Warning: This post contains photos of short stubby hands that have never seen a professional manicure. Those of you with a heightened sense of fashion may find them disturbing. Proceed at your own risk. 
I am a messy painter. I'm a messy cook too for that matter. I am pretty much always wearing an apron so I don't ruin all of my clothes. Because there are not very many days in my existence that I am not cooking or painting, or working on some other craft project.
I am always getting paint on my hands. Latex based paint is not hard to get off, it washes right off with some soap and water. But primer? That is an entirely different story my friends. It is a challenge to remove. When I painted my kitchen last month, I got primer all over my hands. Could. Not. Get. It. Off. I asked my twitter buddies if they had any clever ideas for removing primer from skin. I got replies from everything to nail polish remover and GooGone, to using a belt sander. (Um, thanks Char.)
I tried the nail polish remover and the GooGone. Not the belt sander. They worked, but I still had to do a fair amount of skin scraping. And deal with the nasty chemical smell. Then last week I had to go back and paint my window frame because I missed it the first time around. When I was finished, my hands looked something like this:
I'm not a huge fan of using chemicals on my skin, so I wanted to use something else. I remembered that the oil in peanut butter can remove gum. I wondered if oil would help remove primer. So I poured about a teaspoon of vegetable oil in my hands and rubbed it around. Then I added a squirt of soap and some water and lathered up. And guess what?
The oil and soap mixture removed the primer better than any of the chemicals I tried!!!
I had to do a fair amount of rubbing, but I did not have to scrape the primer off. And every drop came off:
Is that awesome or what?!!
Disclaimer: The makers of vegetable oil did not compensate me in any way for recommending their product as a paint remover. In fact, they are still under the assumption that I am buying their product to actually make food.
Good to know! I am also a messy painter and a messy cook!
Too bad I can't put vegetable oil on my couch that has a little paint smeared on it thanks to some little grubby "helpful" hands
Good idea! We primed our bathroom recently and I was able to get the primer off my skin with a Mr. Clean Magic Eraser. Amazing! It worked especially well on my nails. Thanks for sharing!
I had totally forgotten about that conversation. And I just laughed right out loud remembering it. You need better friends than me.
this is awesome!
I'm totally going to try this!
That is hilarious! I loved the warning and disclaimer! Ha!
That is a great trick. I used it while painting with oil based paints but added some salt so that it would scrub any tough areas.
Kara,
Thank you for sharing this! I have a bit o' painting in my future and I am always interested in finding alternatives to using harmful chemicals. Awesome. BTW I have been a silent admirer or your creativity for a while now, I figured I should introduce myself!
Robin
Veggie oil also take pine gum out of hair really well…probably off skin as well.
it really does work i used olive oil and liquid dishsoap, rub oil in then rub soap in works best, have to rinse and repeat and scrub, but it is the only thing ive found that works. thanks, I thought i was stuck with white hands till it wore off, yikes. thanks
Sheer genius! After having a scoop of peanut butter (it was mentioned and I was hungry), I used canola oil, soap and water…it saved my hands! Now, all I need is a manicure. Thank you for the tip!