One of my most popular entries is a short and sweet one on getting sticky labels off jars using one secret ingredient (it’s cooking oil). Consider this the 2.0 of that entry.
While cooking oil works wonderfully, it is liquid, and that’s a problem when it comes to trying to apply it to something that is slippery, round, and tall. I was ending up with little puddles of oil on my counter and sink, and the labels just weren’t getting soaked enough to come off. So, I devised this goo. Partly by accident, to be sure, but it’s still awesome.
Back when I did all the experiments for my beeswax to oil ratios entry, I ended up melting down all the experiments into one dish of relatively firm beeswax/oil concoction. I didn’t have any plans for it, so it ended up just sitting in my kitchen, and one day whilst I was determinedly trying to de-label a large collection of empty essential oil bottles, it caught my eye. I slathered it on the bottles, and it was much more efficient than liquid oil.
From there it was just a matter of a few small improvements. First, I added in a bit more liquid oil to get a more useable paste. Then I added in some d-Limonene (citrus terpenes) to boost the solvent power, and some baking soda (USA / Canada) to give the goo a bit of grit for the scrubbing phase.
The resulting goo is soft and pliable, slightly lemon scented, and easily adheres to bottles. Let it soak for an hour or two (overnight is very convenient) and you’ll come back to find the adhesive has mostly dissolved. From there you can generally peel off the label relatively easily, and then use a good amount of soap and scrubbing to clean off the remaining oil and adhesive.
One use of it allowed me to peel off an entire label that had previously just shredded and split on me, leaving streaks of white paper and stubborn sticky leftovers. More stubborn labels may require two application/scrubbing cycles.
Magical Sticky Label Removal Goo
5g beeswax (USA / Canada)
25g inexpensive cooking oil—I used olive oil (pomace) (USA / Canada)
5g d-Limonene
1 tbsp baking soda (USA / Canada)Melt the beeswax and cooking oil together in a double-boiler.
Remove from heat and stir in the d-Limonene and baking soda (USA / Canada). Let cool, stirring as needed to blend in the baking soda (USA / Canada) as the mixture thickens up.
To use, coat stubborn labels in the mixture and let soak overnight. Scrape/peel off the label and use soap and hot water to remove the remaining goo.
Thanks for this one, I surely need this kind of stuff! I have so many times cursed these strongly holding labels, even cooking won’t get them off the bottles and jars.
I know what you mean! It seems like label glue has two strengths—it either falls off after three days, or seems destined to stay on until the apocalypse!
Nail Polish remover works too!
True, but it’s pretty gross :/ This works just as well without being so stinky and irritating.
I love your posts !!! I find them extremely helpful and informative. Thanks 🙂
Thanks Linda 🙂
When I have a label where the paper comes off but the sticky part remains, I have some success rubbing it with Eucalyptus oil. It seems to break it down and rubs away slightly easier. I keep adding a little of the Eucaplyptus to a rag and eventually it comes off completely. This works on clothing too, if a sweatshirt has gone through the wash with a sticker on it..grr 🙂
Neat idea! You could try combining the two methods by adding some Eucalyptus EO to this goo and see what you think 😛
Yup – Eucalyptus oil for the glue that is left behind (however, I use gloves when I do this because I find it really drying on my finger tips).
Otherwise, what I do to remove labels from mass bottles and jars (paper labels, that is) – is soak them in soapy water. And then add 2 tea kettles of boiling water. When I use my scrubby (a cheap, plastic ball from the dollar tree) the labels and goo come right off.
Thanks for all you do Marie! 🙂
I find hot water and soap are awesome as long as I have a day or two to leave them (I must buy very stubbornly-labelled products!). The soap soak is also pretty much the best thing there is for re-using essential oil bottles, which tend to smell of the EO after any normal amount of washing 😛
I have tried pressure cannng stuck on labels and even that doesn’t work. 25 minutes at 240° with no luck.
I’ve been inheriting tons of dropper bottles for years from people who vape. Some labels won’t come off so I’m trying this today. I’m sick of looking at a basket of free dropper bottles in all sizes and colors, unused.
