Antique gel on embossed leather

I recently made a leather wallet/field notes cover and stamped it with a laser cut acrylic stamp. I wanted the stamp to show up a little better so I decided to try black antiquing gel as recommended by the good folks at tandy when I bought the leather. This was my first time using antique gel, so I wasn’t sure exactly what to expect. He told me that it would darken up the leather as a whole, but that it would show up in the embossed the darkest. I liked the color of the leather so I originally tried to apply the gel to a localized area around the stamp. I applied the gel and then wiped it clean with first a dry paper towel, then a wet one, then another dry one. I didn’t get any good pictures, but the dye noticeably changed the leather’s color in the area around the stamp. I didn’t like this so I went back and did it again, covering the entire front of the wallet. The first area is still a little darker, but it kinda works to lowlight the stamp and isn’t as noticeable as previously. Here’s the before and after pictures.

And here’s a view of the wallet opened up so you can see the color difference from front to back (which I left natural).

Overall I’m happy with the results. I wish I could get the effect without changing the color of the leather, but the gel did a good job of getting in the edges and making parts of the stamp show up more clearly (e.g. the feet). I think with a more detailed stamp, it would really shine as there’d be more small crevices to work its way into.