7 Methods to Get Olive Oil Out of Clothes

As much as we love olive oil for its health benefits and unique, exotic taste, we dread its stain on our clothes or any oil. When we are busy in our kitchen, we don’t pay attention to where the oil splashes and drizzles, which causes stains on our clothes.

No matter how careful we are, a drop or two find a place to land on our clothes. This is especially annoying because olive oil stains can be extremely challenging to get rid of. So, how exactly do we take olive oil out of our clothes? There are different methods to try out depending on the available materials and convenience.

All of the techniques mentioned here are relatively easy. They all require things already available in most households, so you don’t have to make any extra effort to get anything else to get the job done.

What is Olive Oil Composed of?

Olive oil is a popular ingredient in all households. Millions of tons of olive oil are consumed worldwide in any given year. People use it day in and day out, some even more than others. These facts show how much olive oil is used in the world. But that’s nothing new.

Olive oil has been around for thousands of years. The reason: It’s one of the healthiest oils ever to exist. Once extracted from olives, olive oil has usage even beyond the kitchen.

Olive oil consists of fatty acid glycerides and non-glycerides. About 14% of olive oil is saturated fat, and 11% is polyunsaturated, including omega-6 and omega-3 fatty acids. However, the dominant fatty acid in olive oil is monounsaturated fat, known as oleic acid, which makes up for 73% of the total oil.

Apart from these fatty acids, olive oil has high antioxidant content, which prevents your body cells from damaging. Olive oil also has brain boosters, including Vitamin E and Vitamin K.

These robust and healthy contents in olive oil make it popular for medicinal use. It reduces the risk of several diseases, including cardiovascular diseases, type 2 diabetes, Alzheimer’s disease, inflammation, and even some cancers, including breast cancer.

Despite all these benefits, we can’t help but fear the oil stains our clothes because they are usually the hardest to get rid of. Oils and greases are semi-solid at room temperature, which means that if a stain is not fresh, it needs to be liquified to be removed.

The best way to liquefy the stain is to keep it under hot/warm water for a while. The oil will leave the stain and come on top.

That being said, it is easier said than done. Sometimes a stain is too hard to be removed that easily. In some challenging cases, it’s possible that an olive oil stain is impossible to take out altogether – no matter what you try! Nevertheless, this is usually very rare, and, in most cases, you should easily get an olive oil stain out of your clothing. Therefore, we have seven tried and tested methods to get olive oil out of clothes.

1. Liquid Dishwashing Detergent

Dishwashing detergent is used widely to get olive oil out of clothes. It is used to get oily and greasy stains out of dishes, but it works wonders on clothes if we deal with an olive oil stain.

However, it would be best if you were careful with that. Read the steps below to remove an olive oil stain from your cloth using a liquid dishwashing detergent.

1. First, make sure the cloth is completely dry.
2. Apply a few drops of liquid dishwashing detergent on the oil stain and massage gently in a circular motion for 5 minutes.
3. After 5 minutes, rinse the cloth with warm water. The stain would be gone by now.
4. to be sure, machine-wash the cloth with an appropriate amount of bleach. Be sure that your cloth is bleach-free (check labels for that).
5. Let the cloth dry in the air and then check if any stain is left. Most likely, there won’t be a stain. But if there is, it means you have residual oil. You can repeat this process or check out different methods in such a case.

 

2. Liquid Dishwashing Detergent and Baking Soda

We recommend using baking soda if the stain is too hard to go just with liquid dish soap. Despite being a cooking ingredient, baking soda works as a cleaning agent in many cases. You might be a bit confused as to how this works, so here’s the entire process step-by-step:

1. Take a dry paper towel and dab the stained area to absorb the oil. Please keep it going until you are sure that the paper towel cannot absorb more.
2. Take a pinch of baking soda and rub it on the stain. Let it sit for 15 minutes.
3. Use a toothbrush to brush off the baking soda and check if the stain has faded. If the stain hasn’t even changed a bit, repeat this step.
4. Once the baking soda has weakened the stain, bring in the liquid dishwashing detergent. Pour a drop of the liquid on the stain and rub it gently in a circular motion. Let it sit for 5 minutes.
5. Now, rinse the cloth with hot water. The stain will be gone.
6. As a precautionary measure, launder the cloth in the machine as per usual. But be sure not to put the stained material in the drier. Only machine-dry the fabric if the stain is removed 100%; otherwise, the heat will set it back into place. Always air-dry your stained clothing.