For something else to try—I’ve been using a 1:1 mixture of high proof isopropyl alcohol and d-limonene on a cotton pad to get rid of lingering adhesive. Works like a charm and doesn’t scratch anything!
Plain old lemon essential oil works just as well as Goof Off! And it smells a little nicer, too. =)
If you like cleaning with lemon EO you should definitely give d-limonene a go—as I understand it, it’s basically industrial grade lemon essential oil, so it’s cheaper and a stronger cleaner 🙂
I agree that lemon essential oil (neat) has worked the best for me out of all the methods I’ve tried, including cooking oil. However, combining this goo with lemon essential oil may work even better – I’ll definitely give it a try, since I always reuse all my glass jars and bottles.
D-limonene, as I understand it, is basically industrial grade lemon essential oil—it’s cheaper and higher in terpenes 🙂 That’s why I used it here instead. It also smells wonderfully citrussy 🙂
Works like a charm! Goo Gone is gone from my house after this forever (I never had luck with it anyway). Thank you for this miracle!
Fantastic! Enjoy your new (old) jars 🙂
I tried this one today and it worked! 🙂
Apart from some glass containers that were sticky from leftover glue that wouldn’t come off, I also tried it on plastic containers that I got, the labels on there weren’t moving at all. I worked on your magic and yes it worked! I let it soak for 4 hours.
The only thing is then getting rid of the grease afterwards….
I guess I need another recipe for strong soap to clean it afterwards, especially with the plastic containers, it was hard to get the grease off but with some determination (and wrinkly hands..) they are clean now.
Fantastic! I have found detergent to be pretty useful in situations like this 🙂
Hi Marie,
I had the same problem. These days I use a mixture of Turkey red oil and plain oil. Now i can rinse it off with cold tap water. Awesome!
Hi Marie!
Oh this recipe is going to save me soooo much time. I actually started throwing away all the jars with stubborn labels….which sometimes makes me sad (especially with glasses that don’t have an edge at the top 😉
Something I personally can strongly recommend is scraping the soaked labels off with this kind of scraper you use to clean ceramic hobs (do you know what I mean?). It has some kind of blade. This is the one I have: http://www.amazon.de/Kochfeld-Reinigungsschaber-Ceranfeldschaber-Ceranfeldreiniger-Kochfeldkratzer-Kochfeldreiniger/dp/B007I0BXLK
I don’t know if it’s common in other countries.
Anyhow: after having soaked the lable for some time, try so scrape it with this thing and you might be lucky enough to be able to remove the lable in one piece incl. the glue and sometimes…you don’t even need to do any scrubbing at all.
Thanks again for the recipe. I think this and the scaper are a match made in heaven!
Hi Jude! I’m so happy to save your time and your jars 🙂 I have a stiff plastic scraper I often use, but nothing like what you linked me to. I’ll have to keep an eye out 🙂 Thanks for reading & DIYing with me!
I’m making this today. Like in two minutes.
It’s canning season and I’m running out of canning jars, so I have been taking concoctions out of my canning jars (made and poured into over the winter when they’re not needed) and putting the stuff in recycled jars. But the labels!
I hope this works. I can’t stand seeing my beautiful balms and salves and whatnots in ugly jars with half peeled labels.
I hope it works for you, too! Any news to report?
Hi Marie! I wonder, do you have any handy hints for cleaning the inside of bottles that have had oil in them? For example, say you buy some almond oil that comes in a nice glass bottle, and when you use up the almond oil you can just buy a pump top that fits and fill it with lotion, but I can never get those last few traces of oil out of it, not matter how much I soak it, run it through the dishwasher or get in there with the bottle brush! Any advice? Thanks 🙂
This stuff is amazing! That, boiling water, and a bottle brush work wonders 🙂
Way before goo gone, we artists/designers used to use Rubber Cement Thinner. I used a small paint brush on the label, tape on wall paper and then under it. Worked like a charm
How interesting! By the time I was in design school few people used rubber cement for mounting; I ended up developing a very strong preference for those double-sided sheets of dry adhesive. Mounting with that stuff late in night in a closed room won’t give you funny dreams 😛