While sunscreen is necessary in the hot months, it can be frustrating to find lovely white clothing tinged with yellow or brown stains even after a wash.
Sunscreen will stain clothing for two reasons, namely because of the oil and the UV filters which are used it the manufacture. Oil based sunscreen are particularly difficult to remove.
The protection factor in sunscreen comes from a substance called avobenzone, but you may have seen it labelled as butyl methoxydibenzoylmethane.
These filters are normally organic and work to absorb UV rays. They also tend to have a light yellow colour which is what causes the yellow staining on clothing.
Over time they oxidise and turn darker or even slightly orange when it is far more difficult to remove them.
While we can use bleach and whitening products, these will also cause damage to fibres eventually.
According to experts, the item to use is lemon juice. They also recommend line drying as the combination of sunlight and lemon juice will eliminate those stains.
Simply squirt some lemon juice onto the stained area before washing as normal. Rather than hanging inside or using a drier, hang the clothing out on the line so that the sun can reach it.
It is the combination of sunlight and lemon juice that really does the job to remove sunscreen stains and get whites back to bright rather than grey.
The experts from Persil are very quick to suggest that hanging white clothing out in the sun will naturally bleach it in a safe and gentle way. Using lemon juice before the wash will get rid of sunscreen stains quickly and effectively.
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