How do you remove garlic smells from your fingers?

How do you remove garlic smells from your fingers? - Bunch of raw garlic on marble table

I've heard touching stainless steel after chopping and handling garlic helps but I haven't found it to work all that well.



Best Answer

The smell of garlic is due to sulfur compounds. When you rub your hands against stainless steel, the iron of the stainless steel will react with some small volume of those compounds, but much more will remain in your hands. Rubbing your hands against an iron object does not work.

The sulfur smell compounds are water soluble to slightly water soluble, so rinsing your hands in cold water and then soap and water should work as well as the recipes suggesting Noxzema, lemon juice, salt, baking soda, raw potatoes, tomato paste solutions, or mouthwash.




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How do you remove garlic smells from your fingers? - Top view of unpeeled raw yellow onion in white bowl and unpeeled raw aromatic garlic in light green bowl placed on marble table
How do you remove garlic smells from your fingers? - Top view of aromatic raw unpeeled garlic in black bowl near half peeled garlic bulb placed on white marble table
How do you remove garlic smells from your fingers? - Top view of raw whole unpeeled aromatic garlic placed next to each other on white marble surface before cooking process



How long does the smell of garlic stay on your hands?

And while those compounds help food taste great, they're pretty intense when they hang around on the breath or skin. Once your body has metabolized the compounds, the smell disappears, but for some people, that may take up to two days.

What neutralizes the smell of garlic?

Drink lemon water Lemon juice may help to neutralize the odor of onions or garlic on the breath.

How do you get the smell of onions and garlic off your hands?

Rinse your hands under cold water until they are clean. Use toothpaste and mouthwash. Toothpaste and mouthwash can eliminate the sulfuric chemical compounds in onions that leave a lingering smell. Rub your hands together with toothpaste and mouthwash under running water for around thirty seconds.

Does toothpaste get rid of garlic smell on hands?

The minty smells in toothpaste or mouthwash both are perfect for masking the strong garlic scent on hands. The alcohol in the mouthwash is astringent so will close the pores in your hands and hopefully stop the smell.



How to Remove Garlic Smell from Hands Fast | Cooking Italian with Joe




More answers regarding how do you remove garlic smells from your fingers?

Answer 2

A quick rinse with some lemon juice. Then wash your hands normally with soap and you're done.

Answer 3

Stainless steel does work, but you have to rub it over your hands under running water. As noted above, this causes a chemical reaction that breaks down the garlic oils so they can be rinsed away. Using hand or dish soap in addition to the steel helps speed this process.

Answer 4

Washing your hands by rubbing your fingers on a stainless steel knive under running water works really well.

Answer 5

I always use a stainless steel 'hand soap', such as this one with a little bit of regular hand soap. Wash for about 30 seconds and the garlic smell's gone.

Answer 6

I always have some coffee around to remove smells like that from my hands. It's not so sci-fi like rubbing steel over your hands, but works for me.

Answer 7

I find that cold water and lemon juice works best. There's also a theory that cutting a potato in half and rubbing it on your hands will work but so far I've never tried it!

Answer 8

I was recently reading up on this subject because, not matter how many times I washed my hands after chopping garlic, the smell would still be there even a couple days later.

I tried the "stainless steel" approach, but didn't see any results. The "coffee grounds" approach did help some, it works well to cover up the smell at least. At the same time I was trying these methods, I accidentally discovered a better solution. I was building an evaporative fan, using copper tubing and in handling it, the garlic smell instantly went away and my fingers and slightly smelled like copper but no garlic!!

I imagine this has something to do with the chemical reaction with stainless steel mentioned in this string, but copper seemed to work a lot better. Further testing may be needed, but wanted to share what I had found.

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