oil stain on lovely leather bag

[SarfEast]

Hi there, I have a new tan leather handbag that I love, but which now has olive oil/butter stains down the front. Will anything get them out?

Any advice would be gratefully received, I am seriously considering wiping the whole bag with oil to even it out!

shampoo!!!!! sodium laureth sulphate in shampoo should do it.

Found this for you - don't know if it will work....

"Oil Stains From Food, Skin, And Hair

I received a panic call from a lady whose son had just that minute brought home a hot pizza and placed the box on her new sofa. The oil and cheese had leaked onto the leather. I gave her these instructions with the first step being to dump corn starch onto the stain. I called her back a week later and she said "Oh yeah, it worked great". My guess is the powder absorbed the oil faster than the leather could. Of course I don't know how large an area was affected.

Small oil stains can be treated and successfully removed if you have the patience. Corn starch (or in a pinch, talcum powder) rubbed briskly into the stain with your fingers until the heat from the friction is felt. That heat loosens the oil and allows the corn starch to absorb the oil before the leather can. Vacuum or brush the powder off. Repeat until the stain is gone. This method rarely takes out any color but does take out the oil. Patience and persistence are the keys to success.

Larger stains from head and hand oil require time in our shop and usually require refinishing as well as extraction".

My old housekeeping book suggests Fullers' Earth...

I was hoping the solution would lay in a wet wipe! I've no corn starch, talc or fullers earth to hand, will have to try to find a nice shoe repairers....

What the heck IS Fuller's Earth, anyway?!?

Its a kind of fine clay (calcium montmorillonite to be technical) which usually comes in dry powdered form and used to be used for fulling cloth i.e. removing the grease from wool so that the cloth didn't stink of lanolin!
Boots the Chemist used to keep it 20 years ago - I'm sure that you could find some if you Google it.