It’s all too simple to get highlighter on your clothes when you’re assisting your children with their homework or reviewing the paperwork you brought home from the office. When this occurs, you are left with a stain that is neon-colored and appears to be permanent. Fortunately, there are simple tools you already have at home that you can use to learn how to remove highlighter from clothing.
Applying rubbing alcohol, hand sanitizer, or specific ink removers to a fresh stain will work best to remove highlighter stains from clothing. The stain can also be removed by rubbing in laundry detergent or dry cleaning solution. In some cases, vinegar or salt water combined with a baking solution will also work.
Learn why highlighter ink is so difficult to remove in this article. There are nine different ways to remove these stains, which you will also learn. Finally, you can learn how to remove highlighter stains from your mattress, couch, or carpet!
Can You Wash Highlighter Off Of Clothes?
A highlighter stain will be somewhat removed by a standard washing cycle, but not entirely. You will unquestionably need to use a stain treatment to get a neon highlighter stain out of clothing.
Never dry clean clothing that has a highlighter stain on it before getting the stain completely out. Later on, it might be very challenging to remove the fluorescent color due to the heat!
Many highlighter pens do have water-soluble ink, so you might be able to get rid of a lot of the color by giving the stained area of your clothing a quick rinse in water. However, keep in mind that Sharpie highlighters do not contain water-soluble ink.
The majority of highlighter pens use ink made of a particular glycol solvent, water, and a small amount of fluorescent dye pigment. For comparison, an alcohol-based solvent rather than glycol is used in washable children’s markers. Additionally, glycol is used in some inkjet printer cartridges.
Sincere to goodness, most inks won’t fully wash out of clothing during a standard washing cycle. The good news is that using a few inexpensive, everyday items as stain removers can frequently work wonders!
How To Get Highlighter Out Of Clothes: 9 Easy Methods
Try one of these simple stain removal techniques the next time you find a highlighter stain on your clothes! Cleaning with common household items frequently yields incredible results.
Please be aware, however, that some fabric types will respond to various products in a variety of ways. On wool, silk, acetone, or rayon, for instance, you shouldn’t use any product containing alcohol.
Always test new cleaning solutions on a concealed area of your clothing and give them some time to sit. You’re good to go if the product doesn’t ruin the fabric.
1. Rubbing Alcohol
rom here, you can begin applying the rubbing alcohol to your clothes. The most crucial thing to keep in mind about this step is that you must always, always look for a discrete area to test the stain remover. Making sure it doesn’t bleach your fabric or change the texture of the clothing you’re wearing is important.
The seam or the interior of the garment are typically the places where you test the rubbing alcohol. You can rest easy knowing that the job will get done quickly and without having to make a subsequent purchase if you confirm that using rubbing alcohol to remove your highlighter stains is safe.
Once the rubbing alcohol has been examined and found to be safe to use on the fabric you are working with, you should make sure to properly dab up as much ink as you can.
What should ultimately happen is that the stain, along with the rubbing alcohol, should come off onto the paper towels before any noticeable staining has happened. The clothing can then be washed as usual from this point on.
Remember that you can always try again to get a better result if the stain is still present but has faded. You should have a lovely piece of fabric after one or two washes because all of the highlighter ink should have been removed from the fabric.
2. Baking Soda And Vinegar
Another simple method for getting rid of ink stains is vinegar and either cornstarch or baking soda. This procedure could take a little longer if you need to let the vinegar/baking soda application sit for an overnight period of time. However, it’s inexpensive and simple!
There are many stains that vinegar and baking soda can remove, including tough red wine stains!
Why does vinegar remove stains so effectively? The acidity of many stains allows vinegar to dissolve the stain’s components because of its higher acidity.
Use the vinegar method by trying these steps!
- First, thoroughly soak the affected area in vinegar. You might want to spread your clothing over a spotless bucket before applying the vinegar to the stain.
- Next, combine 3 tablespoons of vinegar and 1 tablespoon each of cornstarch or baking soda. A thick paste ought to result from this.
- Rub the paste into the highlighter ink with your fingers or a paper towel. It is ideal for the paste to cover the entire damaged area with a thick coating. If you need more paste, combine a little more vinegar and baking soda.
- Allow the clothing to rest all night. The paste ought to feel crumbly and dry in the morning. Shake off the flakes if you like.
- After that, use your regular detergent to wash the item in the washing machine.
- Look closely to see if there are any traces of color on your clothing. Put the item in the dryer if you can’t find any!
