Hand Care in the Era of COVID-19

For such a formidable force, the novel coronavirus is vulnerable to the most basic of skin care products: soaps and cleansers.

By now, we’ve all heard the warnings to wash our hands frequently and for as long as it takes to sing the alphabet (or a verse of your favorite song). But when it comes to caring for your hands, the type of soap you use can be as important as the length of time that you use it.

Lubrizol Life Science – Beauty manufactures a number of the ingredients that allow soaps and cleansers to remove viruses, bacteria and other unwanted material, yet remain gentle on skin.

Surfactants are the main ingredients in hand soaps and are excellent detergents and foamers. They produce the lather that helps you clean in every crease and under your nails. Lubrizol manufactures a large variety of surfactants, which provide excellent foaming and cleansing. In fact, we provide ingredients for the manufacture of 9 million bottles of hand soap each month! The most popular surfactants you’ll find on the ingredients label are likely to be a sulfate and a betaine. If you’re using an anti-bacterial soap, you might also find amine oxides, which, like betaines, foam easily and work well with anti-bacterial ingredients.

Of course, the better a soap feels on your hands, the longer and more frequently you are likely to use it. Here, too, Lubrizol makes a number of care and sensorial ingredients that are essential to that feeling, including emollients that leave hands feeling soft and smooth after a good washing; polymers and thickeners that provide a honey-like flow; and esters and extracts for their moisturizing properties. Washing your hands often without care ingredients can lead to dry or even cracked skin. Don’t stop washing your hands, just apply a moisturizing cream several times a day. Creams typically do a better job than lotions at moisturizing and protecting skin.