Removing Sticky Resin with CP soap..best ingredients?

[melissa826]

Strange request....but I had a customer that owns a hydroponics store ask me if I would want to create a bar of soap that they could sell to their customers that would help remove the sticky resin from marijuana plants off their hands. Totally out of my realm... I tried a pumice soap, but it wasn't enough--seemed to be too fine..

Does anyone know of any ingredients I could add in that would be good at combating extreme stickiness? Any suggestions would be much appreciated!

Thanks.

 

[DeeAnna]

As a beekeeper, I sometimes have to clean sticky plant resins off my skin too -- the bees collect resins and use the "propolis" to coat their hive walls and plug up unwanted cracks and other openings. Resins like this are pretty hard to clean off with soap and water because they tend to build up into a sticky mess that's water resistant.

If it's more than just a little bit of resin on the hands, I'm betting the best thing to loosen the resin might be an oil, not a soap. You could add a small % of citrus oils to the base oil(s) to increase the ability of the oil to dissolve the resins. Use a soap afterwards to clean off the oil and any remaining residue.

 

[engblom]

I agree, the best thing for cleaning your hands of nasty water repelling things is oils. Whenever I have been painting with oil paints, repairing a car or or a bike or done something else, I just take normal food grade oil (whaterver I find in the refridgerator) and rub it into my hands. After I wash with normal soap. This is so efficient!

 

[EvilTOJ]

The best thing to remove the sticky resins would be rubbing alcohol. Even better would be to use nitrile gloves, wash the resins off of those into a pan and let it air dry, then smoke the res... I mean let me think! The best kind of soap I've used to remove those kinds of resins has had activated charcoal and powdered pumice mixed in. Diatomaceous earth will work instead of pumice. I add 0.5 oz per lb of the powdered rocks. I'd use lard or coconut oil for cleansing and shea butter in the bar to help moisturize.


Source: I've made soap and... plants.

 

[grayceworks]

Ok, I discovered this by accident one day, and I've been using it for resin and adhesive residues ever since. (No, not THAT kind of resin)

I had peeled a label off a bottle and it left that slimy-sticky residue that soap only smears around. Ugh. I was out of rubbing alcohol, but I was determined to get this stuff off! I rubbed it with some oil hoping that would help dissolve it a bit, or make it less sticky, like with gum. Hmm. Nope. Then I remembered that I had a bottle of that ear-drying liquid for swimmers, which is basically rubbing alcohol and glycerin. I rubbed that over the sticky residue, let it sit for a minute, wiped with a cotton ball, and... it worked! All that slimy sticky stuff was coming right off!

Ok, so I went to do the next bottle, using just the alcohol-glycerin stuff. Results were not as good. Huh? Oh! The oil! I rubbed some oil on, and THEN tried the alcohol-glycerin. Perfect!

Olive, coconut, grapeseed, any kind really, except mineral or petroleum stuff.

So then I tried all sorts of sticky stuff. Different kinds of adhesives. Including the 'skin-tac' stuff that keeps one of my patches in place for the required 3 days. It's made with resin to give it the stickiness. Very sticky. Used to take me several washings to get the residue off. Now it comes right off.

Works on tree sap also. Rub in some oil, add the alcohol-glycerin mix, let sit a minute but not long enough for the alcohol to evaporate, then wipe with a cotton ball -- using a clean spot for each swipe.

 

[neeners]

my suggestion is to use oil to dissolve the resin (or anything sticky), and then use a strong soap to wash off the oil. i deal with banana plants a lot and they have a very sticky resin. on dry hands, i use coconut oil (just enough to coat, not too much), and when it's all dissolved, i use a strong kitchen soap (like my coffee soap) to wash off my hands. good as new!

btw, i also use coconut oil to remove makeup....