3. Hand Sanitizer
For many stains, such as lipstick, hot sauce, ink, and even blood, hand sanitizer works incredibly well as a stain remover. This provides you with a speedy, practical way to treat stains while you’re away from your laundry room, whether you’re at work or out and about.
The majority of hand sanitizers have fairly high amounts of both ethyl and isopropyl alcohol in them. When used on a stain, hand sanitizer functions similarly to rubbing alcohol!
However, some fabrics’ colors may be bleached by the extremely strong alcohol content. Leather, suede, and silk will all exhibit this bleaching poorly. The application of alcohol will generally not work as well on dark-colored fabric as it will on light-colored fabric.
Apart from that, if you find highlighter ink on your white blouse right before a crucial business meeting, hand sanitizer can save the day!
Try this quick method for emergency ink removal:
- A tissue, paper towel, or white napkin should be covered in hand sanitizer.
- Put yet another tissue against the stained area’s back.
- blot the stain with a moist tissue. Make sure to blot rather than rub or scrub! The stain shouldn’t spread further.
- To get rid of any remaining ink particles, if at all possible, hold the wet area under running water for a minute. You don’t want a huge wet spot on your shirt before a work event, either, if you can’t!), simply dry the area as much as possible by pressing it between two clean tissues or paper towels.
4. Hair Spray
Hair spray isn’t as common today as it was in the 1980s, but if you do keep a bottle in your bathroom cabinet or purse, you can try using it to get rid of ink as well!
You must read the ingredients list on your hairspray before attempting this method. This approach ought to be effective if the product contains alcohol!
Relying On Stain Remover – Quick Solution
Any ink or stain remover can be used as a temporary fix if you don’t have any rubbing alcohol close by. To do this, you must first read the label as it contains usage instructions and other information.
Prior to use, some remover must be diluted in water. Some must be applied directly to dry fabric or wet fabric, as well. Again, some must wash away right away, while others must remain on the fabric for a while. Therefore, you must abide by the remover label’s instructions.
According to my personal experience, Amodex is a reliable stain remover. It aids in the removal of other difficult stains.
Simply apply a small amount of Amodex to the stain to remove highlighter from clothing, though. Check to see if the fabric is dry.
After that, use a brush to scrub the stain thoroughly until it disappears. If more remover is required, apply it to the stain. When all the ink stains are removed, wash the cloth in warm water and liquid detergent.
How Do You Get Old Highlighter Stains Out?
Rubbing alcohol will probably be the most effective way to remove an old highlighter stain, but you can try any of the techniques described in this article.
For some materials, you can also use nail polish remover in place of the rubbing alcohol. Even old and difficult stains can be removed with this strong substance. Nevertheless, you should exercise caution because the acetone in nail polish remover can harm non-colorfast materials like silk and wool.
Finally, if you run out of options, you could try the freezer trick. Put the stained item in your freezer after soaking it in a saltwater bath and wringing it out a little so it isn’t completely wet.
Overnight, let it completely freeze; the next day, defrost it before putting it in the washer.
How To Get Highlighter Out Of Your Fabric Couch, Carpet, And Mattress
Many of the items discussed in this article can be used to remove highlighter stains from your fabric couch, carpet, and mattress, but frequently you need to follow a slightly different procedure. This is due to the fact that you cannot wash or dry your couch in the kitchen sink.
The product, such as rubbing alcohol, must be dabbed onto a pad of paper towels or a fresh, white rag. The stain on the couch, carpet, or mattress can then be removed by using this. As the ink transfers from the stained surface and onto your cleaning cloth, you will probably need to keep replacing the paper towel or rag with new ones.
How Do You Get Sharpie Highlighter Out Of A Blanket?
Blotting the stain with rubbing alcohol will give you the best chance of removing highlighter ink from a comforter. You don’t want to scrub the stain in any way or apply alcohol to it! Instead of removing the neon ink, this might spread it around.
Instead, gently blot the stain with an alcohol-dampened clean cloth or paper towel. Continue doing this until you no longer see any ink.
This trick should work even on a white comforter because rubbing alcohol effectively dissolves both permanent and water-soluble ink.
Conclusion
The next time you notice neon ink on your clothes, don’t freak out! You now understand nine simple methods for eliminating even the most tenacious highlighter ink stains.
It’s simple to get rid of the stain by using laundry detergent, vinegar, hand sanitizer, rubbing alcohol, or hand sanitizer. Lemon juice or salt water are examples of natural products that work well. Finally, you can choose commercial goods like an ink remover or a dry cleaning solvent.
