Sunflower oil is commonly used as a cooking oil. In addition to that, sunflower oil is also used as a medicine as it helps reduce cholesterol and prevent heart disease. However, when using sunflower oil, a splatter of the oil can stain your clothes. In such cases, you could wonder how to get sunflower oil stains out of your clothes.
To remove sunflower oil from the fabric, ensure that the stain is treated as soon as the oil is splattered on your clothes. At first, rub cornstarch, baking soda, or baby powder into the stain. Continue rubbing the powder till the moment color is changed. Brush or shake off the powder from the garment. Wash the garment in a hot water setting.
But what is sunflower oil, and why does it stain clothes? This article discusses how sunflower oil stains clothes, whether sunflower oil ruins clothes and different methods that can be used to remove the stains from the clothes.
What Is Sunflower Oil?
Sunflower oil is a plant-based oil that is derived from sunflower seeds. The oil is used in frying different food products when cooking. In addition, sunflower is also added to different cosmetic products as an emollient.
As an emollient in cosmetic products, sunflower oil helps moisturize the skin by soothing and hydrating it as it covers the skin with a safeguarding film that traps moisture.
Regular sunflower oil is generally in liquid form, even though the oil starts to solidify when stored at a temperature below -50 degrees Fahrenheit (-500C).
Does Sunflower Oil Ruin Clothes?
Sunflower oil and its greasy residue can significantly endanger your clothing. When the oil comes into contact with your clothes, the splatter might not look like a lot since oil splatters are not very bright. However, if the splatter is allowed to set in your garment, the stain could be permanent.
Refined sunflower oil goes through a high heat refining process. However, even after going through the high heat refining process, the oil has some fat content in it, and this fat is what makes sunflower oil stain your clothes.
Even though sunflower oil will not damage the fibers of your clothing by warping them, making them loose, or causing color loss, the oil can leave stains on your clothes, and if these stains are not quickly treated, they could set in your clothes, making it a challenge to remove them.
Thus, when using sunflower oil, be aware that the oil could splash on your clothes. When that happens, it is important to make sure that you treat the stain immediately before it sets in your garments and becomes a challenge to remove.
Does Sunflower Oil Stain Fabrics?
Since sunflower oil is an oil, it can stain fabrics. In particular, fabrics made from highly absorbent fibers are at risk of being stained by the oil since the fibers will quickly absorb the oil that splatters on them.
To ensure that sunflower oil stains are effectively removed from the fabrics, ensure that you wash the oil of your fabric immediately after the oil is deposited on your garments.
For fresh sunflower oil stains that have not been on your clothing for a long time, you should first blot the oil with a paper towel or an absorbent towel. After that, hand wash the stain with dish soap or wash the stained clothing in a washer using a standard wash setting.
If the stain has set in your garments, you have to treat the stain before washing the clothing to remove it. Do not dry your stained clothes in the dryer until you are sure that the stain has been removed. If you dry your clothes before the stain has been removed, the hot air blowing inside the dryer will make the stain permanent.
Does Sunflower Oil Come Out Of Clothes?
If the sunflower oil stain on your clothes is not set in, then the oil can be easily removed from the clothes by washing the clothes with dish soap or by simply washing the clothes in a washing machine using an enzyme-based laundry detergent.
If sunflower oil stain has set in on your clothes and the stain is old and, in some cases, dry, various household products can be used to treat the stain and remove it from the fabric.
When removing sunflower oil stains from the clothes, ensure that you don’t dry the clothes in the drier. Instead, clothes should be air-dried so that you avoid the risk of the stain becoming permanent.
When stained clothes are dried in the dryer, and the stain is not entirely removed, there is always a high chance that the stains would end up setting in your fabric and become permanent as the hot air in the dryer pushes the stain further into the fibers.
How To Get Sunflower Oil Stains Out Of Clothes – 7 Methods
Different cooking oils are made of different materials. For example, sunflower oil is made from sunflower seeds, coconut oil is made from either fresh or dried coconut meat, and corn oil is made from corn.
Thus, when you have a sunflower oil stain on your clothes, the stain removal process that worked for coconut oil might not work for sunflower oil stains since the content of sunflower oil are different from the content of other oils. In this article, seven different methods that you can use to remove sunflower oil from clothes are discussed.
