and continues to work every time you get in. Visually nothing changes, mechanically either. As soon as the textile backing shines through, the case belongs to the brand's repair materials, not the sealant.

The second limit is the material itself. For pigmented real leather, there is a separate product with COLOURLOCK "Leather Shield," which is located in Real Leather Sealant — it is matched to a breathing leather top layer, not a plastic foil. A look at the pores clarifies which material you have in front of you: real leather shows an irregular grain with real pores; artificial leather shows an embossed, evenly recurring structure. For mixed covers, you decide per area, not per vehicle.

And a confusion that reaches us regularly: plastic in the interior is not the same as artificial leather. The Plastic Primer with COLOURLOCK "Plastic Primer ND" is an adhesion primer for trim and consoles that are subsequently dyed or repaired — it protects nothing; it prepares. Anyone who puts it on a seat instead of the sealant has a primer without color on it. Conversely, the artificial leather sealant is not intended for hard plastics on door panels and the center console.

The rhythm decides the durability, not the quantity

The purchasing decision in this category is made based on the area and the timing, not the dosage — more product per application does not achieve more.

With the container size, the calculation is simple: the 100 ml is enough for several applications on one vehicle and is the right entry point if you want to see how your seats feel. The 1000 ml / 1 liter is worth it as soon as more than one car is in the rhythm or furniture, office chairs, boat upholstery, and motorhome interiors are added — artificial leather is used in far more than just vehicles.

The best time is when nothing can be seen yet. For a new car or a leased vehicle, the first sealant belongs in the first week, as long as the top layer is untouched — before the first summer and before the first new pair of jeans.

With a used car, you start with a thorough cleaning and then look closely at the driver's side: if the bolster is just greasy and shiny, the sealant is still fully effective; if the structure is already roughened and dull, you will slow down further wear but won't retrieve anything. And if you are unsure what is installed in your car, ask us beforehand rather than after the first tear.

The thought that carries this category is exactly the one that separates artificial leather from real leather: there is no going back here. You can re-grease, re-dye, or soften real leather — you cannot do that with a worn-out plastic skin. Therefore, the artificial leather sealant delivers its entire value before the damage and not after. You can find all other protective levels of the brand one level higher: Sealant & Impregnation from COLOURLOCK.