Guide on How to Remove Makeup Stains from Clothes

A slip of the hand and your mascara wand lands on your nice clean shirt. That awkward wiggle when putting on clothes and the foundation smears on your dress. These things happen to the most careful of us and what matters next is how fast you move on to stain removal. The easiest and safest path would be to rely on a laundry expert in Dubai, more so if you have any formal wear with makeup stains. But sometimes you need to work fast to minimize the damage.

It’s not impossible when you act fast. Read this guide and find out how to remove makeup stains of any kind of product to save your favorite garments and your sanity!

Makeup Stain Removal: What Works with Different Products

What is it about makeup stains that makes them even more daunting than food stains when it comes to clothing care? Makeup is all about pigments and that means even the slightest smear can ruin your clothes or fabrics. Of course getting out chocolate or blueberry juice from your favorite shirt is no picnic but some formulations in makeup make cleaning stains extra bothersome. That is why you need to know how to remove makeup stains from clothes and that too without any extreme measures like using bleach or scrubbing the fabric till frayed.

Let’s start with knowing our makeup stain types because there is no one fix for all of them. Whether or not your method works depends on the base of the makeup.

Getting Out Powder-Based Makeup Stains

The good news is that if you have some powder makeup dust on your clothes then you’ve got a great chance at getting it all off and quickly too. The best way to remove makeup stains from clothes when you are dealing with setting powders or powder blush and highlighters is to get the excess off and avoid rubbing it in while doing so. From there on you can use mild cleaning products for makeup stain removal.

Eliminating Liquid-Based Makeup Stains

The process to remove foundation stains from clothes along with marks from lipsticks and mascaras is the tough one. The wax and oil-based stains not only cling to the fibers but also leave more and more pigment the longer you leave them be.

Like with powder-from products you get rid of concealer patches or remove lipstick stains from clothes by starting with excess removal. Then you move on to stronger products to treat the stain area before you move on to the wash and dry cycle. Keep in mind that the less powdery and liquid and more solid stuff will not simply wash off in cold or warm water.

Easy Tips to Remove Makeup Stains Step by Step

Once you know whether your makeup stain is powdery and ‘loose’ or oil-based in nature, you move on to the cleaning process. From pre-treating steps to limit the spread of stain to dryer alternatives for fabric protection these steps will answer your dilemma of how to remove makeup stains without harsh methods. Make sure you check your fabric’s care label at each step and skip any step that goes against it.

Remove Excess Makeup

You can’t remove makeup stains from clothes by simply dunking the fabric in detergent water as the first step. Get as much makeup product out of your clothes:

This step will save you a world of trouble later on, as not only will you have less makeup residue to clean in water but also prevent the hassle of pigments spreading and staining a larger area!

Stain Pre-Treatment

Any powder makeup can be the easiest to tackle because it is not long-wear on your face and is less likely to cling hard to fibers too. And so a simple soap solution for pre-treatment will do the trick.

Oil and was stuff are a different story when you want to remove old makeup stains from clothes. Oil won’t dissolve in water and you need dish soap to break down the oil. That may not be enough for spot treatment though and that’s when you bring in rubbing alcohol to lift the stain, especially for a white shirt.

Some hard stains like long-wear liquid lipsticks or waterproof mascara are heavy on the pigment side and can resist water too. But you can still defeat these with the magic of micellar water to cut through the ingredients.

10 to 15 minutes of spot treatment will be enough time to ease the stains and you’ll be ready to wash the fabric.

Hand or Machine Wash

It helps to soak your stained garments first to loosen up the makeup residue even more and give you relief from repeating the process later.

The detergent use depends on what your fabric can handle and going for the strongest approved for your clothes is best here. The water temperature cannot go above warm as we are not looking to damage the fabric or lock in the pigment due to heat!

And if your garment’s care label tells you to dry clean only (and the fabric’s delicate nature tells you that’s not optional) then you trust a Business Bay laundry service company or a reliable dry cleaning team in your area for safe and gentle cleaning with excellent results.

Lay Out to Air Dry

Know that your machine’s dryer is a big NO when you want makeup stains out and not locked in. Air dry your clothes without any direct heat and blot the leftover stain at this stage too if you see any.

Repeat Process if Needed

There’s some chance your too-pigmented makeup or any that you did not tackle right away is too tough to clear out in just one round. Going through this process of fabric cleaning again will give you a better chance.

That said, it’s fabrics like cotton and denim that can stay sturdy in the face of double washing but you may want to toss around delicate fabrics the same way all over again. You’ve followed all the steps of how to remove makeup stains and given it your best shot and now is the time to think about getting pro help. Dry cleaners have the kind of solutions you cannot find on the shelves and machines that can remove super stubborn stains.

Let’s Take on Makeup Stains Together

Dealing with tough stains is our specialty and our team has seen all kinds of makeup stains you can imagine. We remove makeup stains from simple blush powder to troubling foundation without any harsh products or techniques and give you your clothes back fresh. Book your laundry and dry cleaning pickup today with Maham Laundry or give us a call for follow-up laundry tips to make your life easier.