However, before treating the stain with the different household products discussed, you must ensure that any excess oil on your clothing has been absorbed with a paper towel or an absorbent towel.
To absorb the oil, you should place the paper towel or an absorbent towel onto the stain and lightly press the towel to absorb any extra sunflower oil on your garments.
By removing the extra oil from your clothing, you minimize the probability of the oils spreading on your garment as you proceed to treat and remove the stain. Nevertheless, if the stain is old and the oil has already dried, then it would not be possible for you to absorb the oil.
Let’s now look at the seven methods to get sunflower oil stains out of clothes. The methods described below can remove stains in both natural and synthetic fabrics. Thus, the methods will work on polyester, wool, cotton, nylon, cashmere, and other materials.
1. Rubbing alcohol
As a solvent-based agent, rubbing alcohol can absorb sunflower oil and remove it from fabrics. In particular, rubbing alcohol will break down the oil stain into tiny particles and lift it away from the fabric’s surface.
To use rubbing alcohol to remove sunflower oil stain from fabrics:
1. Absorb any extra oil on the stain by placing a paper towel or an absorbent towel on top of the stain and lightly pressing it.
2. Put an absorbent towel behind the stain so that no oil will escape and ruin other sections of the garment.
3. Soak a soft sponge, piece of cloth, or a clean cotton ball with rubbing alcohol.
4. Dab the soft soaked sponge, piece of cloth, or a cotton ball onto the stain. To avoid smearing any oil, ensure that you first move from the outside and progress to the inside.
5. Dab the entire stain until thoroughly soaked with rubbing alcohol.
6. Let rubbing alcohol set in the stain for at least ten minutes.
7. Use cold running water to rinse rubbing alcohol before washing your clothes in the washer.
8. Repeat the process if the stain is not entirely removed.
If you have bigger sunflower oil stains on your clothes, you should soak the stained section of your clothing instead of blotting it with rubbing alcohol. Here is the procedure you should follow:
1. Pour rubbing alcohol in a small bowl or cup – the bowl or cup should be big enough to soak the stained part of your clothing.
2. Place the stained part of your fabric in the rubbing alcohol in a bowl or cup – ensure that the stained part of your clothing is fully submerged in rubbing alcohol.
3. Leave the stained part of your garment soaking in the rubbing alcohol for at least 10 minutes.
4. Gently scrub the stained section using a soft bristle brush or a spare toothbrush.
5. Rinse rubbing alcohol with cold running water.
6. Inspect to confirm that the stain is removed. Repeat the process if needed.
7. Wash the cloth in a standard wash cycle setting in the washer.
2. Cornstarch
Cornstarch can absorb sunflower oil and remove it from your fabrics since it is highly absorbent. The cornstarch method is one of the easiest ways to remove the oily stain from your clothes.
1. Place the stained garment on a flat surface. The flat surface can be a craft table, iron board, or clean floor surface.
2. Apply cornstarch to the stain. Apply enough cornstarch so that the stain is fully covered with the cornstarch.
3. Leave the cornstarch on the stain for at least half an hour (30 minutes).
4. After thirty minutes, remove the cornstarch from the clothing by shaking it or by vacuuming with a fabric vacuum cleaner
5. Inspect your clothing to confirm that stain has been removed. Repeat the process if necessary.
3. Vinegar
The acetic acid in vinegar can break down the stain molecules and thus remove sunflower oil stain from the clothes. Preferably, you should use white vinegar so that you don’t have to worry about your clothes being stained by the dye in colored vinegar.
1. Blot out any extra oil in the garment by using a paper towel or an absorbent towel.
2. Pour vinegar into a bowl or a cup so that you can soak the stained section of your clothing.
3. Place the stained section of the cloth in the bowl with vinegar and ensure that the stained part is fully submerged in the vinegar.
4. Leave the stain soaking in vinegar for 30 minutes.
5. Wash your clothes in a washer.
6 Air-dry the clothes and then confirm that stains are gone. If you can see stains, repeat the process.
4. Dish Soap
Dish soap is one of the most effective methods to remove sunflower stains from your clothes. However, if you opt for this method, be ready for some hard physical work. The hard work is worth it since the method works 100%.
Dish soap is made with special chemicals that can break oil, fat, and other dirt particles commonly present in dirty dishes to effectively clean the dishes.
