Salad Dressing Stain Removal
Guide For Both Creamy And Vinaigrette Dressings

Salad dressing stain removal becomes necessary when that bottle of dressing you were using goes flying out of your hand and splatters all over the floor, or drips on your clothes.

Below are step by step instructions for removing dressing stains, whether vinegar and oil based or cream based, from your clothing, upholstery and carpet.

Where there are different steps for the various types of dressing they will be noted.

Further, if you have a salad dressing stain which has a tomato base, check out this page on tomato stains.

If these instructions do not work for you I also suggest checking out the A-Z Stain Removal Guide for instructions on how to remove various ingredients contained within the dressing.

Salad Dressing Stain Removal From Clothing And Other Washable Fabric

Step 1: Scrape off any excess salad dressing from the fabric, being careful not to spread it further.

Step 2: Run the fabric, inside out, under the cold water to flush out as much of the dressing as possible, if it is a cream based dressing.

Step 3a: If this a cream based dressing follow subsection a of Step 3. Pretreat the creamy stain with liquid laundry detergent containing enzymes, soaking for 30 minutes in cold water, or in the alternative pretreat with an enzyme pretreater. Do not use hot water. (If the stain is older, you may need to soak even longer, perhaps even overnight).

Step 3b: If this is a vinegar and oil based dressing follow subsection b of Step 3. Rub a small amount of hand dishwashing soap into the fabric. Then, rinse the stained area well, flushing away the dishwashing liquid solution and oil from the vinaigrette dressing.

Step 4: Pretreat with a laundry stain remover.

Step 5: Launder in the hottest water allowed for the fabric to thoroughly remove the stain, using either chlorine bleach if the fabric will allow it, or color safe bleach if not.

Hint: Make sure the stain is gone after washing, but before you place in the dryer or you may set it. Repeat if necessary.

Stain Removal Of Salad Dressing From Upholstery

Step 1: Scrape off any excess salad dressing from the upholstery, being careful not to spread or grind it into the upholstery.

Step 2: Place an absorbent, such as cornstarch or baking soda, onto the stain, and let it soak in for approximately 15 minutes. This will help absorb the oily portion of the spot.

Step 3: Scrape or vacuum up the absorbent, which has absorbed some of the oil or other liquid.

Hint: Depending on the amount of the oil within the spot you may need to repeat this step a couple of times until no more oil is absorbed by the baking soda or cornstarch.

Step 4: Mix a solution of two cups cool water and one tablespoon dishwashing liquid.

Step 5: Using this solution, sponge the spot with a clean white cloth.

Step 6: Next, blot until the liquid is absorbed.

Step 7: Repeat steps 5-6 until the stain is removed from the upholstery.

Step 8: Now that the spot is removed you should get plain cold water and a new white cloth and sponge the area to remove the cleaning solution, and then blot dry.

Hint: Be sure to get the upholstery only as wet as necessary to remove the salad dressing stain.

In the alternative you may try a dry cleaning solvent for salad dressing stain removal from upholstery.

You can get more information on how to clean upholstery here.

Vinegar And Oil Dressing And Creamy Dressing Stain Removal From Carpet

The instructions for salad dressing stain removal from carpet is the same as for upholstery.

Recommended Salad Dressing Stain Removers

Perhaps you don't want to make your own stain remover, but instead want to use something designed for salad dressing stain removal. Here are some articles and reviews on this site which discuss various products that are designed to remove these spots:

Presoaking With Oxiclean Works For Me

Presoaking With Biz Works Miracles

Restaurant Server Uses Lestoil

You can also share your own stain remover reviews here for other removers that work on dressing, or any other stain.

Do You Have Any Tips To Share For Removing These Stains?

I'm always looking for more tips and ideas for how to remove stains. You can share your stain removal tip here, for removing stains caused by salad dressing or anything else.

Get Even More Stain And Spot Removal Help Here

Are you a stain magnet like me? If so, check out the A to Z Stain Removal Guide which gives directions for how to remove over 100 types of stains from all kinds of surfaces.

Third photo courtesy of whitneyinchicago and fourth photo by AlishaV and

Related Pages You May Enjoy

A-Z Stain Guide: Instructions For Removing Over 100 Types Of Stains

Go From Salad Dressing Stain Removal To Home Page

CAUTION: This website is provided for informational purposes only. It is provided as is, without warranties or guarantees. Some stains and messes just won't come out, and are permanent. Further, some cleaning methods can harm your item, so if what you want to clean or launder is sentimental or expensive call a professional. See disclaimer of liability for more information.