The Secret How to Remove Lipstick Stains From a Handbag Lining

Even if you don’t wear a lot of makeup, chances are that you still carry a lipstick with you. Nothing can be more frustrating than finding your lipstick has opened inside your handbag and stained the lining. Instead of letting that problem ruin your day, here are some useful cleaning tips for how to remove lipstick stains from that handbag lining.

What you want to do first is empty your handbag and turn it inside out. This makes the stain easier to see and tackle for working on the problem. If you have a gob of lipstick to accompany the stain, then you want to scrape it off before beginning. A plastic playing card can serve this purpose and can be wiped clean later. You also want to have some clean cotton cloths and cotton swabs within reach.

Now that you have prepped, there are several choices of cleaners for how to remove lipstick stains. You need to be careful and test each cleaning choice first in an inconspicious small spot before rushing in at once to see how the material takes to that cleaner. The reason that you want to take your time is because the materials of handbag linings can vary from cotton, polyester, silk, nylon or a cotton twill.

If the lining is a cotton variety, you can start once you dabbed a dry cotton cloth over it before using equal amounts of liquid laundry detergent and water on the stain. The important thing is to exert as little pressure or vigorous rubbing as possible so not to embed the lipstick and make the stain larger. You can use cotton swabs and dab at it, which exerts less chance of pushing the lipstick into the fabric or a clean cotton cloth to gently blot to clean.

Dab some rubbing alcohol, witch hazel or white vinegar and gently blot the stain. Depending on the fabric, the lipstick may start to lift so a faint stain is left behind. If so, you can use some liquid laundry detergent and water to remove the remaining stain.

My favorite method to remove lipstick stains is using micellar water to clean the spot. Dab some on a clean cloth and blot. I truly had better luck with the micellar water for this purpose.

Since micellar water can also remove waterproof eye makeup, I thought why wouldn’t oil makeup remover that can budge heavy makeup do the same thing on another handbag I had. However, what I discovered was the oil makeup remover only spread the stain and make the problem worse with a larger greasy stain. Then I remembered, micellar water is a water-based makeup remover while the oil makeup remover is the complete opposite, which explained it.

I hope that you don’t run into the problem, but it can always happen. Therefore, it is good to be prepared for how to remove lipstick stains from the lining of your handbag just in case. You also might find it helpful to know how to repair leather scratches on those handbags and shoes.