Ice Cream Stains

Ice cream is everyone’s favourite. It brings joy to children and grown-ups alike! Not only is it a delicious treat, but it also helps cool you down on a hot summer day. But that tasty cone of ice cream can become a thing of danger pretty quick – ice cream is runny when it begins to melt, and it can easily run down your hands or drip over onto your clothes. Ice cream also causes a stain, and you won’t even realise it at first. But Vanish tackles ice cream stains quite easily. In this article, we take a look at the history of ice-cream, and how to get rid of ice cream stains on your clothes.

Ice cream has a long and interesting history – it is believed that it was first made in China as early as 200 BC[1], and it has existed in various forms and flavours all over the globe. The invention of the refrigerator and freezing systems made it much easier to buy and store ice cream in large quantities, and soon, it exploded in popularity as a family snack. Ice cream is typically made of a mixture of cream and/or milk, sugar, and even eggs. It is frozen while churned, and the preferred flavours are added to the mixture while it is pasteurized.

The most famous kinds of ice cream are also likely to be your favourite flavour: Vanilla, Strawberry or Chocolate (together, making a Neapolitan ice cream). Of course, there are scores of other flavours; mint, coffee, and caramel are some examples, but there are many more examples of rarer tastes. If you’re thinking of having a cool summer party for your children, you could have an ice cream flavour party – you can have many flavours on offer, which will help you decide your favourite and also create new and interesting combinations. Most importantly, it will keep all of you cool on a hot summer day.

Almost all ice cream stains are composed of the same set of chemicals (essentially, they are a mixture of cream and/or milk, and sugar), although on a very small level the flavour additives might have different compositions. As such, the stains are 99% the same, whatever flavour of ice cream you choose.

If you’ve spilled ice cream on your clothes, try and blot the stain away or sponge away the excess if you are still away from home. If you can, you should remove the garment and flush it with cold water – do not use hot water, because it will react with the proteins in the stain and make it harder to remove. Always remove any excess with a spoon by dabbing it away from the stain, and not into the fabric. Use a damp paper towel or cloth if running water to wash the stain is not available.

When you get home, you just need Vanish to complete the stain removal job:

1. Dissolve one scoop of Vanish Gold Oxi Action Powder in 4L of warm water (the maximum temperature should not exceed 40°C).
2. Soak the clothing as directed. Coloured clothing should be soaked for about an hour, and whites should be soaked for up to six hours.
3. Now wash the clothes as usual with detergent. Add another scoop of Vanish to the washing machine for best stain removal power.