Some of us prize immaculate attires more than others. After all, who can deny the attraction of crisp white collars and perfectly pleated suit pants? Did you know that starch sprays became a laundry staple right from the Elizabethan era?

Yes, we know it may hard to believe this little practice has such ancient roots, considering the new vogue of ripped, low-waist jeans and crinkled tops. The Elizabethan era truly gave us more than Romeo and Juliet sagas: it gave us the art of wearing ruff collars and gave rise to lace dresses and stiff, crisp shirts.

Spray Starch comparison table

Brand	Size, Oz	Ingredients
Faultless	20 Oz	Water, Butane, Sodium, Polymethacrylate, Dimethicone, Isobutane, Methylisothiazolinone, Methylchloroisothiazolinone, Peg-12 Dimethicone, Propane, Sodium Nitrite, Fragrance
Mary Ellen Products	16.9 Oz	All components contain are considered a trade secret
London Laundry Ironing	32 Oz	Water, cellulose gum, fiber relaxers, preservative. No perfumes and dyes.
Niagara	20 Oz	Water, Hydroxyethyl Starch, Dimethicone, Isobutane, Methylparaben, Propylparaben, Sodium Lauroyl Sarcosinate
Aleene's Stiffen-Quick Spray	8 Oz	All components contain are considered a trade secret

The good news is that there has been quite a refreshing revival for impeccable and professional clothing with the ever-evolving-fashion industry. After all, our eyes and aesthetics can never accept tattered clothes that are better suited to the homeless as professional and polished clothing.

This, in simple words, means that starch sprays are coming back into action, and we, for one, are extremely happy about it. Apart from the flawless appearance starch sprays lend to all our outfits, the products give us multiple other benefits.

Let’s look at some of them below.

Benefits of using Starch Sprays

1. Starch sprays maximize the life of your fabrics

Many of us live under the illusion that starch sprays tend to degrade our fabric over time. In truth, starch sprays keep your clothes away from the need for heavy and harsh cleaning products and also prevent fraying. So when you don’t have to include the heavier cleaning products in your laundry routine, your fabrics do not disintegrate and wear off sooner.

2. Fabrics do not catch stains

Do you know what the worst thing is besides crinkled clothes? It is your special outfits catching stains from dirt and sweat. Fortunately, using starch while pressing your clothes will create a barrier between the fabric and sweat or dirt.

Therefore, if any dirt tends to stick to your outfit when you’re out, it will only stick to the starch on your clothes’ outer surface and not to the fabric itself. This will make washing the stains even easier.

3. Freshly ironed look

Yes, using starch sprays to press your clothes makes them look freshly ironed, even after hours of a long working day. Starch sprays are a better alternative to using steam for smoothing out the crinkles.

4. You look polished all-day

Starch helps you achieve that perfect, professionally laundered look you love right at home.

5. Easy ironing

Setting a crease is such a painstaking task, more so for ironing-novices like us. Thankfully, using starch spray aligns the fabric perfect for us and helps the iron glide faster and smoother. That means no having to iron the same patch over and over!

If you are looking for the best starch for your laundry arsenal, we have the top five recommendations in this article, followed by a buyer’s guide. You can trust us to soothe all your iron-worries with our recommendations.

1. Faultless Premium – Best Spray Starch for Ironing

Weekdays are hectic for all working professionals, without the added hassle of ironing clothes for the next day. This spray starch helps you complete your ironing faster and provides you a smooth and soft pliable surface for your task.

This product has a non-stick finishing formula, so your clothes will not cling to the iron each time you drag it off the fabric. Your ironing gets done faster with an easy gliding motion, and you get a wrinkle-free, firm finish.

This product caters to a variety of family sizes, from lone bachelors to larger families.  You can also find size packs in great value, so this product is affordable and time-saving. 

2. Mary Ellen Products – Best Press Spray Starch

If you are looking for an alternative for clear starch, you may consider Mary Ellen’s products. This scent-free starch gives you wrinkle resistance and soil guarding, along with an easier ironing experience each time.