In simple terms, dish soap molecules have two ends. One of the ends attaches itself to the oil, and the other end of the molecules attaches itself to water. As such, dish soap can get hold of small bits of oil and lift them into the water. Once that happens, it then becomes easy to wash away the stain.
To use dish soap on sunflower oil stains:
1. Apply a few droplets of dish soap directly to the stain. Since dish soap generates a lot of foam, a teaspoon of the soap should be enough.
2. Using a spare toothbrush or even your fingers, gently scrub the soap until you have lather on top of the stain. Ensure that you sufficiently scrub the soap so that the soap is pushed further into the fibers of the stained garments.
3. Rinse the dish soap in warm running water.
4. After rinsing, inspect the garment to confirm that stain has been removed. If you can still see the stain, repeat the process.
5. After stains are removed, air-dry your clothes.
5. Laundry Detergent
If you have an old sunflower oil stain on your clothes, it will be hard for you to remove the stain from the clothes by just washing the stained clothes in the washer. However, you can treat the stain with laundry detergent and get it out of the clothes.
When using laundry detergent to remove oil stains from the clothes, take note that only enzyme-based detergent will work. Most laundry detergent manufacturers will indicate whether the detergent is enzyme-based or not on the detergent packaging.
Enzyme-based detergents will have different enzymes that mainly comprise lipase or amylase. These enzymes can break down the sunflower oil lipids on the clothes and remove the stains. If you can’t find enzyme-based washing detergent, a detergent with degreasing properties should be fine.
1. Blot out any excess sunflower oil on your clothing with an absorbent towel or a paper towel.
2. Apply washing detergent directly to the stain – the scope of the stain will determine the amount of detergent applied.
3. Use a soft brush to work the detergent on the stain. Gently scrub the detergent so that it is pushed inside the fibers of the stained clothing.
4. Let the detergent sit in the stain for 10 minutes.
5. Wash the clothing in the washing machine in a standard wash cycle.
6. After the wash cycle, air dry your garments.
7. Once dry, check the garment and ensure that stain has been removed. If needed, repeat the stain removal process
6. Baby Powder
If you have small babies, you are likely to have used baby powder to absorb the moisture and ensure that you prevent diaper rash around the baby’s bottom and genital areas.
The absorbing property of baby powder is what will be used to remove sunflower oil stains from clothes.
1. Place your stained garment on a flat surface.
2. If the sunflower oil stain is dry, spray some water on the stain to freshen it up.
3. Apply a good amount of baby powder to the stain. Ensure that the stain is fully covered with the baby powder.
4. Let the baby powder set in for a minimum of 30 minutes. This is when the absorbing properties of the powder will absorb oil and remove it from the clothing surface.
5. Use a soft sponge or a soft brush to lightly scrub baby powder on the stain so that in case there is any oil remaining on the garment, it will come into contact with the powder as you scrub, and it will be absorbed.
6. Shake off your clothing to remove the powder. You can also use a small vacuum cleaner to vacuum the powder.
7. Wash your clothing in the regular wash cycle.
8. Air-dry the garments. After drying, check to confirm that stain is removed. Repeat the process if necessary.
7. Baking Soda
Baking soda is an alkali that can react with sunflower oil and bring the oil out of the clothes. In addition, baking soda is gentle on fabric and is a natural bleach, deodorizer, fabric softener, and stain remover.
Here is how you can use baking soda to get rid of sunflower oil stains on your clothes
1. In a small bowl, pour baking soda and mix it with water to create a paste. The paste should have a thickness that is similar to that of toothpaste. Ensure you create enough paste to cover all the stains in your clothing.
2. Using a spray bottle, spray the stain with warm water.
3. Apply the baking soda paste onto the stain. Ensure that the stain is fully covered with the baking soda.
4. Leave the paste on the stain for a minimum of one hour- this is when the paste will work on the stain and remove it from the fibers of your clothing.
5. Using warm running water, rinse the paste from the clothing.
6. Wash the cloth in the washer.
7. Air-dry the garment and confirm that stains are gone once dry.
8. If needed, repeat the process.
Conclusion
Sunflower oil can leave oil-based stains on your garments. When the stains dry and set in the fabric, they become hard to remove in a regular wash cycle. However, you can remove the stains from the clothes with the right treatment.
The article has explained seven ways to remove sunflower oil stains from clothes. Let us know the method you prefer to remove the stains from your clothes.
