Tip For Safely Removing Paint From Your Hands (oil Base)

 Removing paint from your hands is easy when it is latex, but when you’re using oil based paints it’s not so easy to remove with most cleaners without harming your skin.

Years ago when I started my house painting and repair business, I would buy hand cleaners that were solvent based to remove oil based paint from my hands. Most of the hand cleaners back then had mineral spirits as part of their formula. As you probably know mineral spirits is very hard on the skin.

After using these hand cleaners for a few years, my hands started looking more like tree bark than smooth skin. They did an adequate job of cleaning but at the expense of poor quality skin. I then switched to using citrus based hand cleaners for removing paint. I found that citrus based hand cleaners were an improvement and cleaned my skin about as well as the solvent based cleaners. The condition of my hands improved. However, after using the citrus cleaners, I became allergic to something in its ingredients. Perhaps it was the citrus extracts themselves. I don't know for sure.

One day while painting the interior trim of my own home and dreading cleaning my hands with cleaner again, a thought occurred to me. Why not try baby oil and see if it will remove oil base paint. Therefore, I applied baby oil to my hands and started rubbing the oil into my dry skin and found that the oil base paint was dissolving. I applied the baby oil 3 or 4 times to my hands and rubbed it into my skin before rinsing with water. Then I dried my hands very well and applied it one more time to remove any residual paint. When I was done, my skin was soft, clean, and felt smooth. Of course you should know, this was a vast improvement over anything I had ever used before, and it is all I have used for years. Sometimes the simplest things sitting right under your nose turn out to be the best solution to your problem.

Here are several key things to remember before using baby oil. Use the baby oil before apply water to your hands. If you wet your hands first, the water will repel the baby oil rendering it useless. You will need to apply the baby oil 2 to 3 times to your hands before rinsing them with soap and warm water. Work the baby oil into your skin and within two shakes of a cat's tail, you will notice the oil based paint will start dissolving. Wash and then dry your hands well. Reapply the baby oil to remove any residual oil paint. Baby oil doesn't work quite as fast as your solvent based hand cleaners for removing paint, but who cares when you can avoid having your skin look like tree bark.