Spirit Gum is a type of body glue. Many burlesque performers use Spirit Gum to stick on pasties.
It’s a pretty tough glue and can be hard to remove from your skin without the right knowledge. But it’s even harder to get out of clothing.
We’ve all been lazy in our time and just thrown a bra or shirt on over our bare, post pastie nips. And many a beautiful clothing piece has felt absolutely ruined by the glue residue. I did this a few years ago and thought it would ‘wash out’… it does not.
After a bit of thinking and trying, I found how to get that pesky glue out of my shirt.
Behold, the secret to removing Spirit Gum from clothing!!
Step 1: Soak item in warm to hot water (I accidentally left mine for like a day, but the second one I only left for 15-20 mins)
Step 2: Rub Sard Wonder Soap (eucalyptus) on the spirit gum stain.
For the non-Australian’s Sard Wonder Soap is a brand of Laundry Soap in bar form that has eucalyptus as one of its ingredients. Eucalyptus is infamously used for removing ‘sticky’ substances like stickers and labels
Step 3: Use a nail brush, rubbed also on the sard wonder soap, and scrub the spirit gum stain – be sure to rub in two directions, up and down and across
Step 4: Rinse and check spirit gum stain, continue with the nail brush and focus on clumps. I also used Sard wonder spray (also with eucalyptus) as an additional soaper.
Step 5: once the stain is gone (or mostly gone), pop it through the wash – warm is probably a good idea if you can.
Check your piece once dry, scratch off any remaining flakes, or if it’s still stuck though in the fabric, repeat the above process again.
Hot Tip:
If you are using Spirit Gum and removing your pasties before you get home – pop a tissue or toilet paper over each nipple before putting on your bra or shirt to protect your clothing!
