Getting an oil stain out of Uggs.
Draw the oil out before you try to clean it, and keep water away from the stain entirely. Cover it in cornstarch or talc, leave it overnight to pull the oil up out of the fibres, brush it off with a suede brush, and repeat until it stops lifting. Only then treat what is left. Water, soap and heat all set an oil stain permanently into sheepskin, which is why most ruined Uggs were ruined by the first attempt rather than the spill.
“I love wearing my comfy Ugg's in the Fall but had a terrible oil stain after stepping in a rainstorm puddle.”
Jena Irvin, on Google
Why oil is different from dirt on suede
Suede and sheepskin are napped: thousands of fine raised fibres rather than a sealed surface. Dirt sits on top of the nap and brushes out. Oil wicks down between the fibres and into the hide underneath, and once it has spread there is nothing on the surface to remove.
This is also why oil stains look bigger the next day. The oil keeps travelling outward through the nap until something absorbs it.
The first hour
- Blot, do not rub. Press a dry paper towel straight down to lift what has not soaked in. Rubbing pushes it sideways and makes the stain wider.
- Cover it in cornstarch. Cornstarch, talc or baking soda, thickly, over the whole stain and slightly past its edge. The powder pulls oil out of the fibres as it sits.
- Leave it overnight. Longer is better. A few minutes does almost nothing.
- Brush it out with a suede brush, in one direction, and look at the result. If the stain is lighter, repeat with fresh powder. Two or three rounds are normal.
What sets the stain permanently
- Water. It spreads the oil and leaves a water ring of its own, so you end up with two problems.
- Soap or washing-up liquid. It emulsifies the oil deeper into the hide instead of lifting it out.
- Heat. A hairdryer, a radiator or a tumble dryer will cook the oil into the fibres and harden the sheepskin.
- The washing machine. It destroys the glue, the shape and the sheepskin lining all at once.
When to send them in
If the stain has been there a while, has already been washed, or covers a visible part of the boot, home treatment will usually get it lighter but not gone. At that point it needs the nap lifted and the hide treated properly rather than another round of powder.
Suede revival is $60. It is worth sending a photo first either way, because a set oil stain on pale sheepskin does not always come out completely, and I would rather tell you that before you post them than after.
Sending a pair in
This is work I do regularly, and it is not limited to Uggs: the same approach applies to suede sneakers, nubuck and sheepskin generally.
Mail them in from anywhere in the US, or drop off in Decatur if you are local.
Every pair is worked on by hand by Reesey herself in Powder Springs, Georgia. Nothing is sent out to anyone else, and nothing starts until you have approved the price.
More answers in the guides, or see the Wall for before and afters, what customers say and every service and price.