If you ever work with resin, you would know that its a messy business. You need to be careful about measurements, protect your surfaces, keep your pieces dust free and so on and so forth. While it is recommended that you work with resin when you are alert, that almost never happens in my case. Working with it at 12 in the night, when you are steps away from being exhausted means that you makes mistakes and spill resin. Even otherwise, resin spills and overflows are quite common. You can use a craft mat or a butter sheet as your base when working with resin and constantly clean.
However, in the process, some resin will always get on your fingers. Your fingers will feel itchy, sticky and even a little itchy leading to a slight burning sensation depending on the resin that you use. When that happens, almost all resin workers including me wipe their fingers on a tissue and move on. For you do not want to wash your hands while working with resin. Why ? simply because water and resin absolutely hate each other. So, we put up with a few minutes of discomfort to make sure that our pieces do not get spoiled.
“Whatever you do, do not get your hands near your face or hair as you work with resin. Not only will you transfer some stickiness into your hair which is difficult to remove but you also risk getting resin in your eyes.”
On the flipside, this means that the resin sticks to your skin and it is a bit difficult to get off. It feels icky even after multiple scrubbings with soap, cleansers, alcohol, and scrubbing pads, etc. You start to leave fingerprints on whatever you touch and eventually when you lift up the dust cover of your pieces, it slips and falls right on the pieces messing up your hard work. True Story! Share this post, if you have undergone this too (well, that’s the online equivalent of raising your hand).
There is no need to torture yourself anymore. No need to wear and discard multiple gloves either. (Disclaimer: wearing gloves is dependent on your resin type and your skin sensitivity to it). This post is all about how to get Epoxy resin off your hands. Also, those who do small batches know how annoying it is to discard mixing cups after you use them just once. Particularly, if you are doing 2 or more batches back to back. Reusing them, even after cleaning means risking contamination of soap or water with resin.
I have often asked myself if there is a right way to clean up after resin work and found the answer a year and a half back. I am going to share it with you today in this short post on How to get Epoxy resin off your hands and and off mixing containers. Reuse only medical grade plastic containers, throw flimsy ones away
How to get Epoxy resin off your hands
Materials – What do you need
- Liquid soap (I recommend a neem or tea tree based face wash)
- Baby wipes
- Coconut oil
- Shampoo – optional – to clean up spillage over a large area or for tougher resins
- Soft cotton towel and dry tissues
- and Ofcourse, Running water
I usually clean up the containers first before fully cleaning my hands or clean them both simultaneously. If you clean your hands first they will once again become sticky while cleaning your container.
Method –Â How to get Epoxy resin off your containers
First wipe the container and stir stick with a wet wipe. Stuff the wipe in and rotate clockwise until the cup looks streaky. Add a few drops of facewash or liquid soap. Spread it with you index and middle fingers until it starts to lather and cup becomes opaque. Set it aside for a few seconds and wash under running water scrubbing gently. Dry using a soft towel and follow up with a dry tissue till your cup is squeaky clean. It is ready to be reused now.
Method –Â How to get Epoxy resin off your hands
There are many ways to clean your fingers but it starts with making sure that you wipe off any resin that you come in contact with immediately after with a wet wipe. Though alcohol based wipes work better (improvise by adding drops of hand sanitizer to your wet wipe) they might irritate your hands. Baby wipes are less effective in clean up but its safer for your skin.
I prefer to clean my hands and my container simultaneously. Once I apply facewash on the container, I wipe my hand on a wet wipe and then a tissue to dry it. Then I Pour coconut oil on my hands and rub together. I put facewash on my hands and rub together until the stickiness goes away. Now, I wash my hands and dry them. If am done working with resin for the day, I apply a few drop of coconut oil or my favourite moisturiser on myhands and rest without touching anything for 10 minutes. It really helps combat the itchy feeling.
The secret trick
Do not wet your containers or hands before putting oil or soap on them!! Tada!!
Dealing with tough spills
I wrote about spilling resin on my leg in the beaded earrings craftermath post. It was tough to remove the stickiness as the resin fell through my night dress on to my leg. In such cases after the first wash with a facewash, I follow it up with a (white) shampoo wash. Use running water for clean up. When water rolls away without bead formation, you know that you are indeed Clean.
As I have started to work on a new range of resin jewelry for Valentine’s day, I couldn’t edit my Angkor pictures for the temple post as promised. So I thought of sharing my experiences of working with Resin. I hope that this how to helps you get Epoxy resin off your hands and containers, easily. For more tips on resin do visit my past post on working with Resin – tips and tricks. If you have another method that you use to clean up, please share in the comments; I am curious to know.
I hope you find it interesting
Cheers
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