How to Get Fake Tan Out of Clothes

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Last Updated on October 4, 2026 by Umar Farooq

Here is how to get fake tan out of clothes: hold the fabric wrong-side-up under cold running water so the tanner is pushed back out of the weave, dab dish detergent into the mark, rinse, then wash with enzyme detergent at the care-label temperature. If anything remains, soak in oxygen bleach and wash again. Air dry and check — the mark only becomes permanent if you heat it while it is still there, and the dryer is how that happens.

Most of it is lotion and guide colour sitting in the fibre, which is why it comes out more easily than the tan on your legs does.

What DHA is doing to your skin, and why the sheet is a different problem

A self-tanner contains dihydroxyacetone, and the FDA says what it does: DHA is “a color additive that darkens the skin by reacting with amino acids in the skin’s surface” (sunless tanners and bronzers). That reaction is why the tan survives showers for days. Cotton has no amino acids, so on a shirt or sheet the brown is lotion base and guide colour sitting between the fibres rather than bonded into them.

Good news with a deadline on it. Cleanipedia puts the timing plainly: a DHA mark on fabric “won’t cause a permanent stain immediately, but will eventually set” (removing fake tan from clothing). Treat it the same evening and it is an ordinary oil-and-pigment job.

Why fake tan behaves differently on skin and on fabric On skin, dihydroxyacetone reacts chemically with amino acids in the outer layer, which is why the colour develops over hours and then survives washing for several days. On a cotton or polyester garment there are no amino acids for that reaction, so what sits in the weave is the lotion base, which is an oil, together with the cosmetic guide colour, which is a pigment. Both of those can be flushed and washed out while they are fresh. The practical consequence is that a fake tan mark on fabric is removable in a way the tan on your skin deliberately is not, provided no heat reaches it first. Same product, two completely different outcomes. On skin DHA reacts with amino acids in the surface Colour develops over hours Survives washing — that is the point On cotton or polyester No amino acids, so no reaction Lotion oil plus guide colour, sitting in the weave Flushes out — unless heat gets there first Everything below is about removing an oil and a pigment before a dryer makes the decision for you.

How to get fake tan out of clothes in four moves

  1. Lift the solids first. With a lotion or mousse, scrape the deposit off with a spoon edge before any water goes near it. Water on a blob of tanner spreads it wider.
  2. Flush cold, from the back. Turn the garment inside out and run cold water through the reverse so the stain leaves the way it arrived. Do not rub the front.
  3. Dish detergent for the oil. Work a little in with a fingertip, leave five minutes, rinse. The lotion base is an oil and dish detergent is a degreaser, which is why this beats laundry liquid.
  4. Wash with enzyme detergent, then air dry and look. Hang it, do not tumble it. If a shadow remains, go back to step three before any heat touches it.

For stubborn cases the University of Georgia Extension publishes a suntan lotion procedure no competing page cites: “Soak in a solution of 1 quart warm water, 1/2 teaspoon liquid hand dishwashing detergent, and 1 white tablespoon vinegar for 15 minutes… Soak in a solution of 1 quart warm water and 1 tablespoon sodium perborate bleach for 30 minutes” (cosmetics and sunscreen stains). Sodium perborate is oxygen bleach under its chemical name.

White sheets, and the eight-hour soak that fixes them

Bedding is where most of this ends up, because a tan applied in the evening transfers all night. White cotton is the alarming-looking case and the easy one: large, uniform, and on the fabric that tolerates the strongest treatment. Strip the bed that morning, not that weekend.

Soak the whole sheet in oxygen bleach for up to eight hours, then wash hot. A full soak beats spot treatment, because the transfer is rarely in one place — it is wherever skin met fabric, usually four or five patches you have not spotted. Wash the sheets alone so the lifted colour has nowhere to settle, and if this is a regular event the sheet wash schedule needs an extra date in it. White garments take the same soak before anything stronger; washing white clothes picks up there.

FAQ

Does fake tan come out of clothes completely?

Usually, if it has not been through a dryer. The mark is lotion and guide colour rather than a bonded dye, and both flush out with cold water and a degreaser.

Will fake tan stain white clothes permanently?

Not by itself — heat makes it permanent. Treat it before drying, and white cotton takes an oxygen bleach soak, which clears what the wash leaves.

How do I get fake tan off a towel?

The same way, but expect two passes — towel pile holds far more product than a flat weave. Soak rather than spot treat.

Can I use bleach on fake tan stains?

On white cotton only, and oxygen bleach is the better choice. Chlorine is unnecessary for a stain this easy and rules out spandex, wool or silk.

Does fake tan come out of coloured clothes?

Yes, same four steps, but stay with cold water, dish detergent and oxygen bleach rather than escalating. More in removing stains from coloured clothes.

Flip it over, go cold, and keep it off the radiator

Fake tan has a worse reputation on fabric than it deserves. A brown smear across a white pillowcase at seven in the morning is not a gentle start to a day, but chemically it is one of the easier marks in the house — the clever part of the product only works on skin.

What matters is the first hour: cold water through the back, a degreaser, no rubbing, nothing hot until the fabric is dry and you have looked at it in daylight. Get that right and the pillowcase outlives the tan.

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