How to get Epoxy resin off your hands

get Epoxy resin off your hands

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.

How to get Epoxy resin off your hands Resin tips by Sayuri

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).

How to get Epoxy resin off your hands Resin tips by Sayuri

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

How to clean Resin mixing cups

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 – 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 – 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

24 responses to “How to get Epoxy resin off your hands”

  1. Rozantia Petkova avatar

    I didn’t know it was that hard! That is because I have only taken classes and never experimented at home. Now I doubt if I should ever? Just kidding 🙂 But when the time comes…

    1. jewelsofsayuri avatar

      It is not hard, but its not easy either. It requires patience like every other craft. You have 100 times more patience than me and you create such incredible wire woven pieces. Resin would be child’s play for you.

  2. Louise avatar

    This is good to know! I have purchased some resin, but have yet to try it! I hope to, sometime soon. Thanks for the tips. I enjoy your blog.

    1. jewelsofsayuri avatar

      Do try it out Louise, resin is fun to work with.

  3. Pearl avatar

    Wearing gloves as many resin artists do is one sure way of avoiding this problem! I also like to work on wax paper to avoid getting resin on work surfaces.

    1. jewelsofsayuri avatar

      I tried wearing gloves once, but i felt that they got in my way. Even if we wear gloves it is prudent to clean and use cups atleast a couple of times before we discard them. What say?

    2. Grecia avatar
      Grecia

      Hi! I got resin in my hands, I did every thing that is written in the blog and still my hands are sticky
      In fact, I dont work with resin, I just bought a decorated usb and it broke and that is why I have resin in my hands. It was like a glue with olor pine. Why can I do?
      Thanks

      1. jewelsofsayuri avatar

        Hi, Cured Resin should not stick on the body. So If you bought a made usb, it couldnt have leaked resin. The tips listed here work only for epoxy resin. Since I dont know what the material is, I am not sure how to get it off.But cured polymer resin made by sticky to touch if it did not cure properly. Freezing gets rid of the stickiness but your usb might not work after freezing.

  4. Meg avatar
    Meg

    I have found rubbing alcohol to be the only thing that works. I have spilled it on my beige carpet (resin that was black!) and cleaned it up right away. Once’s it’s thick, sticky or cured, forget it, nothing works

    1. jewelsofsayuri avatar

      Rubbing Alcohol isn’t available freely where I live and it is very harsh on the hands. I find hand sanitizer to be a good substitute as it is gentler on the hands

    2. Ariane avatar
      Ariane

      I just got done pouring resin and my daughter ended up bringing my silicone mixing cups and washing them in the sink. Nothing was poured down but she did use a sponge and soap and washed my cups. By the time I realized what she had done it was too late. In nervous about my sink and pipes being damaged. Will it do alot of harm? Or just minor? She meant well, she didn’t know she wasn’t supposed to do that

      1. jewelsofsayuri avatar

        Ariane, it depends on what your pipes are made of. If its just dabs of resin it should be okay with most pipes. We all have more gunk in our pipes than we can imagine. Plus cups and moulds used with resin can be washed. Just throw the sponge away.

  5. Mae avatar
    Mae

    Non acetone nail polish remover and Indian clay healing mask also work to take any of if you get it on hands. Clay only gets in off skin use polish remover for nails

    1. jewelsofsayuri avatar

      “Indian clay healing mask” sounds fascinating. I have never come across it before

      1. Kathy Hitzemann avatar
        Kathy Hitzemann

        Goo-gone and a coconut oil soak- feels wonderful!!

        Don’t let the Goo-gone stay on your hands very long. Scrub and wash with soap & water. Rub a good amount of coconut oil on your hands and rest for 15 minutes, then wipe with a paper towel to dry your hands. I just did all this and my hands feel great. (I ran out of gloves during my project!)

        1. jewelsofsayuri avatar

          I have not heard of Goo gone before as its not available in India. But it might work for international readers. Thanks for sharing your tips Kathy

  6. Mia avatar
    Mia

    So hey? U do use epoxy resin without wearing gloves? Is it safe?

    1. jewelsofsayuri avatar

      Jewellers grade epoxy resin is relatively safe. But if you have sensitive skin please use gloves. I do use gloves when working with some clays.

  7. Avishka avatar
    Avishka

    Hey I need your help!
    I was working with resin and got some on my hand I washed it and cleaned it as written in the blog and also with vinegar and salt too but I have something peeling on my palm and I’m not sure if it’s the resin peeling or my skin peeling due to the chemicals. It’s a very thin layer peeling.
    Also I ate food with affected hands so does that mean the toxic resin has entered my mouth too??
    Pls help!!

    1. Divya avatar

      hi Avishka, I am sorry that you are going through this. It depends on what resin you have use and how sensitive your skin is. Try using hand sanitiser followed by shampoo to remove any stickiness. wash and dry your hands and apply coconut/almond oil. If the peeling doesnt go away in a day consult a doctor. That said, a tiny amount of resin sticking on your hand may not cause poisoning and if there was any reaction you would have known in the first couple of hours.

      1. Avishka avatar
        Avishka

        Thankyou so much! I’m glad it’s not a reaction I’ll try the oils.

        1. Divya avatar

          I am glad that you are better. Please use gloves the next time.

  8. Martin avatar
    Martin

    I tried coconut oil followed by liquid soap, and then normal soap, that worked perfect. Thank you very much for these tips.

    I was stupid enough to touch some drops of about 4 hours old epoxy, this stuff is much more sticky. I got most of it away by scrubbing my finger over a coarse surface similar to fine sandpaper. At least my finger was not sticky anymore.

    1. Divya avatar

      Great that it worked out!

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