Bottle (or jar) label removal

As im DIYing a lot of the wedding and trying to keep costs down ive been hoarding glass bottles and jars to use in centerpieces and various other stuff. This has led to me having to remove a lot of labels from these bottle and jars. Theres a lot of tips and tricks on the interweb about the best way to do this but i thought i would share my best way of doing it. Although the pics are of a wine bottle the same works on jars etc too

This is the wine bottle im using as a demo, a very nice red valpolicello that lovely BM is partial to!

First off i score the label, some labels have a shiny coating and scoring it lets the water penetrate and makes it quicker to remove

Next get your scored label good and wet. Then you can scrape the top layer of the label off. I alternate between a finger nail and the abrasive side of a washing up sponge. Really youre only trying to get the top papery layer off the label. They will definitely be glue and some of the label left after this step.

Once the top layer is off its time to pull out the big guns! WD40 is one of my favourite things ever (it shines up stainless steel like nothing else!) and its great for getting glue and residue off stuff. Liberally apply it to the label remnants, allow it to soak in and then scrape off a much as you can. Again a finger nail or washing up sponge works well.

If youre lucky the glue will come off as well at this stage and you can just wash your bottle with soap and water. But often theres a residue left on the bottle from the glue.

To take this off i use acetone nail varnish remover. Put some on a cotton wool pad or some tissue and rub the glue residue until its all gone. For particularly stubborn residue you can lay acteone soaked cotton wool over the residue and then wrap it in clingfilm (stops the acetone evaporating) and leave the acetone to work its magic.

Then you can wash your bottle with some soap and water to remove any of the WD40 and acetone.

Hopefully after all these steps you'll have a lovely label and glue free wine bottle (or jar)!