21 Genius Uses for Hand Sanitizer You’ll Wish You Knew Before
You won't believe how many ways you can put that bottle of hand sanitizer gel to use. Here's what the experts recommend.
Hand it to hand sanitizer
This gel can come in handy during cold and flu season and in extremely germy situations like hospitals, medical clinics, and doctors offices. And while dermatologists recommend you don't overuse it on your hands—it can really dry them out—there are plenty of other uses that you may never have thought of: Keeping hand sanitizer around the house is a great idea, germs or no germs. Check out the 10 other things dermatologists really don't like putting on their hands.
Polish silver
Hand sanitizer cuts right through tarnish on silver, according to Taste of Home. "Squirt a few drops on a soft cloth and rub away the tarnish," they advise. Here are 20 genius uses for cornstarch.
Clean your eyeglasses
You could spend close to $20 to buy special herb-infused "eyeglass cleaner" fluid. But if you have hand sanitizer lying in your reach, use that instead—it helps eliminate fingerprints and even hairspray from your eyeglasses.
Use it in place of deodorant
The reason armpits start to smell is bacteria. Which is why it makes perfect sense that rubbing hand sanitizer in your armpits will keep you smelling fresh when you forget to roll on your roll-on.
Quick acne relief
The inflammation you get with a pimple is caused in part by bacteria on your skin, so dab a bit of hand sanitizer on that spot, and feel immediate relief. Try it on bug bites, too! In fact, here's how to treat basically every kind of bug bite.
As a dry shampoo
With the advent of dry shampoos, you can spray a little on to make your hair look fresh-washed when you don't have time for washing and blow-drying. But if you're out of dry shampoo, try some hand sanitizer: Simply squeeze a bit out onto your fingertips and massage lightly into your roots, and your hair will look just as good.
Clean your flat iron
If you haven't cleaned the surface of your flat iron in a while, grab your hand sanitizer and get to work. The iron can be coated not only with hair products but bacteria. After the iron cools down, smear on some hand sanitizer, wait a few minutes, and then wipe it clean.
Clean hairspray off your mirror
When you're spritzing with hairspray, it's easy for the mirror to get caught in the crossfire. Getting it off your mirror can take a little effort—but it's easier with some hand sanitizer. Simply place some on a microfiber cloth or paper towel, wipe, and your mirror will sparkle again. Also, make sure to check out these household uses for vinegar you never knew, either.
Spruce up your makeup brushes
Who cleans their makeup brushes? We all should because there are at least 10 gross things that can happen when you don't wash your makeup tools. Get your makeup brushes extra clean by rubbing them with hand sanitizer after you wash them; then, allow them to air dry fully.
Remove permanent marker from a whiteboard
If your kids—or you—accidentally wrote on your whiteboard with a Sharpie or other permanent marker, here's an easy remedy: First write over the permanent marker with a dry erase pen, and then wipe it all off using hand sanitizer. You may need to do this a few times to remove all traces.