Skip to content
Home » Blog » Blog » Sunscreens staining your kit?

Sunscreens staining your kit?

Are you using sunscreen and finding your white clothes now have orange sunscreen stains or your dark clothes have white stains?

Mineral sunscreens contain titanium oxide and zinc oxide which can produce white stains on your darker bike clothes. These will gneerally wash out with detergent. The orange stains on light colored clothes are produced by the UV absorbing chemical ingredients in the sunscreens that use chmical UV absorbers. These compounds bind with iron in your sweat and will not wash out with detergents or bleaches.

Here is a link to Chemical and Engineering news graphic that explains the mechanism and offers a solution – soak your stained clothing in a citric acid solution.