How to Get Food Coloring Off Hands – A Few Easy Steps
So, you want to know how to get food coloring off your hands. Fortunately, you are in the right place because this guide will help with exactly what you want to know.
The holidays and birthdays are fun and things get colorful with almost every activity. Things such as candy cones, cupcakes, and rainbow cakes, among other delicacies need a lot of food coloring.
Understandably, baking is a fun adventure especially if your child or children decide to help you prepare for such. However, what happens when they accidentally or intentionally have food color all over their skin?
This is the point you start wondering how to get food coloring off hands and other parts of the skin. In this guide, you will learn different ways to get food coloring off your child’s hands and skin with easy steps to follow.
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What’s the Use of Food Coloring?
Before you learn how to get food coloring off hands, let us first see why people use food coloring. First, food color has been in application since the ancient times and has stood multiple centuries until now.
Spices such as paprika, annatto, and saffron are some of the most popular natural food coloring spices on the market. But in recent times, artificial food coloring dominates this market and more people use it in almost every type of food.
The current artificial food colors give the M$Ms their captivating hues, and are also used in candies and commercial beverages as well. Natural or synthetic, food coloring is mainly used because it increases the appetizing urge in people.
The color of a meal or a drink easily communicates a certain perception that makes it either appealing or repulsive. For instance, a red strawberry is considered ripe and sweet as opposed to a green strawberry.
In your house, it’s apparent that you mostly use food coloring when baking. But if you don’t wear any protective gloves or clothing, then you are bound to get stained with the coloring.
This is the same with your child, if they decide to help you with the baking and food coloring activity. Fortunately, this guide is here to help you know how to get food coloring off hands and any part of the skin.
How to Get Food coloring Off Hands – 6 Easy Ways
Method 1 – Using Toothpaste
This is a good hack considering that you only need to use what you have and not buy anything else. If you or your child were using food coloring and it gets on your hands or skin, toothpaste is a great way to remove the stain.
First, you’ll have to wash the stain off with soap and lukewarm water. Make sure that you create enough lather on your palms to remove a large chunk of the stain.
After that, get a non-gel or whitening toothpaste and squirt a minimal amount on the stained part of your hand or skin. Spread the toothpaste using your fingers and massage the stained part for about 2 minutes straight.
If the toothpaste dries up, you can add some more and continue rubbing softly to remove the coloring. Finally, rinse your hands to see if the coloring is completely eliminated.
If not or only a small part is remaining, repeat the procedure until you achieve the desired results.
Method 2 – Baking Soda and Vinegar
In this second method, you will need some vinegar and baking soda on you to remove the food coloring off you or your child’s skin. Like the first method, you’ll also start by washing your hands with soap and lukewarm water.
Similarly, ensure that you create enough lather to remove a significant amount of the food coloring on your hands. You then have to grab a small bowl and pour some white vinegar in the bowl.
Using a clean washcloth, dip it inside the bowl with the vinegar and rub the cloth on the area of the stain. Ensure that you mix water and the white vinegar in a 50/50 ratio to avoid feeling any stinging sensation when you rub the cloth on your skin.
Continue to rub off the stain using the washcloth until you realize the stain fading away. However, you should change the washcloth you are using with a clean one, if it is too stained, as it will only add to the stain on your skin.
Rinse the stained part with clean, lukewarm water and repeat the procedure if you feel or see that it’s necessary. If this doesn’t work, you can now resort to using baking soda as an alternative.
You only need to mix one tablespoon of water and two tablespoons of baking soda. But if the food coloring stain is bigger, you may need to increase this ratio respectively.
Ensure that you mix the two to form a paste before proceeding to the next step. Afterward, you now have to rub the mixture on the stained part for about a minute.
Rinse off the baking soda thoroughly especially if it has already dried up on your skin or hands. Repeat the procedure if you still notice some stain remaining, but this rarely happens.
Method 3 – Lemon and Salt
Like the first two methods, the standard step is to first wash the stain off by using soap and lukewarm water. The lather should be enough to remove a significant amount of the stain before now using the salt and lemon.
Moving on, grab a bowl and mix 3 tablespoons of salt and 5 tablespoons of squeezed lemon or lemon juice. Mix the two components until you form a paste inside the bowl.
Pour a reasonable amount of the mixture on the area of the stain and rub gently using a circular motion. You don’t have to apply too much pressure when you rub because the abrasive nature of the two components will easily remove the stain.
Keep the circular motion going until you notice the stain disappearing. Finally, rinse the stain off with running water to wash it off completely.
