Paint on my pants

October 29, 2006 7:33 AM

Last night in the course of being "Mime Donald Trump", I got white grease paint on my pants. Is there a way to get this off of the pants? Will a dry cleaners be able to do it? Are there any home remedies I can use?
posted by josher71 to Clothing, Beauty, & Fashion (5 answers total)

Try dishwashing liquid like Dawn.
posted by Packy_1962 at 8:47 AM on October 29, 2006

If it is a commercial greasepaint formula, it is probably a white petrolatum base with zinc oxide powder, talc or other inert white pigment, but the pigment could even be cornstarch or wheat flour. Most dry cleaners can deal with this, but you should call their attention to the stains, for pre-spotting treatment. At home, you could use any effective water-based detergent, and warm (not hot) water, if the fabric is safe for water washing. You may have to try repeated treatments, as the petrolatum base can be fairly resistant to dissolving in water even with strong detergents. If the garment care instructions tag suggest that the pants are dry clean only, and you still want to try removing the spots at home, you could try dissolving the grease paint with an intermediate agent like WD40 (Stoddard solvent), blotting thoroughly with a white terry cloth towel or absorbent tissue, and then using a very light polarizing solvent like pure ethanol or methanol (rubbing alcohol in high concentration [90 % or better]) to remove any traces of Stoddard solvent.
posted by paulsc at 8:49 AM on October 29, 2006

I've always had good luck removing oil stains on clothing with K2R. I'm not sure if it'd be all that effective at removing the pigment, but it's a handy thing to have around the house.
posted by veronica sawyer at 1:14 PM on October 29, 2006

Wait - "Mime Donald Trump"? This thread is useless without pics!
posted by drmarcj at 5:45 PM on October 29, 2006

I've always heard the best thing to do is let the dry cleaners try to get it off before you try anything yourself.
posted by JulianDay at 6:29 PM on October 29, 2006