This Diwali, protect your festive outfits from food stains that ruin them!

Reading time: 5 minutes

The highlight of Diwali is the food and fashion. However, if any of the food materials find their way onto the clothes, they can potentially ruin your outfit! This might happen because Diwali food is filled with heavy curries, special spices and sticky oil that can leave some of the toughest greasy stains. Such food items that you might spill on our clothes are

• Gulab jamun

• Kheer

• Dal Makhani

• Paneer tikka

• Rajma Chawal

• Chhole Bhature

• Butter

These food items are made from a blend of various spices that stick to your garments, which are tough to remove. Naturally, these stains need the right and vigorous treatment to prevent them from setting in and damaging your clothes. Such treatment also prevents these greasy stains from permeating into the fabric and treats the intricacies of the clothes with care. Treatment catering to these concerns is easier than you think! We have listed below some simple tasks you can follow to save your festive outfits.

1. Act as soon as possible

Curries and desserts can leave some of the toughest stains on your outfit, and they won’t stand the test of time. Desserts such as kheer contain milk as the prominent ingredient, which can leave a stain on your outfit. It may not be obvious because of the pale colour, but it can potentially affect the fabric of clothes. You can blame this on the protein and fat content in milk that sticks to the cloth and leaves a long-lasting mark. This is why it is ideal for taking quick action because the longer you keep the stain, the harder it gets to remove.

Another food item that messes up your fabulous outfit is the flavourful curry! Made from our favourite spices like curry powder, cumin, cinnamon, turmeric and so on, these curries form a tough stain on your clothes. But the one unhinged ingredient difficult to remove is turmeric. Turmeric contains a non-soluble element called curcumin that demands a more intense cleaning process than our regular one. Before this ingredient settles on the fabric, follow the next point.

2. Scrape the stain and then blot

When beginning your remedial method to remove these tough stains, begin with scraping, which works wonderfully. Remedy the staining by:

• Step 1: Removing the food elements as much as possible from the surface of your clothes. You can use flat objects such as a butter knife or spoon to make this process easier. If you look for other objects to remove these stains, steer away from using towels or napkins to scrape the stain away. Using such materials will only make it worse because their thickness and larger surface area can spread the stain more.

• Step 2: Once you scrape away the remnants of the food particles, take a wet tissue to gently blot on the stain without rubbing or spreading it to remove the grease as much as possible.

• Step 3: Once you do this, you need a concentrated detergent to completely remove these stains. And we have found the best product to complete your task! Surf Excel Matic Power Concentrate is specially formulated to remove the toughest of stains, which ensures 2X clean and a superior wash with their deep stain-removal technology by only using HALF A CAP for a full load. What’s more you ask? This innovative formula dissolves completely in machine on its own without leaving any residue in the machine or on clothes, so now it's time to be stain-free and stress-free!

GSC Tip: If you want to get rid of the stain, always start from the outside of the stain and not in the middle. When you start from the middle, the stain can end up spreading and getting bigger.

3. Avoid relying on dousing the stains with hacks

Needless to say, your Diwali clothes are special and quite expensive than your normal ones. Hence, where it’s passable to use some hacks you found online to remove the stains, keep your Diwali clothes away from them. Some hacks like nail polish remover, seltzer and hair spray might work on certain fabric materials. However, when used on the wrong fabric, they may actually worsen the stain and even damage the cloth. These hacks also work on specific types of food materials as well as non-food elements. Hence, you have to be careful in thoroughly reading the instructions before you use any of these hacks. With your festive clothes, you cannot take chances!

4. Know the stains you are dealing with

Your Diwali food can leave different types of stains, including tannin and protein-based food stains. Along with the concern of removing these tough stains, you also want to avoid using the wrong process and ruining the integrity of the fabric. Before you get into the removal process, you need to know what you are dealing with.

Soak tannin stains like turmeric-filled curries or palak paneer in cold water after scraping and blotting the stains. Follow this by washing it with the usual cycle and adding a detergent with a concentrated formula. If you think these stubborn stains require a large amount of detergent, then you don’t have to worry about that. Surf Excel Matic Power Concentrate just uses HALF A CAP of detergent for a full load. All you need to do is pour half a cap in the machine for a full load and get the best results. Additionally, its new intense fragrance is exotic and has a dewy and floral fruity note that gives a long-lasting effect! And if you worry about maintaining the integrity and texture of the fabrics, then rest assured. This detergent treats your clothes with extensive care and prevents any damage to them.

For protein-based food items like kheer that stick to your clothes, you can pre-treat them with cold water and put them into the washer.

Did you know:

When washing your stained clothes, always check labels. They provide critical information about the way fabrics should be washed; whether it is water temperature, the type of drying required or if they should be dry cleaned only.

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