I doubt there’s one factual answer to this, hence it’s in imho instead of gq.
My doctor recently (about a month ago), my doctor put me on estrogen patches; I wear one for a week, then switch to a new one. The new one has to go in a different place (you can re-use old places, but can’t use the same place two weeks in a row). After a week of wearing them, they leave a ring of adhesive residue on my skin.
I’ve had limited success getting this residue off with alcohol swabs. The alcohol is irritating to my skin. Soap and water seems to do no good at all. I’ve had some success just rubbing the ball of my fingertip over it again and again until it forms a little glue ball and I can pull it off, but again, this is irritating to my skin.
So what can I use to easily remove the residue, that won’t irritate the skin?
Did you try some mineral/baby oil? That’s always worked for me. Just a bit on a cotton ball; dab it on and let it sit a few minutes, then rub it off gently.
I used patches for a year, not estrogen, and I never came up with a way to remove the adhesive that wasn’t irritating. Two weeks after the patch was moved some adhesive was still present, unless you finally rubbed it off. I’ll be watching if anybody does have a non-irritating way to remove the adhesive. Even though the adhesive is hard to get off your skin the patches fell off days early, until I started putting them under the elastic band in my underwear. The patch falls off, but the glue sticks to you, that’s messed up.
If you’re having that much trouble I would try lighter fluid, goo gone, nail polish remover, WD-40 or Gasoline. I supose if none of those work, you could take a match to it while it’s still damp with one of them.
As I reread what I wrote, I suppose I would start with nail polish remover, then go to lighter fluid. But I’ll bet either one of them will work without leaving much smell.
Many bandage adhesives are a solution of rubber in a nonpolar oil. Some kinder and less aggressive solvents that are pretty nonpolar include mineral oil, vegetable oil, petrolatum (for example “Vaseline”), and peanut butter. If you want a more aggressive nonpolar solvent you could try hexane (they sell this, or at least used to sell it, as Carter’s Rubber Cement Thinner). I think toluene and xylene also work, though I’m not sure how nonpolar they are. Goof-Off is, I think, one or both of these. You can also buy toluene at Home Depot by the quart. It’s street name is “tolly”, if that helps.
Water and alcohol and acetone are all pretty polar and probably wouldn’t work so well. But, adhesives vary, and so may your mileage.
Carefull with that thing, can be bad.
In my case if my skin touches acetone (nail polish removers AFAIK are mostly that) in just minutes my epidermis peels off, like in, instablister and detachment. So you may want to make a small test before swabing yourself with it.
Also, I have seen in hospitals adhesive removal wipes (look just like alcohol wipes). I googled medical adhesive remover and got a lot of results. These are no doubt designed to be minimally irritating.
The thing is those solvents irritate the all ready sensitive skin too much. The area is sore where the patch was, and it’s almost like a rug burn. Something that soothes a rash and gets rid of the adhesive is what is needed and why this is a hard task.
Baby oil, as mentioned up thread, should do the trick with minimal irritation.
The skin irritation may be mostly due to the patch itself. It’s no easy trick to deliver medicine transdermally, as skin is designed to keep things out. I have sensitive skin and had to give up on the birth control patch for this reason.
Good luck!
Well, there are some good tips here. I knew I could count on you guys! I think I’ll start by trying first mineral oil, followed by vegetable oil (if the mineral oil doesn’t work). These are where I’ll start because I happen to already have both in my house.
I just put a new patch on this morning, but still have residue from last week’s patch, and from the week before that! :eek:
I’m on IV antibiotics and have a lovely sticky plastic patch on my arm, and the home care nurse told me that it’s counter-intuitive, but just plain gauze removes stickiness. I’ve never tried it, though, so I can’t vouch for its efficacy. And she might also have just been talking about the particular kind of patch I have, which is why I mention it.
Those premoistened disposable face cloths work great for removing the adhesive from my hysterically over-sensitive skin. Olay Daily Facial is one brand, and there are several more in the skin care aisle at Target & Walmart. I like the kind in the bright green package.
Baby oil works, as does rubbing alcohol, if you don’t hate those smells or have a cat who eats cotton balls.
A former coworker claimed Stridex pads are best at removing the gunk left by nicotine patches, but Noxema acne pads are useless. YMMV.
I used to be on the patch, I used almond oil to get the excess residue off my skin. I have very sensitive skin and it worked very well for me. I imagine baby oil would work just as well.
Baby wipes. There’s just enough oil in there to get the job done, just barely abrasive enough to scrub effectively, but very gentle, and often with skin soothing stuff in them already.
Normally, I use acetone wipes or witch hazel to remove the adhesive from a patient’s skin, but if they’re both too irritating (witch hazel shouldn’t be, but if you have very sensitive skin, it may dry it out), you may want to try using Dove body wash in the shower.
>Baby oil, as mentioned up thread, should do the trick with minimal irritation.
Yes, take Solfy’s advice.
I’m pretty sure acetone shouldn’t even work very well, as it is much more polar than the oils in most medical bandages. Anybody here having better luck with acetone than mineral oil? And, what are “acetone wipes”? Are they like alcohol wipes? Where do you get them?
You should be able to get them at Longs/Walgreen’s/Rite Aid, etc.