Lifehacker reader Joshua accidentally stained his white Macbook with a gel pen and, having just replaced his case, was not eager to see it discolored again. So he reached for that ultra-handy cleaner, toothpaste (Arm & Hammer Dental Care Advance Cleaning, in his case), rubbed a dab into the stain, then cleaned away the dried toothpaste with a barely-damp towel. The results, pictured above, speak for themselves, and suggest that little tube of white goo might also help fight the dark palm stains that are the bane of a Mac owner’s existence.
Linda
February 17, 2009 at 9:59 AM
Our 4yr. old got pen marks all over my husband’s macbook. I looked up this website and told him to use toothpaste to clean it off. It got most of the pen marks off. Inbetween the keys was hard to get to. But most of it came off. We used Colgate toothpaste. Perhaps we’ll pick up some Arm and Hammer tomorrow and try to use that to get the rest of it off.
Report Permalinksafian
March 17, 2009 at 11:37 PM
this really does work! and, leaves your laptop smelling minty fresh!
obviously try on an inconpicuous area first, but certainly worked a treat for me :)
Report PermalinkEmily
September 16, 2009 at 3:03 AM
Thank you!! I just leaned on my new macbook to write something close to the edge of a piece of paper and, of course, got some pen on the palm rest!! I was panicking, searching google for possible fixes. Everywhere seemed to be recommending American brand products (I live in England and wanted something now)! Yours is the only website I’ve found to suggest a household product, I just tried it, it took a couple of minutes of brushing but the pen mark has completely gone! Thank you so much! Toothpaste is my new best friend.
Report PermalinkVicky
November 22, 2010 at 4:44 AM
Thank you so much – after an hour of googling I thought I would be stuck with a perminantly stained macbook. Especially as the culprit was a perminant pen. Oopps.
Report PermalinkNow it is all shiny clean and all the marks have gone. I also just used colgate and my finger. Brilliant.