The starch comes in a shatter-proof bottle, so it is safe for family use, especially if you have kids in the house. You can trust the product to leave no residues behind as you press the clothes and tackle even the most stubborn wrinkles. With a new and crispy finish, your clothes turn not only soil-resistant but also polished and immaculate. You can even keep your clothes from attracting bugs by using this starch. You can find pick any from various wonderful scents and non-scented spray starch options by Mary Ellen’s.

3. London Laundry Ironing – Best Spray Starch for Quilting

The London Laundry offers an alternative to a spray starch. If you want a crisp feel to your outfits without a starch’s stiffness, you must consider this product. With this ironing spray, you get the same brand new look for your outfits that you would with a regular starch.

This product works well for soothing the crinkles of quilting squares as well.  London Laundry spary is free of dyes, perfumes, or scents, so it is best for those who specifically have allergies to fragrances and harsh chemicals. 

4. Niagara – Best Spray Starch for Shirts

This product might help you if you love the traditional stiff and upright cuffs and collars for your shirts. It gives you the typical professionally laundered look right at home. You will also not find any residual flakes on your fabric in addition to excellent wrinkle resistance and crease retention.

If you particularly prefer products that speed up your ironing time while giving you a perfect stiff outfit to wear, then this product is worth considering. You can also rest assured of a smooth glide and finish each time you press clothes with this product.

5. Aleene’s Stiffen-Quick – Best Spray Starch for Stiffening

With this stiffening spray, you can use double and triple coats for as much stiffness as you desire. It has a quick-drying formula, so the spray dries quickly and clearly without discoloring your material. You can trust the fabric to give you a laundry-like stiffness without bending your garments out of shape.

No matter how many coats of this spray you apply while ironing your clothes, you will always find the garments return to their original shape every time you wash it clean.

Buyer’s Guide

Although a spray starch may seem like a very ordinary addition to your grocery cart, it deserves due consideration. We often fail to take technicalities into considerations when picking a spray starch. Our only thought is to find a can we can spritz substance out of and iron those stubborn crinkles off our pristine white shirt.

The spray starch products are relatively cheap and come from renewable and biodegradable sources. They do not have a permanent impression on the fabrics and lose viscosity after the first wash. This is also an advantage since we know starch does no permanent change to our beloved outfits nor will transform or alter the fabrics’ shape and strength after use.

With spray drying technologies, the store-bought spray starches make our ironing hassles disappear faster and give us a smooth, flawless, and wrinkle-free outfit to wear each time. Many people use starch sprays more for the fresher look in old outfits and secondarily for the stay-in-place stiffness.

Considering all the advantages this substance gives us, a spray starch’s purchasing process deserves a little more attention, and we will tell you how. Whenever you visit the laundry aisle in a grocery store, you tend to pick the first spray starch that comes within your line of vision.

But do you ever stop thinking how much value and ease the product adds to your laundry routine? Will the investment in the product be worth every dollar in terms of satisfaction? Does the spray starch contain chemicals that might trigger an allergy in a family member in your household? Will the spray can be lethal in the hands of an unruly child?

Yes, if these questions took you by surprise, then you can imagine how much neglect you have practiced thus far in choosing a starch can. So without further ado, let’s enlighten you on the tiny details you need to consider before you pick the best spray starch can for your family.

When you are observing products in the grocery aisle, you must note the following things:

• Product value
• Brand value
• Durability and quality
• Safety elements
• Specifications and features
• Chemicals present in the spray starch
• Check the reviews and ratings of customers online before you head over to the supermarket or order online.
• Read about the specific purposes of the products.

Decide the type of spray starch you need

Spray starch has become an important item in the laundry routine and a hot topic within the quilting fraternity. You see, where we once only considered the spray starch a useful product for getting precise creases and fine lines, now the quilting community uses it for fabric butting and piecing.

So when you head out to get your best spray starch, you must consider whether you will be using it merely for crisp and stiff clothes or also for quilting projects. Then look for products that specify the starch is versatile in use.

Determine the reason you need to use spray starch

When considering the best product for your use, mentally note why you need to use spray starch. Do you want to stabilize your fabric’s grains? Do you want your outfits stiff enough to stand on their own? Do you want more control over fabrics in your sewing projects? Do you want more accurate pleating in your suits? Do you want the seams to press in the direction you wish?

