A splatter on your shirt or a dropped pat on your pants can quickly turn butter from a beloved ingredient to a laundry nightmare. However, plenty of stain removal methods can prevent a butter-stained item of clothing from being ruined forever. You can even turn to everyday household products you might already have, like liquid laundry detergent, dish soap, cornstarch, and baby powder.
Learn how to remove butter stains from clothes with our tips and techniques—including the right products and methods for different fabric types.
Prepare Properly
Before getting started, check the care label on the butter-stained item for instructions on how to wash it, including the water temperature to use and any products to avoid. Garments labeled “dry-clean only” should be sent for professional cleaning; when dropping the item of clothing off, point out the area where the butter stain is so it can be spot-treated for the best results.
In addition to checking the care label, consult our guide to getting grease stains out of clothing. It will inform you which stain removal agents and techniques are best for different fabric types, including cotton, synthetics like polyester and spandex, and delicate fabrics like silk, velvet, and wool.
Then, determine whether the stain is fresh, dried, or deeply set in, as the methods used to remove a butter stain as soon as it happens differ from the best technique for older, more set-in butter stains.
Use the hottest water the garment can tolerate when washing an item of clothing with a butter stain, and air-dry the garment until you are sure the stain is gone. Dryer heat will set the stain.
How to Get Butter Out of Clothes
Use Liquid Soap
Liquid soaps, such as dish soap, liquid laundry detergent, hand soap, and clear body washes, can be used to remove butter stains from clothes. This method works best on fresh stains or stains only a few days old and is recommended for use on clothing made from cotton, canvas, linen, nylon, polyester, spandex, or Lycra.
To use liquid soap to treat a butter stain:
- Saturate the area with the soap.
- Massage the liquid soap into the stain using the pads of your fingers or a clean, white cloth.
- Allow the soap a few minutes to penetrate and break down the butter.
- Machine wash the garment according to the instructions on its care label, using the hottest water temperature the fabric can tolerate.
- Air-dry the garment.
Grease stains that didn’t come out in the wash might be obscured when the clothing is wet, and exposing a still-stained garment to the heat of a dryer can set the stain. Repeat the stain-removal process if the butter stain remains after washing and air-drying the garment.
Use Pine Cleaner
Multi-purpose pine cleaners like Pine Sol and Lestoil are excellent at removing grease stains, including butter, from clothing. Pine cleaners are ideal for treating dried butter stains on machine-washable fabrics like cotton, canvas, linen, nylon, polyester, spandex, or Lycra.
If you don’t have a pine cleaner on hand, a stain pretreatment agent formulated for food stains is a good substitute. Better Homes and Gardens recommends Seventh Generation Laundry Stain Remover ($28) at Amazon. In a test of the best laundry stain removers, it was our top pick for food stains.
To use pine cleaner to pretreat a butter stain:
- Apply a small amount of pine cleaner to a white cloth.
- Dab the cleaner onto the stained area of the garment rather than pour pine cleaner directly onto a butter-stained item of clothing.
- Wait 5 minutes for the pine cleaner to penetrate and break down the butter stain.
- Wash the garment using the hottest water temperature it can tolerate.
- Air-dry the garment.
If the stain remains after laundering, repeat the process or use the cornstarch or baby powder butter stain removal method.
Use Cornstarch or Baby Powder
Absorbent powders, such as cornstarch or baby powder, can remove butter and other grease stains from fabrics. This method is particularly effective on dried, old, or deeply set-in butter, oil, and grease stains. Absorbents are also recommended for removing butter stains from delicate or non-washable fabrics like suede, chenille, corduroy, leather, silk, velvet, and wool.
To use an absorbent powder like cornstarch or baby powder to remove a butter stain:
- Lay the garment flat on a surface where it can remain undisturbed for an hour up to overnight. Fresh butter stains may only need five minutes for an absorbent to pull out the grease. However, leave cornstarch or baby powder on older butter stains for at least an hour—ideally overnight—to allow time for the powder to slowly pull out the butter.
- Make an anthill-style pile of powder on top of the stain; you don’t need a huge mound, but the method requires more than a sprinkling of cornstarch or baby powder.
- Allow the absorbent powder time to pull out the stain.
- Dispose of the powder in a trash can and brush away any residue on the garment.
If needed, repeat the process to absorb more of the butter if residue from the stain remains on the garment.