Removing Sunscreen Stains
During summer months and at warm weather resorts we start to encounter yellow spots on the pool/beach towels and in some cases on the sheets and pillowcases.
One of the biggest reasons for the yellow spots is the use of sunscreens containing zinc oxide. The sunscreens containing zinc oxide are very popular due to its ability to prevent sunburn but also because they can help with chapped skin and abrasions. The downside of using sunscreen with zinc oxide is that when the sunscreen gets on a towel or onto bed linen it can cause yellow spots to appear during the laundering process. The good news is that it is fairly easy to prevent the spots from becoming an issue.
The spots can be eliminated by increasing the laundry sour during the final rinse to 1.5x the normal amount, and increasing the final rinse time to 6:00 minutes. This will prevent the zinc oxide from becoming a problem and preventing the yellow spots on the linen.