Nothing’s worse than heading out the door and realizing you have makeup stains on your outfit! Whether it’s powder dusted all over the front of your shirt or lipstick smeared on your sleeve, don’t panic! We’ve put together some helpful tips that will clean up any messy makeup stains in your life.
Liquid Foundation/Bronzer
If you notice that you’ve got liquid foundation on your clothing the first thing to do is remove the excess liquid as quickly as you can so it doesn’t soak into the fabric and spread into a giant makeup stain. Scrape it off with a plastic utensil or something flat. Once you remove the excess liquid, blot the stain with a damp towel to soak up more of the foundation. To ensure the stain stays away dab hydrogen peroxide on the stain and rub it in with a toothbrush. Wash your stained item on cold and lay it flat to dry.
Another trick you can try is to use shaving cream to get a stain out. Thoroughly rub the shaving cream in to the stain and then hand rinse it with warm water. Repeat until the stain is gone.
Powder
You’ve somehow dusted the front of your shirt with foundation or bronzer… shoot! Resist the urge to reach out and touch the powder. As tempting as it is to brush it off, as soon as you touch it you’ll make the makeup stain worse by grinding it into the fabric. So hands off! If the powder just landed then try to blow on it with your mouth or a blow dryer. After you remove it by blowing on it, wipe off any excess powder using a damp washcloth or a sponge and a little bit of liquid soap.
Lipstick
Ugh… you’ve somehow gotten a lipstick smear on your favorite white shirt! Put rubbing alcohol on a cotton ball or clean cloth and dab away. This is the perfect method if you’re heading out the door because the rubbing alcohol takes care of the stain and then dries so you’re not left with a wet spot where the stain was. No rubbing alcohol in the house? You can also use a liquid soap like Dawn to remove the stain. Lipstick is oil based so a grease fighting soap is ideal to use. Just wet the stain and rub in Dawn using your finger then run the garment under cold water. If a little lipstick is still sticking around try treating it with a pre-treatment laundry spray like Shout™ or OxiClean™.
Mascara
When you’re getting dressed and realize that somehow your mascara got all over the sleeve of your shirt, you’ll probably have to change your outfit, but the mascara hasn’t totally ruined the shirt! An effective trick for removing mascara is Pine Sol. Put some Pine Sol on a clean cloth or cotton ball then dab away at the stain and toss it in the laundry machine as soon as you can. Make sure the stain was actually removed before you put it in the dryer.
If makeup stains on your shirt are the least of your problems, contact your local Molly Maid or call to learn more about our flexible cleaning programs!
