Safely Remove Capsaicin Oil from Hands: A Comprehensive Guide

Eating hot peppers can be hard on your tongue, but cooking with them can be even harder on your hands. When you cut into a hot pepper, powerful chemicals called capsaicinoids are released. They can cause burning and stinging on your hands. Capsaicinoids are not water-soluble, so washing your hands with water just spreads the burning sensation around.

Things You'll Need

• Vegetable oil or fatty dairy products

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Instructions

Oil Method

• 1

  Pour vegetable oil over your hands and rub it in. Capsaicinoids are lipophilic, which means they dissolve in fats.

• 2

  Continue rubbing more oil into your hands until the burning stops.

• 3

  Rinse the oil off your hands and then wash them thoroughly with soap and water.

Dairy Method

• 4

  Take whatever creamy, fatty dairy product you have in the refrigerator and pour it into a bowl. Whole milk, yogurt, sour cream, mayonnaise and even ice cream all work well.

• 5

  Soak or coat your hands in the dairy product.

• 6

  Wash your hands when you no longer feel a burning sensation.