How to Remove Dried Nail Polish Stains from Clothes? A Complete Guide

Looking for methods on how to remove dried nail polish stains from clothes without ruining them? Read through the article to learn the most effective method.

A single drop of nail polish can be enough sometimes to ruin an entire piece of cloth. And as it dries, you can’t wipe them away using your hands or any clothes. As impossible as it may sound, there are actually ways to remove it from the cloth.

How to Remove Dried Nail Polish Stains from Clothes

But do you know how to remove dried nail polish stains from clothes that won’t ruin them? If you don’t let’s check out the most effective method to get these stains out of your cloth.

how to remove dried nail polish stains from clothes
how to remove dried nail polish stains from clothes

Step 1: Use Paper Towels

The first thing you need to do here is getting some clean paper towels that you’ll use on the cloth. Now, place some of the paper towels on a surface and put the cloth on top of it where the stain is directly in contact with it.

Don’t go rubbing the cloth on there or do anything fancy. Just let it sit and move onto the next step.

Step 2: Dab the Stain with Acetone

This is where the magic happens, and you get to clean the nail polish out of the cloth. For that, you need to gather pure acetone chemical that you’ll apply on the cloth. If you don’t have any acetone, we’ll talk about some alternatives for that in the last segment of the article.

However, once you have the acetone, saturated a piece of cotton ball with it. Then you can simply dab the stain by blotting the stained area. 

Remember that you are only bloating the backside of the stained cloth. If you apply it directly on the stain, it’ll make it even worse, and you definitely don’t want it to happen. Bloating it from behind will melt the nail polish and help to transfer it onto the paper towel.

Step 3: Rinse and Repeat

The previous step should’ve got most of the nail polish out of the cloth. But the stain should be there, and you know it’s hard to get it out completely as well. Now, you have to take the cloth to the sink and rinse it clean with water.

Water should take out all the chemicals and help to take the stain marks away as well. However, it’s more likely that you’ll need to repeat this process several times to get the desired results. So, make sure to repeat everything and rinse the cloth with water again.

You should repeat until you see that there’s no lipstick mark left on the paper towel after you bloat it. That is your cue to stop and move on to the next step.

Step 4: Launder the Cloth

Now that you are done cleaning the cloth, it’s time to launder it properly. To do that, you must follow the instruction that’s provided on the tag of the clothing. If you just throw it in the machine at maximum power, it’s more likely to get ruined.

So, make sure to launder it properly by following the instructions before you move on to the next step.

Step 5: Dry it Out

After the laundry, you are done with the process. Now you just have to dry out the cloth. It’s best to air dry the clothing piece to maintain its quality and fabrics. Don’t just put it in the sunlight as it might ruin the color integrity of the cloth.

However, if you want to speed up the process, you can always turn the fan on inside the room, and it’ll dry the cloth much faster for you.

Alternatives to Acetone

If you can’t manage to get pure acetone, you can use either one of the following things to remove dried nail polish stain from your cloth.

Hydrogen Peroxide: This is one of the most used chemicals after acetone to remove nail polish from cloth. It works super well, but you must check if the cloth is suitable for hydrogen peroxide or not.

Hairspray: Spraying some hair spray on a clean toothbrush and using it on the stains can really help to take it out. 

Bug Spray: As weird as it might sound, you can actually use a bug spray to remove dry lipstick stains from your cloth. You’d have to use the spray that you use to keep the bugs and mosquitos away from your body. However, you need to be super careful about it and only use this method only when there’s no other option available.

Safety Tips

As you are using strong chemicals on your cloth, there’s a higher chance of you damaging it permanently in the process of cleaning the stains. So, make sure to remember the following tips as you try to get the nail polish out of your cloth.

  • Don’t pour acetone directly on the spot, as it might ruin the clothing piece.
  • Spot test on the hidden areas of the cloth using the chemical and see the reaction.
  • Act as fast as you can, as it gets harder to remove the nail polish as it dries.
  • Be super gentle with the cloth after you use strong chemicals.
  • Avoid all types of dryers after the initial laundry.
  • You should know that using pure acetone might fade the color of your cloth slightly.
  • If it’s an expensive cloth, make sure to rush to the cleaners before you try anything by yourself.

To Wrap Up

You just went through the most effective way on how to remove dried nail polish stains from clothes. As you saw, this method is pretty simple to follow but can give you a clean piece of cloth that you crave.

However, the worst thing to do while going through this method would be to rush the process. That’s because chemicals such as acetone can actually damage the cloth permanently if you rush with it. 

So, make sure to take your time with it and follow the instructions correctly. And hopefully, you’ll be able to clean the stain pretty effectively.

Writer: Shyran Khan Joy

Leave a Comment

4 + nine =