How to Remove Dried-in Lip Balm from Clothes

I work outside in 110+ degree weather and humidity 20% or less. Lip balm is a must! It's inevitable that I forget to check my pockets every once in a while, and end up with a tube of balm in the drier with my clothes. The good news is, it IS possible to get rid of those greasy, dried-in spots! Read on to find out how.

Difficulty: Moderate

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Dawn
• Shout Advanced for Set-in Stains
• Tide with Dawn
• Washer
• Patience!

1. Take a deep breath. This isn't hard to do, but it will take a while and demand your patience.

2. Grab your bottle of Dawn and go through your clothes ASAP, one article at a time. Slowly look for any grease spots from the balm. Each time you find one, pour a generous amount of Dawn on the spot. You don't want to waste the whole bottle, but make it enough that you can rub it in a bit and still leave a thick layer to soak in. Wait as long as you can -- a day is best, but 30 minutes will do if you are in desperate need.

3. Use Tide with Dawn to wash the clothes on the hottest water setting they can handle, and set it to agitate for the longest time possible. After washing, hang to dry. DO NOT USE THE DRYER AT THIS POINT! The spots may not be visible when wet, but may reappear when dry.

4. If you still have spots after your clothes are dry, repeat steps 2 and 3, but use the Shout Advanced for set-in stains instead. Wait at least 5 minutes, but again, a day is much better. As before, do not run through the dryer.

5. By this time, your stains should be gone or so faint that you have to know where to look in order to find the stain. If not, repeat steps 2 and 3. I have not yet had to do more than what is described above to get rid of my balm stains (knock on wood).

Tips & Warnings

• You can skip steps 2 and 3 if you like and go straight to the Shout. I have had great success doing that, but I still had some clothes that needed to back for a treatment with the Dawn.
• The Shout Advanced for set-in stains has also done well for me with a variety of unimaginable stains not encountered by most people.
• I have also heard that candle wax remover is good for these stains, but have no experience with it.
• Other stain treatments, hand dishwashing liquids, and laundry detergents may work well, too, but these are the brands that have worked for me.
• Do not get eager for dry clothes! Make sure that your clothes are dry and still do not show any stains before you start putting them back in the dryer as you did before. Every time they heat dry with the balm grease spots, they become harder to treat and more likely they will end up in your rag pile.
• If you choose to substitute for the Dawn, be sure you are using another hand dishwashing liquid that is an excellent degreaser.
• You may want to check to make sure the Dawn and Shout treatments will not harm your clothes. Test it on a spot that won't be seen when you wear the clothes (e.g., the bottom of a shirt that you would tuck in). Leave it on overnight, wash, and see if it fades the color or otherwise damages the area. Since the clothes are often just as ruined by the gloss as they would be by a damaging treatment, you may find this step unnecessary.
• You may want to wipe the inside of your dryer with a soapy sponge (wipe clean with a wet sponge after). There is a risk that the balm is also on the sides of your dryer and can transfer to other loads.