There are few things more annoying than watching your lipstick travel from your lips to your, or somebody else’s collar, and in addition to the embarrassment, you can be out an otherwise perfectly good shirt if you do not treat the lipstick stain promptly.  But a lipstick stain can almost always be taken care of with common household cleaners like dish detergent and laundry pre-wash, or in a pinch with rubbing alcohol or even hair spray.  The trick is to treat the stain before it has a chance to set, and to dab it gently instead of rubbing at it.
Ease The Pain Of Lipstick Stain

Lipstick stain is one of those nasty little inevitabilities of life. It happens to everyone. At some point lipstick will find its way onto your collar, and usually the collar of your favorite shirt. You don’t have to run right out and buy new clothes though; the remedy is usually as close as your kitchen sink. Here are some tips to get your clothes looking clean and new again easily and quickly.

Fight The Grease

Most dish detergents are designed to fight grease and since lipstick is an oil-based product, they are perfect for getting out lipstick stains. Apply a little detergent directly to the lipstick stain and dab, dab, dab, never rub! Rubbing or wiping the stain is only going to ensure you have lipstick on more of your shirt than just the original stain. Always blot or dab! When you’ve gotten out as much of the lipstick stain as you can, apply a laundry pretreatment to the stain and let it set. Again, blot or dab with a wet cloth, and then hand wash the garment. With lipstick stain you should always hand wash the item by itself because you don’t want the lipstick color to stain any of your other clothes by washing them together.

Other Options

If the detergent and laundry pretreatment route doesn’t work, there are other things you can use that you probably have around the house. Rubbing alcohol works well on lipstick stains. Apply a little with a cloth directly to the stain, again blotting not wiping.

Hairspray is also an age-old remedy that gets out everything from ink, to you guessed it, lipstick stains! Spray a little on the area and let it set for a while before you dab it. Hairspray is a great solution when you notice a lipstick stain and you’re not at home because there’s hairspray in almost every women’s restroom in the country and if not, there’s always a woman nearby who has some. You can spray the stain so it doesn’t set in and then treat it when you get home.

Always check the care instructions on the stained garment before you treat it. If you’re not sure whether an item can be laundered it’s always a good idea to stay on the safe side and go to your drycleaner to get the stain out. Certain items like silk, wool, and leather are better off in the hands of a professional.

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