Consumer Reports tested eight store-bought laundry stain removers and one homemade mix to find out which ones best beat tough stains like coffee, blood, and grass.

Stains happen. A cup of coffee tips over, a kid tracks in grass, or blood shows up from a small cut. Even good laundry detergent can leave marks like these behind. This site exists to make news like this easy to use, so you do not need to be an expert or search for a dictionary just to figure out what to buy.

What Consumer Reports Did

Testers put white cotton fabric through the wringer. They added 11 common stains, including blood, coffee, mustard, and makeup. Then they let the stains sit overnight before treating each one with a different stain remover, based on that product's own instructions.

After washing, they measured leftover color with a tool called a colorimeter. This device reads how much color is still on the fabric, so testers could tell exactly how much of each stain came out. In total, they collected 199 measurements.

The Top Performers

1. OxiClean Max Force came out on top. It fully removed oil, blood, and baby food stains, and it made the biggest visible difference between treated and untreated fabric. You should not use it on silk, wool, or other "dry-clean only" fabrics.
2. Shout Triple Acting came in close behind. It worked especially well on lipstick, blood, mustard, and oil. Like OxiClean, it should not be used on wool or silk.
3. OxiClean Laundry & More did the best job on pen ink, though no product fully removed that stain. It also handled baby food, concealer, and chocolate syrup well, but struggled with lipstick.
4. The Laundress's Miss Mouth's Messy Eater was best for grass stains and second-best for chipotle sauce. It is the priciest option tested, at $1.87 an ounce, but it also has the highest safety score for allergens and carries the EPA's Safer Choice label.

The DIY Mix Fell Short

Testers also tried a homemade solution of vinegar, water, and Dawn dish soap. It only fully removed oil stains and left visible coffee and grass marks behind. It ranked fifth overall, so Consumer Reports says it works, but not as well as the top store-bought products.

What This Means for You

1. For tough stains like blood or oil, reach for OxiClean Max Force or Shout Triple Acting.
2. If pen ink is your main problem, try OxiClean Laundry & More.
3. If you want fewer allergy-triggering ingredients, or you're treating stains from messy kids, Miss Mouth's is worth the higher price.
4. Skip the vinegar and dish soap trick if the stain is already set in and stubborn.

Next time you spot a fresh stain, treat it with one of these top picks before it sets in overnight. Acting fast, and picking the right product, makes cleanup much easier.

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