GE15 giveaway: Indelible ink delible-isers
SYDI ALIF
With great power, comes great responsibility. With general election, comes indelible ink... and with Sinar Daily, comes the delible-iser.
So, have you been relentlessly scrubbing that stubborn badge of patriotism off of your delicate finger enough that you’d thought about just simply cutting it off, perhaps?
Well, since chances are that the little voting wand on your hand is not going to grow back like a lizard’s tail, you might want to consider this line-up of painless alternatives to bidding farewell to that historical shade.
To begin with, let’s find out what this seemingly permanent stain is made from. Typically, it is manufactured of silver nitrate which is a pigment that stains with exposure to ultraviolet (UV) light and suspension in solvents such as certain alcohols and water.
When applied to the skin, it is meant to stay up to a few days even though there are claims that it could even last for weeks.
Now, let’s brush this ink off... safely, of course.
1. Nail polish remover
Have you ever thought that if it’s good enough for glitter nail polish and Sharpie stains, it might as well get the job done for this frustrating mission? Try to think of the ink as a gel manicure.
So, what you want to do is soak a cotton pad in acetone, wrap it around your finger, cover it with aluminium foil or plastic wrap and leave it to work its magic for 10 minutes. Then, repeat as necessary.
Now look, the key ingredient here is acetone, so an acetone-free formulation is a dealbreaker. Also, don’t forget to moisturise after because acetone is pretty rough on the skin, and so, that’s why it works wonders, yes for both skin and nails... you’re welcome.
2. Alcohol
Alcohol is no stranger to indelible inks as a solvent for quick-drying purposes. Hence, rubbing alcohol may help to dissolve the ink and get rid of it from your skin.
Just apply it on a cloth and go to town it’s gone, BUT, not vigorously! Unless you don’t mind ruining your skin. Anyway, remember to finish up with a healthy dose of hand cream if you’re going down this road.
3. Dishwashing detergent
Actually, this one’s got some pretty mixed reviews, but still, did well enough, in general, so do consider giving it a shot.
So, here’s the trick; apply a few drops of soap onto your finger, hit the spot with a cloth or sponge and then, rinse it off. If it made a difference, keep going until the ink disappears or till you give up, perhaps.
4. Exfoliating scrubs
Now, let’s talk about an option that we could consider as the last resort. In other words, the indelible ink wouldn’t bother leaving your precious voting stylus no matter which home remedies you’d taken a chance on.
It might mean that you just have to wait until your skin renews itself naturally to drop the old dyed stained one.
The good news is you could try to speed up the process with some help from a physical exfoliant on your finger. Not only will this potentially help to speed up the fading process, but it’ll leave it baby soft, too!
5. Bleach wash/wipes (not recommended)
Remember the previous option that we’d dubbed “the last resort”? Well, this next one is something that you should only pick up if and IF only you extremely need to, like life-and-death level need to. Otherwise, we really, strongly advise you against it for your very own good of course.
So, if you’ve tried the first four hacks on this list and still found yourself in need of a push just another notch, firstly, make sure it’s diluted before you go and apply it to your skin.
And secondly, rinse it off thoroughly when you’re done, because, like anybody else, you’d probably rather have your finger intact and inky rather than raw, bloodied and sore no matter how good of a job it can do to erasing that visual disturbance.
So good luck and let us know how it goes!