 

3. Liquid Dishwashing Detergent and Cornstarch

Another thing that works well in getting an olive oil stain out of the cloth is corn starch, but it has to be combined with the good old liquid dish soap. Cornstarch works well as an absorbent, which means it will soak up the stain and remove it.

1. Take an appropriate amount of cornstarch and apply it directly to the stain. Leave the cornstarch on it for about an hour.
2. After an hour, drop a few drops of liquid dishwashing detergent on the baking soda-covered stain and start rubbing to try and mix them. Don’t rub too harshly, as it can damage the clothing.
3. After that, wash the cloth with warm water. The stain will be gone.

 

4. Shampoo

If the things in the kitchen didn’t work well with the olive oil stain, you can move on to your care collection and use a shampoo to get the stain out.

We use shampoo when our hair gets oily. The same logic can be applied to the olive oil stain on our cloth. We can use shampoo to get it out. It may sound weird, but don’t be too dismissive! Here’s how the process works:

 

1. Use a dry paper towel to absorb the oil by gently rubbing it over the stain.
2. Once the paper towel has absorbed all the oil, it could bring in the shampoo. Drop a few drops of shampoo on the stained area to cover the stain completely.
3. Take a toothbrush and gently rub it over the shampoo to get the stain out. Keep doing it for a couple of minutes.
4. After that, do not rinse the cloth. Throw it in the washer instead and do a regular wash. The stain will be gone. If not, try out different methods.

 

5. Aloe Vera

If you’ve got an Aloe Vera plant, it will help you with your stain. Aloe Vera is probably the most versatile plant ever to exist. It’s good for anything; skin, hair, wounds, even the stains on your clothes, especially the olive oil stain.

Aloe Vera is naturally oleophobic, which means it tends to repel the oil and separate it from the water, making it excellent for oil removal. It also makes it easy and quick to get the oil stain out of your clothes.

 

1. All you have to do is soak the stained cloth in the water and take it out once it’s absorbed.
2. Apply Aloe Vera extract on the stain.
3. That’s it. The stain will be gone in a few minutes. If it is not, it probably means that the stain is not fresh and now requires more detailed methods to get it out.

You can also use packaged Aloe Vera extract for this method, but we recommend naturally obtaining Aloe Vera directly from the plant.

6. Hairspray

Another quick and easy way to get the olive oil stain out of your clothes is using hairspray. If you’ve got that sitting on your dresser, it can help you out with the problem we have on our hands.

Well, if you are thinking how on earth a hairspray help get rid of the olive oil stain, it’s all thanks to alcohol. The alcohol content in most hairsprays is responsible for this stain-removing job.

However, some hair sprays no longer have alcohol, so you will have to check if your hair spray contains alcohol. If it does, follow the steps below to remove the olive oil stain from your cloth using your hairspray.

 

1. This method is also pretty easy and quick. All you have to do is apply the hair spray directly on the stained area. Let it sit for a couple of minutes.
2. After that, throw the cloth in the washing machine and wash it as usual.
3. That’s it. The stain will be gone, hopefully.

 

7. Talcum Powder

Another thing on your dresser that will help you get the olive oil stain out of your cloth is talcum powder. Talcum powder can generally be used to get all oil stains out of the fabrics.

This method is convenient and easy. However, the results require an overnight wait. In addition to that, talcum powder has more chance of removing the stain successfully if the olive oil stain is fresh. If you’ve got talcum powder nearby, grab it and follow the steps below.

1. Sprinkle the talcum powder on the stain to cover the whole stain. Talcum powder will soak the stain. The longer you let it sit, the better. That is why we recommend leaving the talcum powder on the stain for at least 12 to 15 hours.
2. After the waiting period, use a toothbrush to brush off the talcum powder from your cloth gently. Using a brush and not rubbing it off with your hands is essential, especially if the fabric is delicate.
3. Once the talcum powder is off, notice if the stain is gone. Suppose the stain isn’t visible; congratulations! If not, you might have a more challenging stain on your cloth. In that case, try out different methods.

 

Conclusion

If olive oil is part of your regular cooking ingredients, it is more likely than not that you will get a drizzle or a spatter of olive oil on your clothes at some point. And olive oil stains can be really hard to remove. You need to be prepared.

Luckily, now you know seven different methods to get the stain out. The great part of these methods is that they all use things that you are likely to find sitting around your house; kitchen, bedroom, bathroom, or garden. You don’t have to go out, especially to buy anything to get the job done.

A thing to remember here is that once you notice the stain, it is important to move as swiftly as possible and act immediately; otherwise, the stain might stick and make it nearly impossible to remove.

In order to preserve your garment, you need to follow the instructions in each step carefully. We hope it works for you.