Let’s talk about a very annoying occurrence in summer: you, as a sensible human being, wear sunscreen. You ALSO wear clothes. But: white clothes (especially the arm and neck region) become slightly yellow-stained. Here is the solution to that: my super easy hack to remove sunscreen stains with stuff you’ve already have at home.
Yellow stains on clothing appear because of the organic components in your sunscreen (meaning it doesn’t happen if you only use physical sunscreens with Titanium Dioxide and Zinc Oxide). And maybe you’ve realised that these sunscreen stains are here to stay – meaning they usually don’t budge, no matter how often or with which washing liquid/powder you treat them.
First things first: never, ever, and I can’t stress that enough, use a washing powder or liquid with bleach on sunscreen stains. Or a stain removal spray with bleach. Or anything with bleach. (Both chlorine and oxygenated.) Okay? You’ll thank me later. (Btw, if you’ve ever grappled with makeup stains on your clothes, here’s my cleaning hack for that!)
What’s the problem?
Organic filters (the main culprit is Avobenzone, but all organic filters do this in some way) are yellow-ish on some level. You might not see stains immediately, but during a contact with water metal ions in the water react with the organic filters (source: Nivea). The colour of the stain intensifies – what you now have are essentially rust stains. Aaaaaaand this is the reason why you never should use bleach on those: chemical reaction, yadda yadda – result? Stains intensified. BAD.
Solution 1: the targeted
Get a special rust stain remover, and presto! Done.
Solution 2a: the targeted, but different
Organic filters are usually oil-soluble. So, get a special stain remover targeted at grease or fat stains.
Solution 2b: the practical
Another option (if the stains are fresh) is dishwashing liquid, like simple Fairy or Dawn. Soak your stains in that, and after that, wash like usual. Beloved to Germans everywhere are curd soap or ox gall soap (Kern-/Gallseife, don’t ask, it’s exactly what it says on the tin) instead of dishwashing liquid.
Solution 2c: the organic
The DIY option (that I haven’t tried on my own) – first up: baking powder. Make sure the stained area is slightly damp, and then rub baking powder slightly into the fabric. Let it dry for 30mins and wash as usual.
You can also try a vinegar-water-mix (5 parts water one part vinegar) and soak your clothes for one hour. Be careful with non-white clothes – they might fade. Same with ascerbic acid, which might be best as a very local stain remover (be careful if you soak a whole item of clothing in it) – ratio should be 15gr to one litre, soaking time 2hrs.
Helpful notes
Old stains are nearly impossible to remove. The fresher, the easier. The dishwashing liquid method works very well for me if the stains are fairly new.
Be careful with light materials in general: not only clothes can be stained, but bags, car seats etc.
If you totally want to be sure you won’t get stains on something, switch to a non-organic sunscreen.
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