As summer continues to bring mild weather, you might find yourself opting for brighter and lighter items of clothes. Light coloured clothing is more likely to pick up stains, especially if you accidentally get make-up smudged on the collar.
Instead of panicking over a ruined t-shirt, one cleaning and home hacks fan recommended using a popular bathroom item to clean up the mess – and no, it’s not micellar water. Chantel Mila, more commonly known as Mama Mila on TikTok, revealed she uses shaving foam to banish make-up stains and brighten light clothing. This is how she does it.
Chantel applied a liberal amount of shaving foam to the affected area of the top, using a bristled brush to work the product into the stain. Shaving cream can be effective at removing make-up stains as it contains surfactants and cleaning agents that help break down oils and pigments in the stains.
Let the shaving cream sit for a few minutes, gently rub it in, and then rinse and wash the white top as usual on its regular cycle.
You should also make sure that you’re using a foam-based product, not a shaving gel or cream-based product. The latter products will not contain the same active ingredients needed to help clean stains.
As it contains surfactants and emulsifiers, these will help lift and break down stains by trapping dirt and grime within the form. Surfactants are the primary cleaning compounds in shaving foam, which can help loosen dirt particles.
Using a foam helps to lift the dirt particles out of the t-shirt’s fabric, capturing them, and making them easier to wipe away.
The team at Better Homes & Gardens tested out the hack on a white towel using various items to make stains. They used it on dark lipstick, red nail polish, black coffee, olive oil, dry potting soil, and blue ink.
They wrote: “Unfortunately, the results were unimpressive. While the coffee and olive oil stains had lightened, they were still present. The shaving cream did virtually nothing to lift the lipstick, nail polish, soil, and ink stains.
“Worse yet, the process of dabbing at the stains with a damp cloth caused some of them, notably the lipstick and coffee, to spread.”
After washing the towel with detergent, the coffee, olive oil, ink, and soil stains were gone. However, the lipstick and nail polish stains were still visible.
They attributed the success of cleaning some of the stains to the action of the washing machine, detergent and hotter water. Better Homes & Gardens described this hack as a “dud”.