How to Get Gorilla Glue Off Your Skin

Best and Safest Ways to Do It

Written by Olivia Paxton. Updated on how to remove gorilla glue from clothes

Gorilla Glue is widely used for repairing almost any object from the cracked vases to big items. It has strong gluing qualities which, however, may cause danger to our skin when being dripped off. 

So, how to remove gorilla glue from the skin? Rinse or soak the affected skin with acetone or gently soak the affected skin with a cotton pad rinsed with acetone. Use cold water with a bar of soap as an alternative. Then you can scrape off the glue with a wooden or metal stick.

In this article, you will learn how to remove Gorilla Glue safely and fast from your skin without hurting it.

What Is So Dangerous About Gorilla Glue On Your Skin?

Gorilla Glue is a strong bonding product with highly adhesive characteristics meant for fixing even the most problematic cracks and bonding issues.

If you have ever had to deal with a drop of superglue on your skin, then you know approximately what awaits for you in case one tiny blot of Gorilla Glue ends up on your palm or fingers. 

Since this adhesive is very fast-drying, it is crucially essential to delete its blot from the skin instantly after it got there, otherwise, the process of removing Gorilla Glue from skin can be quite painful.

One more dangerous thing about it is that Gorilla Glue gets deep into the surface it is spread on which makes it harmful for your bare skin.

This is also what makes it harder to remove Gorilla Glue from skin especially if you let it stay there even for a little bit of time.

Moreover, this sort of adhesive is waterproof and, when drying, it becomes of a tanned color which makes the process of its removal even worse and more difficult.
How to Remove Gorilla Glue From Skin. Precise Instruction and Tools You Will Need

It often happens that, during some exciting do-it-yourself experiment at home or in the garage we suddenly spill some glue on our hands. And everything would be fine if only we were talking about an ordinary easy-to-wash-off glue. 

However, to deal with such materials as wood, plastic, glass, and others when tinkering something requires far more strong adhesives and what we normally do is that we take a bottle of Gorilla Glue.

Removing Gorilla GlueRemoving Gorilla Glue

Yep, this one, when being dripped onto our skin, may become quite a disaster! And if you have no such habit as using protective gloves while working with the adhesives, you will definitely need to know what actions to take to delete the sticky blot on the skin and not only there.

How to Remove Gorilla Glue From Skin

Removing Gorilla Glue is believed to be a tough thing to perform and at some point it is true. This kind of glue is somewhat similar to the superglue which, as we all know, gets dry very fast and is extremely hard to rip off your skin or any other surface it got to.

Moreover, Gorilla Glue is one of the hardest glues to remove.

Is it possible to deal with this problem at all then, you may ask?

In fact, it is, nevertheless, if you intend to remove Gorilla Glue from your hands fast and without damaging the skin, act fast to prevent the adhesive from further drying and hardening, otherwise, it will become much harder to delete.

What did you use to remove Gorilla Glue?
Pumice stone
18.47%
Piece of wood
5.11%
Sea salt and solid oil
15.63%
Warm water
60.8%

So what shall you do if you noticed the Gorilla Glue on your hands?

If you are lucky and you spot that adhesive blot on yourself right away you spilled it, take a wet cloth and erase it instantly. Be careful, though, when doing this because Gorilla Glue gets harder when getting in contact with water!

how to remove gorilla glue from skin

If you missed the crucial moment and didn’t notice the glue spilled at once but it is still clammy, take the following actions. After being dripped, Gorilla Glue remains sticky for a minute more so don’t miss your chance!

How to get Gorilla Glue off your hands

If the adhesive got onto the hands’ skin, on its outside part or onto the palm, and it is still sticky, use any soap for washing dishes.

Hand soap can also be helpful.

how to take off gorilla glue hand soap

Soap the damaged zone of the skin with it and rinse off. Washing components that the soap contains dissolve Gorilla Glue and will allow preventing the adhesive from hardening which will make it easier for you to delete it afterward. Simply keep on soaping and washing the glued area in turns until the blot is gone. 

If it so happened that the adhesive already hardened, to get Gorilla Glue off your hands, treat the glued zone with a lemon or any detergent based on citrus first. It may help to let loose the grip of the adhesive blot to your skin which, in its turn, will let you to delete the adhesive easier afterward.

To get Gorilla Glue off your skin completely when it is already dry, do the following.

  1. Ensure that the skin has no damages like scratches, cuts or sunburns that may be aching when being rubbed actively for a while
  2. Take a pumice stone or any other hard, sabulous and rough-surfaced item like a stone or a piece of wood. If nothing of that kind can be found, simply mix some sea salt and any solid oil
  3. Immerse the glued area in warm water. It will not help to delete the adhesive as it is water-resistant, however, the warm temperature will make it slightly more compliant
  4. Using your scraper, rub the damages zone carefully but actively. Now and then, add more soap to wash away the softened adhesive

If none of these actions bring you a notable result, you can simply wait for about a week for the adhesive to be removed itself. Our skin renovates itself every seven days so, after a while, the glued area will get off itself.

Removing Dried Gorilla Glue From Your Wood ProjectRemoving Dried Gorilla Glue From Your Wood Project

How to get Gorilla Glue off your fingers

If you ended up with Gorilla Glue on your fingers, it may be a bit tricky to delete it from them as dealing with fingers is not the same easy as with the flat surface like your palm, for example.

