Probably one of your most cherished pieces of clothing is made from cashmere. Cashmere is made from the softest undercoat hair of a mountain goat. It is soft, warm and luxurious. If you have accidentally gotten a makeup stain on your cashmere, you may be heartbroken, but you need not be because you may be able to remove the stain successfully without damaging the cashmere.

The majority of make-up stains will have some amount of grease and it is important to promptly begin to remove those stains from your cashmere garment. Begin by gently blotting the stain to remove any excess make-up. After you have blotted as much as you could, cover the make-up stain with baking soda. The baking soda will absorb much of the grease. Leave the baking soda on the stain for at least twenty minutes or more. It will not harm your cashmere. Shake or brush the baking soda off the cashmere.

Most cashmere garments have a dry clean only tag, but that is to protect the manufacturer. Cashmere can be hand washed using a gentle shampoo or baby shampoo in cool water. This cleaning method is actually recommended to keep your cashmere more supple and last longer than dry cleaning your cashmere. Pre-treating the make-up stain on your cashmere by soaking the stain in the shampoo, or using a dish-washing soap that cuts grease, like Dawn, will probably remove the make-up stain. After the pre-treatment, hand wash your cashmere garment using cool water and shampoo. Be sure not to twist or wring out the cashmere, but squeeze the excess moisture out from the garment.

There is an unofficial remedy for removing lipstick from cashmere by pre-treating the stain with spraying WD-40 on the stain, blotting the stain, re-spraying if necessary, then hand-washing. Try this method at your own risk. WD-40 is known as an effective solution for removing grease stains from other fabrics.

There are a few make-up stains that do not contain grease, like some eye shadows, blush, and facial powders. These stains can be removed from your cashmere garment by pre-soaking the stain in mild shampoo before hand washing. You can also gently rub the stain with a facial bar soap, like one that you would use to remove make-up from your face, before hand-washing. Both methods work well to remove non-greasy make-up stains from your cashmere garment.

It is better to avoid any type of stain on your cashmere garment than to work at removing a stain. One of the more common places on your cashmere garment for make-up stains is the neckline. To avoid those make-up stains, wear a silk, or other fabric, scarf under your cashmere neckline. This will look stylish and, hopefully, avoid a make-up stain from getting on your cashmere garment.