I cleaned my dirty white t-shirt stains with 3 natural remedies — only 1 worked

Reviving white clothes to their original condition and former glory seems like a mammoth task. Even though I’ve avoided wearing white clothes in fear of blemishing it with spilled food, drink, and even make-up, I took the plunge earlier this year and purchased myself a simple plain white tee.

However, even though I can count on two hands the number of times I’ve worn the tee, it’s not been impervious to my foundation and sweat stains. A small smudge of foundation found itself on the collar, while the armpits have tinged with a yellow hue. Regular wash cycles have done virtually nothing to remedy these blemishes, so I tried three home remedies to see if they could fare better.

Baking soda is a highly touted and heavily praised home remedy for dealing with stains. This was my first port of call when trying to make the foundation and sweat marks disappear from my white t-shirt.

Although there are many variations, some of which include hydrogen peroxide and washing up liquid, the main paste is made merely of baking soda and water. Because using chemicals is cheating, right?

The paste needs to be liquid enough to spread over the stain, but not too runny. Once applied, I left it to stew for about 30 minutes. Some people suggest leaving the paste to do its magic overnight, but my patience runs thin.

The blemished areas of the t-shirt looked saturated enough, so satisfied, I popped it in for a wash at 40° for one hour and 25 minutes.

When the wash was over, I gave the t-shirt a quick inspection before tumble drying. Alas… the highly touted baking soda hack had not worked.

Although the sweat and make-up stains weren’t terrible in the first place, I expected this to mean that the stains would be easier to lift from the fabric. The discolouration hadn’t budged in the slightest.

I came across the toothpaste method only last week. It follows the same idea as the baking soda method; where toothpaste is smushed into the stain, left to soak in, washed, et voila. This hack is a favourite of the Queen of Clean’s Lynsey Crombie.

While appearing on This Morning, she explained that to get tough stains or blemishes out of her and her family’s white clothes, she applies white toothpaste to do the trick. However the toothpaste has to be white, not blue, not black, not purple.

To make sure the toothpaste permeates the fabric, the affected need to be soaked with water – and you would use a toothbrush – before applying the toothpaste and working it in with a small bristled brush. My finger would do.

Lynsey said: “White toothpaste has got bicarbonate of soda in it, so it’s pretty much the same as we’ve got there.”

She continued: “Be liberal and don’t go and buy a really expensive one. 40p in like one of the major supermarkets. Keep it in your cupboard, rub it in and then just leave that for a bit.

“And you will find, if you come back in half an hour, cold rinse, that would have started to go.”

Although the blemishes aren’t prominent, they’re still obvious enough to make my t-shirt distinctly not white. The toothpaste is applied and left for 15 minutes, before running on a cold wash.

I was worried that should the hack work, I’d be left with glowing white patches dotted across the t-shirt. However, the bleaching effect didn’t seem strong enough.

My tinged white top remained off colour. It appeared the toothpaste did a better job of penetrating the foundation mark on the collar, now only visible when inspected up close.

The discoloration from previous sweat stains was still there, so more than likely needed more time to set in. I feel that given enough time, the toothpaste could be incredibly effective. However, it doesn’t restore white clothes to their former glory.

My last ditch attempt to brighten my whites is soda crystals, a cleaning method recommended by a colleague. Earlier this year she attempted to clean and whiten her dirty socks, which resulted in them looking almost brand new.

Her method included a soda crystals-bath to soak her socks before adding them to the washing machine. She wrote the remains resembled a “threatening-looking soup”.

However, you don’t need to go through a soaking process; if you have tough stains, this would be more effective. Instead I followed Dri-Pak’s instructions, where soda crystals are added to either the drawer or the drum.

Use the following amounts of Soda Crystals, depending on your water hardness:

• Medium – 25g
• Hard – 50g
• Very Hard – 75g

As I live in London, the water is particularly hard. While 50 grams of soda crystals should suffice, I upped the amount to 75 grams for good measure.

This was added to my drum. I eagerly anticipated the results.

I should’ve lowered my expectations. Soda crystals were sold to me like a wizard waving his wand to embolden the whiteness of the fabric.

The foundation mark still remains, albeit definitely lighter than it had been. Again, a close inspection is needed to see it. The problem is I can still see it, and the surrounding fabric hasn’t been brightened or whitened to the level I’d imagined.

When it comes to the sweat stains there’s better evidence of progress. The yellow hue has begun to fade, but again, not enough.

Given more time, I believe the soda crystals could’ve had a bigger and more evident impact on the colour of my clothes. To be honest, giving it a soak pre-wash is probably the best way to go.

Personally, I’d ignore baking soda entirely as it barely scratched the surface. The toothpaste method worked better for make-up stains, while the soda crystals did a better job at fading the sweat marks.

Is my t-shirt completely brand new? No, but we’ll get there.