A customer brought in a cotton shirt labeled “hand wash or dry clean.” The fabric looked delicate, so extra care was required.
There were multiple stains across the shirt that appeared to be paint.
Since the stains looked water-soluble, I performed a light rinse, and some of the stains started to come out. Because the garment needed to be handled gently, I applied Shout to the stained areas to assist with stain removal, let it sit for 2–3 minutes, then ran a hand wash cycle.
Most of the stains were removed, but a few remained. For the remaining spots, I applied InkGo, waited 2–3 minutes, and ran another hand wash cycle.
The stains were completely removed.
🧺 Pro Tip from a Dry Cleaner
In this case, we got lucky — it was a water-soluble stain, so it came out without much trouble. But oil-based paint is a different story. When it gets on fabrics with low color fastness — like linen, denim, or silk — even professional dry cleaners struggle to remove it safely without damaging the fabric. The solvent strong enough to dissolve the paint is often strong enough to lift the dye too. So the best advice I can give: don’t let oil-based paint anywhere near your good clothes.