You can wash your SLIP silk pillowcase by hand or in your washing machine. This article will show you how to choose the right detergent and the proper steps to take for washing your SLIP pillowcase at home.

You Can Safely Wash Your SLIP Pillowcase at Home?

Sleeping on a pure silk pillowcase from SLIP can be wonderful for your hair, skin, and quality of sleep. What’s not so wonderful? Worrying about how to clean your new pillowcase? After all, you’ve invested somewhere around $100 to purchase it. You know it needs cleaning, but you’re (rightly) concerned about the possibility of damaging the delicate fabric.

Heritage Park: Gentle, Effective Care for Your SLIP Pillowcase

So how should you best go about caring for your new SLIP silk pillowcase? Heritage Park Laundry Essentials is here with the answers you need.

The best news is your SLIP silk pillowcase can be washed at home, either by hand or machine. No dry cleaning is needed! Read on as our experts offer answers to your most pressing questions about washing your new SLIP silk pillowcase. We’ll show you how to effectively clean your SLIP silk pillowcase while protecting its delicate fabric for maximum beauty and performance over time.

How Often Should You Wash Your SLIP Silk Pillowcase?

The answer to this is straightforward: whenever it’s dirty! Your SLIP silk pillowcase is made of mulberry silk, a special kind of silk fabric that is washable. In general, you should wash your silk pillowcase at the same intervals you’d wash a regular cotton pillowcase. This will vary from person to person, but every week or two is generally sufficient.

Washable silk bedding -- including silk sheets or your SLIP pillowcase -- can be cleaned either by hand or in your laundry machine. Silk fiber is protein based (that’s what makes silk pillowcases so great for beauty sleep, including moisturizing hair and delicate facial skin and preventing sleep crease formation). As such, pure mulberry silk requires special care. You need to choose a gentle yet effective detergent; wash silk in cool water; protect your silk item in the washing machine with a mesh laundry bag; and avoid putting your silk pillowcase in the dryer. All of these measures will clean while protecting the silk fiber.

What is the Best Detergent for Washing Your SLIP Silk Pillowcase?

Meet Heritage Park's Silk, Wool, and Cashmere Detergent

Choosing the proper detergentfor your SLIP silk pillowcase is an absolute must. A silk detergent should be pH neutral; gentle to avoid damaging fabric; and entirely free from enzymes. This last point is often overlooked but of paramount importance. Over the past decade, enzymes have become an increasingly popular ingredient in laundry detergents. These plant-based compounds are quite effective at targeting different types of stains, such as sugar, starch, or protein. The issue with silk is that (along with other natural fibers such as wool and cashmere) it is made from protein. Therefore, using an enzyme-based (or biological) detergent on these fibers will cause the fabric to degrade over time.

For this reason, Heritage Park Luxury Silk, Wool and Cashmere Detergent is entirely enzyme-free. Available in original (unscented) and lightly scented lavender mist formulas, this gentle detergent is made to effectively clean natural fabrics like silk and wool while protecting the integrity of the individual fibers. It’s perfect for your SLIP silk pillowcase:

• Concentrated for high efficiency, front load, and traditional top-loading washing machines as well as hand wash
• Effectively removes stains on silk. Perfectly balanced powerful cleaning ingredients are capable of removing tough odors and set-in stains while remaining gentle on your SLIP pillowcase. Can also be used to pretreat stains.
• Chemical free.Contains no dyes, sulfates, phosphates (optical brighteners), chlorine bleach, caustic chemicals. Biodegradable and safe for septic/grey water systems. Neutral PH for delicate fabrics. Only necessary ingredients are used, with no fillers or excess water
• No enzymes. Won’t degrade the beauty and quality of your SLIP silk pillowcase.
• Versatile.Can be used on silk, wool, and other protein-based fabrics and fibers.
• Never tested on animals. Certified cruelty-free by Leaping Bunny.

Follow these Steps for Washing Your SLIP Silk Pillowcase

Washing by hand: Hand washing your SLIP pillowcase is easy and can be done right in your sink, utility tub, or even a small plastic bucket. Fill with cool water and add in two to three tablespoons of Heritage Park Luxury Silk and Wool detergent. Turn the pillowcase inside out and gently swish it in the water for three to five minutes. Rinse thoroughly and don’t wring it out; instead, roll your SLIP silk pillowcase in a clean white towel to absorb extra water. Hand washing silk is the most gentle method, and therefore preferred cleaning your SLIP pillowcase.

Washing by machine:

1. Turn your silk pillowcase inside out to protect the delicate charmeuse weave.
2. Pre-treat any stain prior to washing.
3. Place your SLIP pillowcase into a fine mesh laundry bag to protect it against snags and burrs inside the machine.
4. Add the proper amount of laundry detergent.
5. Wash on a delicate/silk cycle in cool water. SLIP recommends water NO WARMER than 85 degrees Fahrenheit (30 degrees Centigrade).
6. NEVER use bleach or fabric softener on your silk pillowcase. These are to be avoided in every case!

Of course, always consult the care label on your SLIP pillowcase prior to laundering. Learn more about understanding care labels here.

How to Dry Your SLIP Silk Pillowcase

Your SLIP silk pillowcase should NEVER be put in the dryer; this type of heat can damage silk and cause it to degrade prematurely. You should hang your clean silk pillowcase on a drying rack away from direct sunlight. Smoothing wrinkles by hand is preferred to ironing; if you must iron, use the lowest heat setting possible and iron through a clean white towel. Click here for more about how to safely iron silk without ruining it.

With the care tips outlined above, your SLIP silk pillowcase should keep you sleeping well, moisturize your skin and hair, and help control bed head for a long time! If you have any questions on how best to care for silk, wool, or any other delicate items, please feel free to contact the “clean team” at Heritage Park by calling (800) 977-1841. We are lovers of all types of silk and luxury linen, and are happy to answer questions about our products and share our expertise.

More About Heritage Park Laundry Essentials

At Heritage Park, caring for fine fabric is our passion. As lifelong collectors of luxury sheets, towels, and cloths, we found many commercially available "gentle detergents" either damaged our fabrics or didn't get the job done, leaving stains. We knew we could do better. So we developed a formula with the perfect balance of powerful -- yet safe -- ingredients designed to remove tough, set-in stains while remaining gentle on luxury linens. Please connect with us at (800) 977-1841 or visit our store or email us with any product feedback or cleaning questions.