Here’s how to get spray paint off skin. These are the two quickest and easiest ways to remove spray paint from your fingers, hands, or any other skin that has gotten in the way of overspray.
Do you sometimes need to get spray paint off your skin? It seems like every time I do a spray painting project, even if it’s something quick, I get a little bit on my fingers. Or a lot on my fingers. You too? It’s the worst, isn’t it? Getting spray paint on your skin isn’t like when you get regular interior paint on your hands. It doesn’t just rinse right off if you catch it quickly. It’s stuck-on and set pretty much instantly and it takes a little more intensity and cleverness to remove spray paint from hands, fingers, toes, or anywhere else it might end up, but it can be done!
These methods in today’s post are for when you’re using spray paint in a can and you accidentally get some on your skin because of overspray, a clogged spray nozzle that leads to paint going everywhere, or if you just touch your paint job too quickly before it’s fully dry. For cleaning paint mistakes from the type of paint sprayer that you use with regular water-based paint, you shouldn’t need to do anything quite so serious. Regular soapy water or some damp wipes should do the trick, even with old paint that you don’t manage to get to right away.
When it comes to canned spray paint mishaps, I used to scrub and scrub with something abrasive or just wait a few days for the paint residue to wear off when I ended up with hands that looked like the picture below. Now though, I have a couple of methods that I try right away to take care of this issue, and they haven’t let me down yet!
How to Get Spray Paint Off Skin
So there are two things that you can do to solve this quickly!
- Use nail polish remover! It works! I’m not really too excited about putting nail polish remover all over my skin, but for the odd drips or splatters, it really is the fastest way to get that paint off! It’s a great spray paint remover, truthfully, and I do feel better about putting nail polish remover on my skin than using paint thinner. The nail polish remover acts as a solvent in this situation, but it’s formulated to come into contact with skin without being too drying the way other harsh cleaners can be.
- If you have a little more spray paint mess to deal with, the second best method to get rid of it is non-stick cooking spray! Just spray it on, and let it sit for a moment, then use something like a toothbrush (and a bit of elbow-grease) to begin gently lifting and scraping away at the paint. When you’re satisfied with your results, wash the cooking spray and the paint away with soap and water. This tactic really melts the paint right off, and it’s a great, odor-free solution to remove spray paint.
Another quick tip for using cooking spray to clean up from The Creek Line House: The Cooking Spray in the Tub Trick
An Alternative Method to Remove Spray Paint
If you don’t have any non-stick cooking spray or nail polish remover in the house, a slightly messier method for removing spray paint is to take an olive-oil-soaked cotton ball and apply a generous amount of oil to your skin to soak the area. You should be able to gently use a soft bristle brush and a bit of scrubbing to flake the paint off.
So there you have it! That’s how to clean spray paint off of your skin! Even if you have really rough-looking DIYer hands like I do, at least they can be clean! 🙂
The next time you get spray paint on your hands, I hope this makes your world just a little bit less frustrating! Do you have another clever solution that you use to get spray paint off skin that we all need to know about?
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Courtenay Hartford is the author of creeklinehouse.com, a blog based on her adventures renovating a 120-year-old farmhouse in rural Ontario, Canada. On her blog, Courtenay shares interior design tips based on her own farmhouse and her work as founder and stylist of the interior photography firm Art & Spaces. She also writes about her farmhouse garden, plant-based recipes, family travel, and homekeeping best practices. Courtenay is the author of the book The Cleaning Ninja and has been featured in numerous magazines including Country Sampler Farmhouse Style, Better Homes and Gardens, Parents Magazine, Real Simple, and Our Homes.