I Tested 4 Ways to Remove Blood Stains from Clothes, and the Winner Only Took 1 Try
As far as laundry stains go, blood may not be the most common in my household (that goes to oil splatters, followed closely by food from sticky toddler hands), but it is one of the most annoying to deal with. Whether it’s a small smear from a scrape or a larger spot from a menstrual mishap, figuring out how to get blood out of clothes has often taken me more than one round of spot treatment before I could declare victory.
I wanted to save my future self some time on re-treating my clothes by finding the best method for getting blood stains out the first try. To do that, I tested four expert-approved methods for removing blood from clothes — and I found a runaway winner that I’ll be relying on from now on.
The Best Way to Get Blood Out of Clothes
Mix one tablespoon of OxiClean with one quart of cold water, then soak the clothing in it for at least 15 minutes before washing as normal. Make sure to only use cold water for pre-treating and washing blood-stained clothes and skip the dryer, as heat can cause the stains to set, making them harder to remove.
How I Tested the Methods
Since I don’t generally keep bloody clothes on hand (and I certainly can’t produce them on command), instead of actual blood, I used a faux blood concoction for my test. I got the bulk of the faux blood recipe from Rockport Publishers, and added egg white because it mimics the proteins in blood coagulation, according to the National Library of Medicine. This is the recipe I followed:
- one part corn syrup
- one part egg white
- a few drops of red food coloring with a drop of green to add depth
- roughly one teaspoon of cocoa powder for opacity
I used the faux blood to dot some white cotton T-shirts, making spots of roughly the same size on each. I tried to add some variety in the types of blood stains, using a fork to apply larger drips and wiping smears on with my fingers to mimic an accidental brush-up.
I let the faux blood spots rest overnight to mimic dried, set-in blood stains. Pros recommend blotting dried stains with a cloth and cold water to remove as much as possible before treating, so that’s what I did before applying each of the pre-treatment methods outlined below.
These were the four methods I tested:
The ratings: For each method, I gave one rating for the results (how well it worked to remove the blood stains), and one rating for the ease of use. Both ratings are on a scale of 1 to 5, with 1 being the lowest and 5 being the highest.
Method 1: Hydrogen Peroxide
Results: 1/5
Ease of Use: 3/5
Method: I used cold water to remove as much of the dried-on faux blood as I could. Then, I squirted hydrogen peroxide on the stains before adding the T-shirt to the wash where I laundered as normal using cold water.
How it went: This was a messier application process than the sprays I tested. I placed the shirt in a sink to squirt the hydrogen peroxide on it without getting it everywhere, but I didn’t feel like I had a lot of control as to how much I was using or where it went. I ended up more or less covering the whole shirt in hydrogen peroxide. Even so, the method didn’t do much! It left behind just as much staining as Nature’s Miracle did, with lots of pink blotches that definitely need another round of stain removal.
Method 2: Nature’s Miracle Stain and Odor Remover
Results: 1/5
Ease of Use: 5/5
Method: After using cold water to remove as much of the dried-on faux blood as I could, I sprayed Nature’s Miracle Stain and Odor Remover on the stain. I let it sit for 10 minutes, then added it to the washing machine to launder as usual in cold water.
How it went: The spray bottle made for a quick application that was pretty accurate, too — I was able to spray where I needed without dousing the entire shirt. Unfortunately, this method didn’t do much to remove the stains in question. I’m not sure that any of the spots were fully removed; instead, it left behind pink splotches for all of them. While I love Nature’s Miracle for any dog-related accidents (urine especially), it wasn’t anywhere near as effective for removing blood stains.
Method 3: Wine Away
Results: 3/5
Ease of Use: 5/5
Method: After using cold water to remove as much of the “blood” as I could, I sprayed Wine Away on the stain. I added it to the washer while still wet, laundering as usual, making sure to use cold water so as not to further set the stain.
How it went: As with Nature’s Miracle, the spray bottle makes this a convenient product for treating stains, since you have a lot of control of where and how much you’re applying, unlike with the hydrogen peroxide. Wine Away worked well for the smaller smeared blood spots, which were basically gone after laundering. However, it wasn’t able to remove the larger blood splotches entirely; there was a very noticeable pink stain left over. If this is the only spot treatment option you have on hand, it’s not a bad one — but don’t expect it to completely erase bigger, deeper stains.
Method 4: OxiClean
Results: 4/5
Ease of Use: 3/5
Method: I used cold water to remove as much of the dried-on faux blood as I could, then mixed one tablespoon of OxiClean with a quart of water, and applied the mixture to the stains. I added the T-shirt to the washer while it was still wet and laundered normally, making sure to use cold water.
How it went: Having to mix up my own pre-treatment wasn’t hard, but it was an added step compared to ready-made stain removers. Spreading the watery OxiClean mixture to the stains was about as messy as the hydrogen peroxide method, so I couldn’t be super precise in my application. I started out using a toothbrush to brush it on, but that wasn’t particularly effective and ended up just pouring it over the stains. If I were to do this again, I’d just mix up a soak (more on that below). After washing, though, the shirt had almost no evidence of any blood stains whatsoever — just a small pink splotch on the bottom right quadrant that’s hardly visible at all in photos.
Conclusion
There was no question: The best method for removing blood stains, by far, was the sodium percarbonate bleach alternative, aka OxiClean, as this was the only method that made any significant difference in the blood stains, even if they were fake. I applied it directly to the stain rather than soaking to be consistent across the methods I tested, but if I were to do it again, I’d definitely put the whole shirt into an OxiClean solution and let it soak for at least a few hours before laundering. It would be cleaner and easier to just dunk it and leave it, and would probably take care of the stubborn last bits I wasn’t able to remove with the surface application method.
Regardless of your stain removal method, make sure to avoid heat until the stain is gone, since heat can further set the stain in place and make it harder to remove. That means you should always use cold water in the wash and skip the dryer for blood stains in clothes — air dry or line dry instead, if you can. If you still see spots, you can pre-treat and wash for round two.