Method 4 – Hand Sanitizer or Alcohol
If you thought those three were the only ways you can remove food coloring off your hands, then you’ll be surprised. This guide takes a look at all the options for you to find one that can get accommodated with your resources.
With this fourth method, you also have to start with soap and lukewarm water to remove as much stain as possible. Thereafter, use a cotton with a few drops of alcohol and rub lightly with a circular motion on the food coloring stain.
Note that you can only use alcohol if it is you or another adult. Similarly, you shouldn’t use alcohol if the stain is near your eyes because that is a health hazard.
Instead, use a hand sanitizer in place of the alcohol if the stain is near your eyes or if you are trying to remove the stain from your child. Rub the part with the food coloring stain until you notice the stain starting to disappear.
Ensure that you also replace the cotton wool with a fresh, unused one after it stains while rubbing off the food coloring. Finally, you can rinse your hands or skin after the stain disappears to remove it completely.
Repeat the procedure using the same materials if the results are minimal or otherwise.
Method 5 – Use Baby Oil
You will also start this method similarly like the first four that are explained above. Use lukewarm water and soap to create enough lather and rub off the stain.
Using baby oil and a cotton wool or ball, rub a few drops of the oil on the stained area for about 2 minutes. Continue rubbing and replace the cotton ball each time it gets soiled because you will only be adding more stain if you don’t.
Do this until the stain disappears and then rinse the hands or skin with lukewarm running water. Repeat the steps if you only notice minimal changes or none at all.
Method 6 – Apply Shaving Cream
This is our last method when it comes to knowing how to get food coloring off hands, either yours or your child’s hands. Before using shaving cream to remove the stain, ensure that you first use water and soap to remove the food coloring stain on the skin and hands.
Afterward, apply the shaving cream lather on the stain and rub the stain with a circular motion for about 2-3 minutes. You can use your fingers and the shaving cream lather will do the rest.
It would be best if you used a bit of peroxide in the shaving cream. However, you need to be cautious when it comes to using peroxide on kids because of its highly abrasive nature.
If you do, ensure that the mixture is minimal compared to the shaving cream and add some water as well. Finally, rinse off the stain with clean and running water to remove it completely.
There you have it, 6 easy tips on how to get food coloring off hands with readily available and safe materials. Remember, the efficacy on all the 6 methods explained above depends on the stain size and the materials used.
The good news is that all of them are tested and work significantly in removing food coloring stains off you or your child’s hands and skin. Ensure that you repeat the procedure you decide to use until you notice the final desired results.
Additional Tips on How to Get Food Coloring Off Hands
While all the above explained methods work perfectly, there are still some safety concerns you need to employ. First, ensure that you don’t get the white vinegar or baking soda into your child’s mouth.
Don’t get us wrong, it isn’t harmful if it happens but that won’t help in any way and may distract the whole process. If the stain is too much and starts getting stubborn to remove, don’t get tired of repeating the process you use.
Another thing, ensure that you only slightly rub the stain off regardless of the method and materials you decide to use. That’s because most of the materials highlighted above have high abrasive natures in them.
Therefore, when you rub too hard you might easily add damage where there was no damage to you or your child’s skin. You also need to ascertain if you or your child are allergic to any of the substances explained above.
It might be easier to live with a food coloring stain as it wears off eventually, than a painful and irritating rash.
How to Prevent Future Food Coloring Stains
Let’s face it, accidents are inevitable. However, we shouldn’t leave ourselves openly prone to such encounters because of that reasoning.
There are some ways to prevent future food coloring stains and don’t require you to be a genius to implement. First, wear gloves when you knead the flour with the artificial food color you will use.
As for the skin, you can wear long sleeves and protective clothing to barricade yourself from food coloring stains. And to prevent unnecessary accidents, keep the food coloring covered when not in use.
Lastly, most of us love the idea of our kids helping in the kitchen when baking and adding food color. However, you need to supervise them closely because things can easily get too colorful where not intended due to so much fun.
Besides being stained, your child or children may add too much of the food coloring on the baking. Therefore, you should be the one to add the amount of food color you need and allow them to knead the baking afterward.
Conclusion
As you have seen, there are several ways to get food coloring off you or your child’s hands and skin. Most of them are easy to follow and some you might have already known about.
Baking and adding food color to any of your meals is something fun and exciting for both you and your kids. Therefore, this guide is here to help keep the fun going and not to prohibit the food coloring practice in your home.
With this information, you don’t have to restrict your kids from helping you or wearing too much unnecessary protective clothing. The information here is to help you know how to get food coloring off hands after a fun experience when incorporating it in your meals.
