How to Get Lipstick Out of Clothes

By /

Last Updated on September 22, 2026 by Umar Farooq

Scrape the excess off with a dull edge, work dish soap into the mark while the fabric is still dry, then soak the garment for at least an hour in warm water and dish soap before washing at the warmest temperature the care label allows. Line dry and inspect in daylight before any heat touches it. Maytag is blunt about the soak: “The longer the soak, the better your chances of success.”

The reason a normal cycle bounces off this stain is that lipstick is not one substance. It is wax, oil and pigment in a single smear, and each of the three leaves the fabric by a different route — which is why it needs its own page rather than the general routine for how to get makeup out of clothes.

Lipstick is three stains wearing one colour

Maytag names the problem in one sentence: “The same oil, wax, pigment and chemicals that help lipstick last throughout the day also make it especially tough to remove from fabric” (how to get lipstick out of clothes in 7 steps). Tide files it with the worst of them and says why — lipstick stains “rank high in the most-difficult-to-remove category” because “they’re not only brightly colored but also oil-based.” A product engineered to survive coffee, conversation and a nine-hour day was never going to surrender to a forty-minute cotton cycle.

The wax is what defeats the first attempt. It is solid at room temperature, it lies across the weave as a thin film, and water runs straight off it. Until that film softens, detergent never reaches the oil underneath — and the oil is what holds the pigment in place. The pigment itself does not dissolve at all. It is a finely milled solid wedged between the fibres, which is why a lipstick mark fades in stages rather than vanishing in one wash.

The three layers of a lipstick stain and the treatment each one needs A lipstick mark is a layered stain rather than a single substance, and the layers have to be removed in order. On top sits a wax film that is solid at room temperature; it seals the weave and keeps water and detergent away from everything beneath it, so it is dealt with first by lifting the excess with a dull edge and then softening what remains in warm water. Below the wax is the oil phase, the emollient that stops lipstick drying on the lips; it is an ordinary grease stain and it needs a degreasing surfactant such as dish soap, worked in while the fabric is still dry. Deepest of all is the pigment, a finely milled solid that physically lodges between the fibres rather than dissolving, so it is flushed out gradually by a long soak and, where the fabric allows, finished with bleach. Working on the pigment before the wax and oil are gone only spreads the mark, which is why the order matters more than the product. One mark, three substances. They come off in this order and no other. 1. Wax film, on the surface solid, sheds water, blocks detergent → Dull edge, then warm water lift it, then soften what is left 2. Oil phase, under the wax an ordinary grease stain → Dish soap, worked in dry surfactants grip grease, not water 3. Pigment, wedged in the weave a solid; it never dissolves → Long soak, then bleach if safe flushed out, never dissolved Attack the pigment first and you spread it. The order is the method. Heat at any stage sets whatever is still there — line dry, then look.

How to get lipstick out of clothes, step by step

  1. Read the care label before anything else. It sets your maximum wash temperature, and on silk or wool it sends you to a dry cleaner instead.
  2. Lift the excess with a dull edge — a butter knife, a spoon, a credit card. Do not rub. Rubbing turns a defined smear into a pink cloud twice the size.
  3. Apply dish soap dry, to both sides. Maytag: “Let the dish soap sit for about 30 minutes.” No water yet — grease and water do not mix, and wetting the fabric first keeps the soap away from the oil.
  4. Soak in warm water and dish soap. Maytag: “Soak the item for at least an hour. The longer the soak, the better your chances of success. If you can, an overnight soak is ideal.”
  5. Work the mark gently with a soft brush, then rinse it thoroughly before it goes anywhere near the machine.
  6. Wash on the warmest water the care label permits. Grease loosens as temperature rises, which is the exact opposite of the cold-water rule you learned for blood.
  7. Line dry and inspect in daylight. Maytag again: “heat from a dryer will set any stain left behind that you can’t see while the fabric is wet.”

Soak it or push it through? The best sources genuinely disagree

Maytag’s method is patience: dish soap, thirty minutes, then an hour or more in solution. Clorox’s method is mechanical and takes about four minutes — “Place a clean dry cloth under the stain with the stain facing down. With another cloth, dab (don’t rub) the back of the stain with dish detergent, pushing it through the item, picking up the lipstick and transferring it onto the first cloth” (how to get lipstick stains out of clothes). The University of Georgia’s textiles service goes chemical, and finishes with “Sponge with alcohol. Allow to dry. Use chlorine bleach, if safe for fabric, to remove final traces of stain” (remove stains from cosmetics, makeup, sunscreen).

Those are three different answers, and averaging them produces a fourth that none of the three recommends. Use them as an escalation instead. Clorox’s push-through goes first, because transferring pigment onto a spare cloth removes it from the garment rather than driving it further in. Maytag’s soak goes second. Keep UGA’s solvent-and-bleach ending for a white cotton item you have already failed to rescue twice.

Long-wear liquid lipstick and lip gloss are a different formula

Transfer-proof liquid lipstick is not a softer version of a bullet lipstick. It is a film former, built to dry down and stop moving — precisely the property you are now fighting. Maytag treats it as a separate job: “Long-lasting liquid lipsticks and lip glosses are formulated differently from standard lipstick and may require another cleaning method,” and suggests “soaking the stained item in a solution of warm water and baking soda for at least an hour.” Dish soap slides off a cured film, which is why the standard advice underperforms here.

What a lipstick tube actually does inside a washing machine

The worst version of this stain is not a kiss on a collar. It is a tube left in a coat pocket, which softens in a warm wash and then distributes itself democratically across the whole drum.

Treat each garment individually using the steps above, but do not run another load until you have dealt with the machine. Lipstick wax does not rinse away cleanly — it films the drum and settles into the folds of the door seal, where it keeps transferring onto pale laundry for weeks. Wipe the seal by hand, then run an empty hot maintenance cycle (tub clean cycle explained). The same residue follows any heavy grease load (how to get cooking oil out of clothes).

FAQ

Does rubbing alcohol remove lipstick from clothes?

It does, and Maytag describes flushing the stain with isopropyl alcohol when hand washing. The same page warns you should “never apply rubbing alcohol to clothing that you plan to place in the washer or dryer, as this product is flammable.” Rinse it out completely first.

Can you get dried lipstick out of clothes?

Usually. Dried lipstick is harder because the oils have had time to soak in, so apply dish soap directly, soak it, and wash at the warmest temperature the tag allows. Expect two or three rounds.

Does hairspray remove lipstick stains?

Only the alcohol in it is doing any work, and modern low-alcohol hairsprays add sticky polymer to the problem. Rubbing alcohol on a cotton ball is the cleaner version of the same idea.

What temperature should I wash a lipstick stain at?

The warmest the care label allows. Lipstick is an oil stain, and warm water keeps the oil mobile. Cold water leaves the wax solid and the grease clinging to the fibre.

Will lipstick come out after it has been through the dryer?

Sometimes, but the odds drop sharply, because heat drives the pigment into the fibre. Repeat the full treatment two or three times before writing the garment off.

Can I bleach a lipstick stain out?

On white, bleach-safe fabric, yes — UGA puts chlorine bleach last in its sequence, after the wax and oil are already gone. On wool, silk or anything coloured, no.

Wax first, pigment second

Lipstick is beatable, and what beats it is sequence rather than any particular bottle. Wax, then oil, then pigment. Get that order wrong and you spend an evening carefully spreading a stain you could have transferred onto a spare cloth in four minutes. Then judge it dry, in daylight.

Related Posts

Scroll to Top