Hi All, Amy here with important food for thought about SAFELY cleaning your skin after messy crafting. A big “Thank You” to Sally Keys, guest blogger, for this inspiring article and who reminded us that “petroleum jelly” can contain nasty, dangerous chemicals. (DUH! Petro-chemicals!?!
It’s one thing to clean up your craft mat after a messy crafting session, but it’s another thing entirely to clean materials off of your skin.
You need to consider what’s safe and what might cause you harm in both the short-term and the long-term. Many common
chemical cleaners can lead to issues such as dry skin, breathing difficulties, and even an increased risk of cancer.
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| Chelsea removed Sharpie permanent marker from her hands. READ HOW |
Ink and Dyes
Are you stamping, ink jet printing, coloring zentangles, decorating T-shirts, or dying your hair a rainbow of colors? Will you choose Permanent or Pigment? Indelible or Inkjet? Solvent or Soy? Distress or Dye? Alcohol markers, alcohol in dropper bottles, or alcohol mist sprays? No matter how or what you use, doesn’t it seem that they always make it onto your fingers and sometimes your elbows? You can wait for it to wear off over time, but you may be showing your latest creation on your hands for days to come!
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| Charity removed hair dye from her hands safely and easily. READ HOW. |
Instead of turning to cleaners containing
acetone,
petrochemicals, or even rubbing alcohol which can lead to dry skin and dermatitis, there are safe alternatives that you can use. Ask your grandparents what they used, or try
ScraPerfect’s Best Cleaner Ever™, the earth-friendly, people safe solvent. Because it is
designed to clean your hands as well as your stamps, tools, and brushes, it lists the ingredients as the FDA requires. You will not find ingredients on most household cleaners if they are not intended for use on the body, which is why you must be very careful. #ScraPerfectgetsdowntoEarth
If you think a mild abrasive would help remove your ink, you may want to try rubbing the affected area with toothpaste, as the abrasive crystals might help to safely and gently remove ink stains.
Paint
The removers that you use after painting a wall, canvas, or model planes are rarely safe for contact with your skin; these can lead to chemical burns, irritation to your nasal passages, and damage to your internal organs including your lungs and brain. Warm water and a mild dish soap usually works easily for water-based paints like watercolors, and even for latex and acrylic paints if you wash
before they have a chance to dry.
Whether the paint is sprayed, brushed, or sponged on, ScraPerfect’s Best Cleaner Ever™ is both safe and effective for removing all kinds of paints including oils, enamels, as well as dried acrylic and latex, and it has no abrasives or other ingredients to irritate your skin.
Don’t forget about your personal cleaning products like shampoo and body wash. While products used on the body can not contain ingredients known to cause harm, some may contain stronger chemicals than necessary and be irritating to your eyes and skin. Always use the safest and least harsh product that gets the job done!
Adhesives
Accidentally getting glue on yourself can quickly turn into a sticky situation or even worse when working with superglue or hot glue. Choosing your adhesive carefully can help minimize concerns you’ll face during use or removal. With white school glue, you can wait until the glue dries to simply peel it off, but peeling it off isn’t always a choice and that glue isn’t appropriate for most papercrafts and other crafting projects, and while rubber cement peels off easily, it can contain dangerous chemicals such as acetone, hexane, heptane or toluene or be stabilized with ammonia. Spray adhesives almost by definition have extensive warnings on the label. Of course, we recommend the very versatile Best Glue Ever™ which is not only water-based, non-toxic, acid-free, and wrinkle-free, but it also dries tacky and permanent making it the superlative adhesive for crafters.
Sometimes you simply need to act fast to wash off water-soluble glue because once dry, it can become difficult to remove. Soaking the affected area in warm, soapy water may help to loosen the glue, and other times friction on dried glue allows you to rub it off. When you need more than soap ‘n water or elbow grease, we recommend ScraPerfect’s Best Cleaner Ever™, the Earth-friendly, people safe solvent which removes most adhesives easily.
We caution you avoid products which may contain carcinogenic, skin-irritating, and asthma-inducing compounds including
petroleum jelly and strong smelling
goo-removing fluids that promise to take your
goofs away. Even products containing
Orange Oil which sound so safe and natural can be irritating, allergenic, or carcinogenic when they contain petroleum distillates and abrasives. If products post cautions for breathing, getting on skin, or other warnings, we suggest you to think twice about using them, or at the minimum, that you take the warnings seriously.
Be well, be clean…and Happy Crafting!
Many cleaning products aren’t designed for contact with skin and some that are may still pose a health risk to you, your family, and even your pets! Consider the cumulative effect of all the chemicals we are exposed to daily and over our lifetimes in the products we use and in the ones we come into contact without our choosing. Since there are safe alternatives available, make informed decisions about the products you choose for cleaning your body and your world!