Based on all these points, you will compare the ingredients that read on the spray starches’ labels in the aisles. Choose the one that meets all of your requirements.

Sizing or starch?

Buyers often mistake sizing for starch. What you make think of as serving the same purpose is quite different. The commercial spray starch varieties use grains like corn, rice, or wheat to give that stiffness you desire in your fabrics. The unrelenting crease you find in clean clothes is because of these grains present in the spray starch.

Sizing, on the other, is more of a solution with a plastic base. This allows the solution to stick to synthetic fibers. You will find the garment industries using this solution vigorously to add more life and body to their fabrics. This is also to ensure the materials do not wrinkle even after long hours of wear. But you will find most fabrics already containing sizing as a result of some treatment during their manufacturing process. It is like a built-in substance in the fabrics you buy.

So if you want a spray that will only stiffen the surface of your outfits and keep them stiff for as long as you wear them, you need to buy the starch spray. However, if you are looking for a solution to mold into your synthetic fibers as you sew them and want results to last after wash, too, then sizing may be better suited for you.

Is stiffness your only priority?

If stiffness is your only priority, then only look for starch spray cans and not alternatives in the markets. Whether commercial or homemade, starch is the only substance that can give you the foolproof stiffness you need. With alternative ironing sprays, you can never be completely sure of achieving the level of stiffness in your garments you desire.

On the contrary, if you want to take the chance of gunking up your iron or pressing its surface, you may consider alternative ironing solutions that guarantee not to do that.

Best spray starch should promise no discoloration

The best spray starch is the one that guarantees there will no discoloration or residual flakes that will stick to your fabric after use. Starch may leave a white scar on clothes, especially if you pick up a product with no guarantee of its quality.

In any case, it is still advisable to use a piece of muslin over your pressing surface to protect your actual garment from discoloration and flakes.

Smoothing sprays

If you only want a product that will help you smooth out stubborn wrinkles and creases from your clothes without making them stiff and crispy, then you must not buy starch. Instead, it would help if you are looking for a smoothing spray or a flatter to give your material a smooth surface by stiffening it.

Such a product will merely relax the crinkles, freshen your clothes and leave them static-free. Also, starch-free, smoothing sprays fall into the line of eco-friendly products.

Scent-free for allergic users

This is especially important if you or any other family member suffers allergies from irritants. You see, starches may contain perfumes, dyes, or other chemicals that could irritate your nostril, eyes or trigger an already existing allergy. So if you are particularly allergic to harsh and strong smells and odors, look for scent-free varieties. This also applies to skin allergies, and you must watch out for irritants in the product that could cause problems for your skin.

On the other hand, if you love a whiff of lavender or a flowery fragrance to accompany your clothes as you wear them, you can also choose from the scented, spray starch varieties available in the markets.

Frequently Asked Questions

1. Is it possible for spray starch to go bad after some time?

Most homemade spray starches contain natural ingredients, so those can go bad after a week or two. However, the manufactured variety has chemicals and preservatives that maximize the product’s life, so they survive longer. It is best for homemade spray starch to make them in small batches, depending on your ironing for a week.

2. Is spray starch harmful to our health?

Spray starch can be damaging for your health, especially if you inhale the fumes while using it. Formaldehyde and certain other ingredients present in starch can irritate your lungs, so use them cautiously.

3. Will the spray starch wash out of the fabric?

You can use several coats of spray starch while ironing your clothes. Even the cleaners may do it if you opt for professional laundry, but you can always trust the starch to wash right out of the fabrics. Starch dissolves in water, so the fibers in your fabrics cannot retain the starch once you submerge them in water.

4. What are the disadvantages of starch?

If you have sensitive skin, the clothes may feel scratchy and stiff when you iron them with starch. Additionally, overuse of spray starch on the same fabric may break the fibers down and weaken the material’s quality and strength.

Final Thoughts

Crisp and stiff clothes with precise and neat pleats attract every eye in the room. Besides, it just boosts up our confidence several notches higher when we’re immaculately and smartly dressed. After all, our clothes are the very first things others notice.