How To Get Egg Dye Off Hands

Very very few people talk about the dark side of Easter. It's all chocolate eggs, white fluffy bunnies and pretty Easter outfits.

But this holiday has a dark underbelly.

It all starts with the fun family activity of dying Easter eggs. And ends like this…

Those are my 5-year-old daughter's hands.

So like any good mom, I send her to the bathroom to wash them and she returns with them looking like this…

She starts to get very weepy and I want to console her but she looks like she is turning into the Incredible Hulk and it's not the most awesome look for a young girl.

I immediately google, "How To Get Easter Egg Dye Off Your Hands" and I find this gem…

"Put cooking oil and sugar and use it as a scrubber and then take a bath and it works like magic."

I immediately mix canola oil and brown sugar in a bowl and make my girls wash their hands in it. On the plus side, my 7-year-old Dylan (whose hands are not nearly as bad as Summer's) seems to have a real passion for exfoliating scrubs. She says, "My hands feel SO soft and smooth. I love it. I want to do this again tomorrow."

On the down side, absolutely no dye comes off. I immediately disregard the "take a bath" part of the advice because somehow I doubt the "magic" will suddenly kick in.

Now Summer is sobbing uncontrollably. Green hands really bum a kid out.

I feel a little more panicked. Mostly because my soothing words, "I'm guessing this dye will not still be on your hands by next Easter" hasn't helped at all. I google again and this time find another idea… lemon juice.

Which does not work either. But Summer's green hands now have a nice citrus smell.

Next I try dishwashing soap. Summer intensely scrubs and scrubs her hands as if she is about to enter the operating room to perform cardiovascular surgery.

And after about 5 to 10 minutes, it happens. The dye starts to fade.

At least enough that she is willing to go to sleep and keep working on it tomorrow.