Removing Fish Oil from Polyester Clothing

[acraven]

I guess it had to happen eventually. I'm in England, and a few days ago I washed a pair of slacks that still had my mid-day vitamins in the pocket. One of the pills was a fish-oil capsule. While there is an obvious advantage to being a cat magnet, London's street cats (if any) are invisible during daylight hours, and I'd prefer not to smell as if I just finished a double shift in a fish restaurant.

I've washed the pants 3 times. On the last attempt I used way more Woolite than necessary and let the pants soak for about 6 hours. I can still smell fish, and I'm not sure the third wash improved the situation at all.

Is there any hope I can get rid of the smell when I return home and have access to a washing machine? Maybe a vinegar rinse? If the situation is hopeless, I'll go ahead and discard the pants now to reduce the weight of my suitcase. I do have Zip Lock bags with me, so I can keep the odor from spreading to my other clothes. I hope.

What would FSU do?

 

[Japanfan]

I would think the smell would eventually go away?

If not, and if I really liked the pants, I'd probably see if a dry cleaner could get rid of the smell before I tried a vinegar rinse on my own. If the pants weren't that important to me and getting pants that fit me was easy, I would just trash them and buy a new pair.

 

[hanca]

After washing, could you leave it soak in clothes conditioner? Then just rinse and let it dry.

 

[BittyBug]

Soak the spot with Dawn dishwashing liquid when you return to the U.S.

 

[Aceon6]

Try carpet cleaner. It's formulated to pull stuff out of poly.

 

[acraven]

Multiple great ideas--thank you all. It sounds as if it's worth it to take the pants hone and work on them some more. Unfortunately, we're not talking a discrete spot here. The fish oil capsule dissolved when I initially washed the pants. The odor is stronger around the pocket, but it's not limited to that area.

 

[Lizziebeth]

Oh my, I am glad that the rest of your load of wash did not smell like fish!

I often put liquid laundry soap directly on the area with a stain and most of the time, the stain comes out. I have no personal experience with fishy smells. Good luck.

 

[acraven]

I've thought of another possibility: I think I still have one of those enzyme cleansers designed for treating cat-urine spots on carpet and wood floors. I think I'm going to be running some science experiments when I get home.

 

[TheGirlCanSkate]

I would try Folex. It's pretty awesome stuff.

Dawn is great at removing oil very gently. It's what they use on birds!