Please help me clean the bathtub before my relatives find out and kill me.

May 23, 2008 4:32 PM

How to remove dye (paper, not hair) from a bathtub?

Ok, here's the incredibly stupid thing that I did:
1. I was sitting on the edge of a bathtub painting my toenails...and dropped the bottle and spilled polish all over the tub.
2. I tried to clean it up with nail polish remover...using some flower-print paper napkins (they were just the first thing I saw in the bathroom), and got the red dye from the flower print all over the tub (the nail polish came up, though).
2.5 I also dropped a ceramic tray and badly chipped it during this process, but I can't be bothered to care about that right now.
3. I tried cleaning up the dye with Clorox spray, which did not work AT ALL. Gaaaaah.

I am at the home of relatives who will hate me forever if they find out I ruined their fancy tub. Please help.

posted by naoko to home & garden (10 comments total)

Have you tried a Mr. Clean Magic Eraser? Those things really are wonderful. Do a test spot first, though, in case the tub shows scratches.
posted by The corpse in the library at 4:43 PM on May 23, 2008

seconding the magic eraser
posted by kimdog at 4:59 PM on May 23, 2008

If the tub is white (or at least not some funky color like blue or pink), try saturating paper towels with pure undiluted bleach and letting them sit on the stains overnight.
posted by needs more cowbell at 5:10 PM on May 23, 2008

Oh, and I'm assuming it's a regular porcelain tub, not some newfangled fiberglass thing. I have no idea if bleach would mess up fiberglass.
posted by needs more cowbell at 5:12 PM on May 23, 2008

Didn't you just prove that the dye is soluable by nail polish remover by getting into this mess? Plain white paper towels soaked in nail polish remover should do the trick.

Another advantage is that you also already proved that nail polish remover will not damage this tub.

Good luck!
posted by Xoder at 5:25 PM on May 23, 2008 [3 favorites]

My vote is for (white) cotton balls with nail polish remover. Xoder is right that you've already learned the dye is soluble in polish remover.
posted by bassjump at 6:03 PM on May 23, 2008

I would try comet or some other scrubby powder cleaner. Abrasives all the way, it seemed to work when I did the hair-dye tub staining.
posted by that girl at 7:22 PM on May 23, 2008

For a few random dyes just pouring hydrogen peroxide on them makes them disappear.
posted by 517 at 9:27 PM on May 23, 2008

I clean houses. I've found that concentrate Citra-solv works good on these kinds of stains.
posted by keith0718 at 11:15 PM on May 23, 2008

Thanks all - I was out of nail polish remover and so couldn't use more of that, but I tried rubbing alcohol (sort of worked) and then Magic Eraser - those things really are amazing! I will have to buy some to keep around my house.
posted by naoko at 4:54 PM on May 24, 2008