If you've ever wanted to try some crafting with wine bottles or any glass jars with labels, then you already know that removing the labels can be quite annoying, and in other cases labels just slide right off. I've finally figured out the mystery of how to remove labels with non-toxic household products. Yippee! From now on, the re-use of glass bottles and jars will be pure pleasure!
How To Remove Labels From Wine Bottles:
- There are two types of labels: those applied with water based glue and those applied with oil based glue.
- You won't know what kind of labels you have until you do a simple test. Fill your wine bottle or jar with water, and place in a tall container, like a bucket or a cylindrical vase, and fill that container with water. Let sit overnight or for a few hours. If the label slides right off, lucky you, the label was applied with water based glue and all you need to do is scrub the bottle a bit to remove any remaining glue.
- If your labels don't come off after soaking in water, then you'll have to use oil. Any oil will do, I even used low grade olive oil used for lighting wicks.
- Fill your wine bottle with water and look for a tall narrow container that is just a bit wider than your wine bottle. I happened to have a plastic honey container that was the perfect size, so not much oil was needed. Place your bottle in the container and fill container with oil to cover label area. Let sit overnight and voila, your label will peel off easily! Wash bottle with hot soapy water to remove oil and any remaining label residue. If only the paper portion of the label comes off, leaving lots of glue on the bottle, place the bottle in the oil again and let sit until the glue comes off easily.
- You can continue to re-use the oil until you've removed labels from all your bottles!
