How to Remove Lipstick Stains {from Carpet & Clothing}

While ladies love lipstick on their lips, we don’t love it on carpet or clothing. Red lipstick looks great until it becomes a stain. Keep reading to learn how to remove lipstick from carpet and clothing.

How To Remove Lipstick From Carpet And Clothing

Lipstick stains are notorious for being hard to remove from anything. The wrong type of stain remover might work, but it can wreck your fabrics in the process. However,  today’s post has some solutions for you! Here are some cleaning tips to help you safely remove lipstick stains from carpet and clothing.

How To Remove Lipstick From Carpet

First, let’s talk about carpet. It doesn’t matter how lipstick ended up on your carpet, because the result is the same. How do you get it out?

• Grab a blunt object, like a spoon from your kitchen, and use it to scoop any chunks of lipstick out of the carpet fibers.
• Use a dry cleaning solvent such as Wool Clean Dry Carpet Spot Removal Kit {available at Amazon}.
• Put a tiny amount of the spot remover on a clean white cloth, and use it to dab at the remaining lipstick stain.
• Be careful to start working on the outside edges of the stain first, and work your way into the middle. This prevents bleeding into surrounding carpet fibers.
• As you work, alternate between the solvent cloth and a dry white cloth, blotting as you go. Do not rub! Keep going until all color from the lipstick disappears.
• To rinse away the solvent, saturate the area by spraying with clean, hot water. Use a third white cloth to pat the area dry.
• If all else fails, a small amount of hydrogen peroxide will bleach carpet and remove the stain.

How To Remove Lipstick From Clothing

If your problem stain is lipstick on clothing, here are the steps to follow:

• Determine what kind of fabric the stain is on. If it’s silk, cashmere, or wool, just take the item to your favorite dry cleaner’s and let them deal with it. That’s a job for a pro! If the fabric is a washable cotton or synthetic fabric, like polyester, you can proceed.
• Just like with carpet, use a spoon or other blunt object to scrape away any lipstick solids from the fabric.
• Place the fabric, with the stain side down, on a paper towel. Use a liquid dish soap {like Dawn} that is great for cutting grease to remove the stain. Apply it to the backside of the fabric, behind the stain. Use an old toothbrush to work the soap into the stain from the back.
• Work from the outside edges of the stain into the middle to reduce stain bleeding into the surrounding fabric.
• Promptly toss the garment into the washing machine {while it’s still soapy and wet} and launder on the delicate cycle, using your regular detergent.
• Repeat these steps as necessary until the stain disappears. Don’t dry it in the dryer until it’s gone, or you will set the stain.
• Another method that works equally as well is using a tablespoon of baking soda and a tablespoon of lemon juice.

So, next time you see the dreaded red lipstick stain on a collar, you won’t need to sweat.