How to Get Jalapeno Off Your Hands: 7 Easy, Effective Remedies

You have just finely chopped a bunch of jalapeños for your salsa tonight, feeling so proud of your knife skills when it hits you; your hands are on fire. Literally on fire. That spicy, tingly sensation is eating through your fingertips and you frantically plop your hands under a sink of scalding water, doing little to actually help the situation. If you have ever touched your eye, or nose, or put in a contact lens after touching a hot pepper before you know the regretful helplessness of the situation far too late.

The substance responsible for this miserable scenario is none other than capsaicin, the compound that makes all hot peppers, jalapeños, habaneros, and ghost peppers alike, well, hot. The oil based capsaicin is actually super hard to get rid of seeing as the best thing you can do is simply use water, which won’t do much besides maybe rinse down your already stinging hands. Capsaicin is absorbed in the skin and can take hours to properly come off if done incorrectly. Luckily, there is a way to help rid your hands of their unbearable stinging and prickling by doing this to calm those spicy nerves and prevent the burning feeling from lingering in your hands for the next few hours of cooking or phone surfing.

Real-Life Situations Where This Happens

The overly zealous home cook. Priya was making a large batch of pickled jalapeños for a family gathering. She sliced up nearly two dozen peppers bare-handed, not thinking twice about it, because she thought gloves were for beginners. An hour into the task, her fingers were throbbing, but washing them with soap had done nothing to help. It turns out that most common soaps are ineffective at breaking down capsaicin oil, and she needed something more grease-fighting to cut the pain.

The accidental eye-toucher. Dev was preparing to stuff a plate of jalapeños for his guests when he absentmindedly pushed his glasses up his nose. His eye immediately started watering uncontrollably and smarting like it’d been hit with battery acid. He was still standing at the stove, mid-cook, dousing his eye with a stream of lukewarm water, learning an expensive lesson about touching his face while handling chilies.

Common mishaps, easy to prevent with a few simple remedies and precautions, as detailed below.

Why Water Alone Doesn’t Work

Capsaicin is fat-soluble, not water-soluble, meaning that water won’t take it away. It will just shuffle the oils around on your skin, but not remove them. You need something that can cut through oil, like degreasing agents used for cleaning your frying pan.

7 Remedies That Actually Work

Remedy	What You Need	Why It Works
Dish soap and warm water	Dish soap, warm water	Cuts through oil-based capsaicin better than hand soap
Rubbing alcohol	Isopropyl alcohol, cotton pad	Dissolves capsaicin oil quickly
Whole milk or yogurt	Milk, yogurt, or sour cream	Casein protein binds to capsaicin and lifts it away
Vegetable or olive oil	Any cooking oil, paper towel	Oil dissolves oil, then wipes away with the capsaicin
Baking soda paste	Baking soda, water	Mildly abrasive and alkaline, helps neutralize residue
Toothpaste	Non-gel toothpaste	Contains mild abrasives and cooling agents
Vinegar soak	White vinegar, bowl of water	Acidity helps break down capsaicin bonds

A Closer Look at Each Method

• Dish soap and warm water: Lather up your hands for at least 30 seconds in order to remove oil from your nail folds and creases in your knuckles. You may need to repeat this two or three times if your burn is severe.
• Rubbing alcohol: Soak a cotton pad in rubbing alcohol and use it to wipe your hands. Because it evaporates quickly, it will remove capsaicin with it, although it might also leave your hands feeling dry, so you should probably follow up with some lotion.
• Whole milk or yogurt: Soak your hands in a bowl of cold milk for 10 to 15 minutes, or apply some yogurt directly to your skin. Same principle as using dairy products to wash capsaicin away after eating something spicy.
• Vegetable or olive oil: Apply some oil to your hands, let it sit for a minute or so, and then wipe it off with a paper towel before washing your hands with soap. It’s an old trick, but it works really well, because oil will pull the capsaicin out of your skin.
• A paste of baking soda and water: Make a paste of baking soda and a little bit of water and rub it on your hands.
• Toothpaste: A thin layer of plain (non-gel) toothpaste will cool your hands while removing capsaicin, but you need to be careful to keep it away from your eyes and any broken skin.
• A vinegar soak: In a bowl of warm water, mix in enough white vinegar to make a solution, and soak your hands in it for five to 10 minutes. The acid in vinegar will help remove capsaicin, which is an alkaloid.

Tips to Avoid the Burn in the First Place

• Wear gloves when handling hot peppers, especially if you’re going to be deseeding and slicing several.
• Have a cutting board and knife only for spicy things so that the oily residue doesn’t get on other foods.
• Don’t touch your face, eyes, or any other sensitive areas until you’ve washed your hands.
• If you’re not wearing gloves, you can slick your hands with oil to keep most of the pepper’s oils from sticking to them. That way, it’ll be easier to clean later.
• And if you’re doing a lot of spicy food preparation, have a bowl of milk or a vinegar-water solution handy to dunk your hands into if you need to.

When the Burn Won’t Go Away

For most people, capsaicin burn should dissipate after several hours with or without treatment, but those with sensitive skin may find that it takes longer to fully dissipate. If you have tried numerous treatments to no avail and you are experiencing burning that is severe, extensive, or accompanied by blistering or swelling, it’s best to contact a medical professional to receive further treatment instead of attempting to treat it on your own.