Cuticle remover

Hey guys!

I recently tried a cuticle remover at a store and was surprised at how well it worked. It tidily removed all the dead skin within a minute or two and for someone who suffers from constantly torn cuticles, it was a miracle in a bottle. But that miracle in a bottle seemed to cost an arm and a leg for a small 15 ml bottle, and after looking over the ingredients list I came to the conclusion that I should already have most of them at home. Here they are:

Water, Lanolin Oil, Potassium Hydroxide, Acrylates/C10-30 Alkyl Acrylate Crosspolymer, Carrageenan, Glyceryl Stearate, Polyacrylamide, C13-14 Isoparaffin, Laureth-7, Disodium EDTA.

Everything after the first 3 ingredients from what I understand are thickeners and emulsifiers, so it really looks like a liquid hand soap in a bottle. I was hoping to try making this at home but am a little anxious about the whole 'lye on my hands' thing. Any idea of what percentages might be used here? If you guys think that it's a bad idea to try making at home let me know too - I will purchase the product if it's deemed dangerous to make at home, just thought that maybe its possible to reproduce =).

Many thanks,
Silver

If I were you I would go to a Beauty Supply house and purchase a cuticle remover. Cuticles are sensitive and become infected quite easily. If you miss on the Potassium Hydroxide you could cause an infection and loss of nail. Cuticle remover is not extremely expensive in supply houses or it never used to be.

Lanolin won't saponify much, so it looks to me it's less a soap and more an alkaline lotion with KOH being the active ingredient that removes the cuticle. I think I'd follow Carolyn's recommendation to buy a commercial product. It's on the same level as the idea of making homemade sunscreen -- things can easily go very wrong with a DIY recipe.

Got it. Thanks for the feedback!