To mind the adhesive blot, use the same approaches as were described above for removing the substance from the hands. Anyway, as an additional method, using a nail polish remover can also be helpful only remember that it dries your skin too much so ensure you moisturize it enough after treating with acetone.

how to get gorilla glue off hands

Another Gorilla Glue cleanup can be made by yourself. You can either mix some sea salt and any solid oil and apply this scrub to the glued zone or you may mix some washing soda with a liquid washing agent. This mixture must contain about two percent of the agent and ten percent of soda. All the rest amount must be taken by water.

If you glued your fingers together, don’t try to split them as you may tear your skin and cause even more harm! The best choice would be to soak your fingers with acetone and try to spread them as usual.

How to Take Off Gorilla Glue When It Is Already Dry On Your Skin?

Gorilla Glue dries extremely fast. After being spilled, it remains liquid for about one minute and, to delete it, act fast to catch your chance.

remove gorilla glue к
beesleyandfildes.co.uk

How to remove Gorilla Glue from the skin if it has already dried?

  • You can start with immersing the glued blot in warm water to soften the adhesive layer
  • Then prepare a scrubbing mixture that builders and workers use for dealing with Gorilla Glue blots.
  • Mix some washing soda, water, and any liquid washing agent. The ratio of the parts must be two percent of the detergent, ten percent of soda and the rest must be water.
  • Apply this mixture to the blot until it is gone completely.

baking soda for cleaning grease from the oven

How to Get Gorilla Glue Off Your Clothes Without Destroying It?

Cleaning hands or fingers is not the only problem one may face when working with Gorilla Glue. It is not a seldom situation when a sticky drop gets to your clothes!

And if you can survive in case it is some old garment that you don’t mind throwing away, then any more or less new apparel will require immediate help from you.

So how to get Gorilla Glue off your clothes carefully and fast without damaging the garment?

  • To begin with…let the adhesive dry. If you make an attempt to delete the soft adhesive at once, you can only make it worse by spreading it over the fabric. 
how to remove gorilla glue from clothes
cleanipedia.com

But in case you try to speed up the drying process by using any drying methods (like hairdryer, etc), it will lead to the formation of the stains. So just let it dry.

  • After the adhesive is dry, put your item on a flat and stable surface and take off the blot using your nails.
  • Another method is to mop up the dry adhesive blot with the acetone or a lemon juice (that is a good Gorilla Glue remover) for approximately fifteen minutes.
  • The second you remove the dried adhesive blot from your apparel, feel free to wash it, as usual, applying a laundry agent to the mark and rubbing it in using a brush (but never do like this with the delicate or dry-clean only items!).
  • You may need to wash the item once or twice depending on whether any marks and traces will remain after the first cycle.

how to get gorilla glue off skin

How Do You Remove Gorilla Glue From Other Surfaces?

Hands and clothes are not the only targets for the Gorilla adhesive blots. When using this adhesive for any craft or tinkering stuff, you definitely happened to spill some of the adhesives on working surfaces, too. 

How to clean Gorilla Glue if it got to a wooden or a glass surface? Check it out here.

How to get Gorilla Glue off the glass

Glass is a very gentle material when it comes to deleting glues and other adhesives from it as it can be easily damaged by the abradants.

To delete the adhesive from any glass surface, soak it in acetone first. The adhesive will soften and become more loose.

When the adhesive finally becomes more yielding, it can be deleted by a cloth or simply by your fingernails.

Keep on wiping the surface until there are no strips and other traces of the glue on the glass. 

how to get gorilla glue off fingers
tuffaproducts.com.au

What removes Gorilla Glue from wood

To take away the Gorilla Glue from a wooden surface, damp cloth or a damp towel will be required. To make the result better, you may add some paint thinner onto the cloth as well. 

To give your wooden item a neat look, use fine-grit sandpaper for the final touch.

Getting Gorilla Glue from metal

When Gorilla Glue gets to the metal item, you must act quickly, otherwise, it will harden fast and removing it may turn into a nightmare. This adhesive is water-resistant and dries extremely fast within a minute, so don’t lose a second!

Once you noticed the adhesive blot, wipe it away carefully and then, if there are any glue traces left, scrape them off gently using a chisel.

To clear the surface from the leftover residues, scrub it softly with fine-grit sandpaper and complete with applying the acetone, paint thinner or rubbing alcohol to erase the stains.

The baking soda and super glue trickThe baking soda and super glue trick

Frequently Asked Questions

To help you deal with the glue marks better, check out these questions to be ready to act fast and effectively.

How long does this adhesive dry?

Gorilla Glue dries within one minute so you’d better take care of its blot ASAP to avoid things getting worse.

What can Gorilla Glue be dissolved with?

If we are talking about your skin, then soapy water will work well. As for the other surfaces like glass, wood, or metal, acetone, rubbing alcohol and paint thinner are the best options.

How to avoid dripping the glue while working?

First of all, use protective gloves and an apron to protect your hands and clothes respectively. 

Also, to apply the glue more accurately, use a toothpick or a cocktail stick to avoid spilling it. 

These approaches are easy to perform and they don’t require any specific instruments or strong chemicals. You can use them at home as well and preserve your hands and apparel from the adhesive blots.

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Olivia shares all she knows about the hotels, houses, and home cleaning with Beezzly readers. And she knows a lot! 15 years of work experience as a Manager in a former Four Season Service gave Olivia an exceptional base of professional knowledge and practical experience.
Our editors independently research, test, and recommend the best products; you can learn more about our review process here.
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