How to remove temporary tattoos

Work out which kind you have

Water slide transfers are printed ink under a thin plastic film, pressed on with a wet sponge, and they peel and crack at the edges after a couple of days. Press on stickers have an adhesive backing. Airbrush tattoos are cosmetic ink sprayed through a stencil and sit in the same category. Henna is a plant dye that stains orange brown and deepens over a day or two. Jagua is a fruit gel that stains blue black. The products sold as two week tattoos behave like a stain rather than a decal, because that is what they are.

There is a thirty second test if you are not sure. Put a drop of baby oil or cooking oil on an edge, leave it a moment, then wipe once with a cotton pad. Colour on the pad means it is sitting on the surface and the rest of this will be easy. Nothing on the pad means it is a stain, and the only real variable left is how fast it fades.

How to get temporary tattoos off, gentlest first

Start with warm water, unscented soap and a washcloth, light pressure, under a minute. A good proportion of transfers give up at that stage and everything below becomes unnecessary. If it is still there, move to oil: saturate a cotton pad with baby oil, coconut, olive or almond oil, hold it against the design for 30 seconds so the adhesive softens, then wipe in one direction rather than scrubbing back and forth. Two gentle passes beat one hard one.

After that, micellar water or an oil based makeup remover, which is designed to lift pigment off faces without stripping them. Then tape, which lifts a stubborn transfer by pulling at the film instead of at your skin. Rubbing alcohol or alcohol hand sanitiser is the fastest thing in an average bathroom and also the most drying, so it comes late and gets followed by moisturiser. A light sugar or salt scrub in oil is last on the list, for under a minute, and it is the only method on it that can leave you worse off.

In order, stopping as soon as it works

• Warm water, unscented soap and a washcloth. Light pressure, under a minute.
• Baby oil or any cooking oil on a cotton pad. Hold for 30 seconds, then wipe one way.
• Micellar water or an oil based makeup remover. Gentler than alcohol and made for faces.
• Sticky tape pressed down and peeled off, repeated. Good for edges, and for children who hate being rubbed.
• Rubbing alcohol or alcohol hand sanitiser on a pad. Fast, drying, and worth following with moisturiser.
• A light sugar or salt scrub in oil, for under a minute. Last on the list for a reason.

Henna and jagua fade, they do not come off

Both dyes bind to keratin in the outermost layer of dead skin cells. The colour leaves when those cells do, which takes roughly one to three weeks, and no amount of effort shortens that to an afternoon. Where it is matters: palms and soles hold the stain darkest and longest because that outer layer is thickest there, while faces, necks and the insides of the arms fade fastest. A jagua stain goes blue black before it fades, which worries people who were expecting henna brown.

A few things speed the fade slightly and most of the internet's suggestions do not. Frequent washing helps. Swimming in chlorinated water helps. A warm soak and then one light pass with a washcloth helps. Bleach, whitening toothpaste, lemon juice and baking soda mostly irritate your skin, and hard scrubbing gives you a patchy stain plus a graze. Pressing harder is the one thing guaranteed to make the result look worse than waiting would have.

What actually helps a stain fade

• Wash the area more often than you otherwise would, with ordinary soap.
• Swim. Chlorinated water and the extra time in water both help.
• Soak in a warm bath, then rub once with a washcloth. Lightly, and once a day at most.
• Massage in olive or coconut oil and wipe it off, which lifts a little pigment with the dead skin.
• Wait. A henna stain on a palm will outlast anything you try on it.

What not to put on your skin

Acetone and nail polish remover will take a transfer off and will strip the oils out of your skin while doing it, which is a poor trade for a sticker that oil would have handled. Bleach and hydrogen peroxide have no business anywhere near skin. Hair removal cream, pumice stones, sandpaper and the melamine sponges people genuinely recommend online remove skin rather than stain. None of these shortens a henna fade either.

Stay away from the eye area entirely, and from broken, sunburnt or freshly shaved skin. Stop if the area stings or reddens, and patch test on a small area first if you have sensitive skin or eczema. Worth knowing: the adhesives and inks in cheap transfers can cause contact dermatitis, so a red itchy outline in the exact shape of the design is a reaction rather than a stubborn tattoo, and rubbing at it is the wrong response.

Children's skin, and faces

Children have thinner skin, react more often, and will not sit still for a careful three minute removal. So the method is oil and tape, and the timeline is relaxed. Rub oil in, leave it a minute, wipe with a soft cloth, lift any stubborn edges with surgical tape. Skip the alcohol, skip the scrubs, and keep everything away from the eyes. Bath time and two days of ordinary washing will finish anything you leave behind, and a faded unicorn on a cheek has never harmed anyone.

The safety side is worth a minute too. Glitter tattoo glue and some transfer adhesives cause reactions, cheap novelty transfers may not list their ingredients, and a child with eczema deserves a patch test on an arm before a design goes on a face. Never let anyone apply black henna to a child, at a holiday resort or anywhere else.

If you are testing a design before a real tattoo

This is the best use for a temporary. Print the design at its real size, in centimetres rather than scaled to fit the paper, stick it where the tattoo would live, and wear it for three days. Size is what people get wrong: a design that looks right on a screen is usually smaller than it needs to be on skin, and a 6 cm piece that looked bold on a phone can disappear on a thigh. Three days tells you what the placement does when you move, sit at a desk and put a watch over it.

What a temporary cannot tell you is how the lines will spread over ten years, how much the spot will hurt, or how the drawing has to be redrawn to wrap a curved limb. That part is an artist's job. Take the printout to a licensed artist who will adapt it to your body, and treat the three days of wearing it as research rather than as a decision.

Testing a placement properly

• Print at final size in centimetres, not scaled to fit the page.
• Wear it for three days, including a work day and a gym session.
• Photograph it from the angle other people see, not the angle you see in a mirror.
• Try it on both sides of the body. Most people have a side they forget about.
• Take the printout to the artist, who will tell you what has to change to sit on a curve.