Banish sun cream stains from white clothes with three simple steps

One task many people dread after returning home from a holiday is doing the laundry.

Clothes are bound to get dirty during a trip abroad and if there’s no way to wash them, the only option is to wait until you get home. There are several ways clothes can become stained, such as by food and drink or sweat when visiting a hot country.

Sun cream stains in particular can be particularly challenging to remove, especially from white clothing. Anna Louisa is a home and cleaning content creator who regularly shares tips and tricks and is the author of The 5 Minute Clean Routine.

In a recent post on Instagram she gave her guide on how she gets rid of sun cream stains from white clothing and brightens them too. The cleaning fan said: “The worst part about coming back from a holiday by far is the mountains of laundry that come home with you.”

Anna thinks white clothes are “screaming” to be stripped of sun cream stains and brightens. She then shared how she cleans them in three simple steps.

The cleaning guru begins by soaking the sun-cream stained clothes in citric acid for a few hours before putting them in the washing machine as normal but she replaces fabric softener for white vinegar and a scoop of Oxi Powder. After this, she dries the clothes by hanging them on her washing line in the sunlight for “extra brightening power”.

In the caption of her Instagram post Anna advises that citric acid isn’t suitable for silk, leather or suede. She additionally said to check the sun cream stains have been removed before drying, mentioning you may need to repeat the cleaning process as when dried the marks “can set in deeper”.

Skincare brand Eucerin explains sun cream commonly stains clothes because of the oil and UV filters in the formula. Sun cream usually contains avobenzone, a chemical ingredient that has a slight yellow colour as it absorbs UV rays.

This colour leads to the initial yellow sun cream stains on clothes and according to Eucerin, avobenzone is prone to oxidation, which causes yellow-orange stains to deepen in colour over time and become more difficult to clean. It adds light coloured clothes and clothing made from natural fibres, like cotton, are most vulnerable to sun cream stains.

Persil has further given some tips to removing sun cream stains from white clothing. Like Anna, it also recommends hanging white clothing out to dry in the sun, explaining the sun is good at naturally bleaching stained white clothing in a safe and gentle way.

The laundry detergent brand notes lemon juice can enhance the sun’s natural bleaching effect, so for particularly tough stains, it advises applying a small amount of lemon juice to the yellowed area before hanging it out to dry. Anna’s Instagram video demonstrating how she removes sun cream stains from white clothes has garnered 552,000 views, more than 4,300 likes and numerous comments, at the time of writing.

One user said: “Well I didn’t realise citric acid would be the key.” Another admitted: “Wow I wish I saw this sooner. I threw away some dresses because I couldn’t get sunscreen out.”

They added: “I now don’t pack whites for beach holidays. [I] Will have to try your method next time.” A third viewer commented: “Saved, sun cream stains [are] my worst post holiday laundry problem!” Others described Anna’s tips as “so helpful”, “amazing” and “so clever.”