New Skin Antiseptic Liquid Bandage 1 floz

For people like myself that are always working in an office setting, paper cuts are something that just comes with the job. Those sharp edges just tend to reach out and grab you sometimes, and if they are bad enough I am pulling out the band-aides to try and deal with it. Unfortunately I also type a lot, and when you are wearing a something on your finger, your typing skills are greatly diminished. For people like me that live on the backspace key, this can create a small problem when it comes to cranking out long documents. I decided I would give this product called "New Skin" a try to see if it would work for me. Basically, New-Skin is a liquid bandage that serves in place of any type of physical bandage. Sound a little too good to be true? Well I have found that it basically is. What was intended to be something easy to use, is not really that easy at all, and ends up being much more trouble than it is worth most of the time.

The New-Skin comes in a small bottle holding one fluid ounce of the product. It may not seem like a lot from the onset, but you really don't use much each time you use the product, so I think the little bottle could really last a long time. In fact, you can barely even tell that this current bottle has been used. Here is basically what you are supposed to do with it when you get a cut that isn't major. You are instructed to clean the affected area, basically making sure that the cut is clean. That is pretty self-explanatory, and I hope it isn't ground breaking to hear that you should do this. You are then instructed to apply a layer of the product on said affected area. To do that, the bottle comes with a little brush, much like that used in rubber cement, attached to the under-side of the lid, which serves as an easy way to apply the liquid. Or so it was intended. The liquid is quite runny, so when you pull out the brush, you have to watch for it to drip all over the place, because that is what it wants to do.

If you are able to actually get it on the cut, and only the cut on the first try, then you are much better at this than me. But, your troubles aren't quite going to stop there. Once applied, you are supposed to let the substance dry in a fashion that it will protect the entire area of the abrasion. The problem is that this liquid does NOT dry very quickly. You pretty much have to have something else to do while you are waiting for it to dry. If you try and use the affected finger, hand, whatever, you are going to cause it to start being pulled off by gravity. This can cause just as big of a mess, as when you are first applying the mixture. So you have to wait around, and when it starts to harden, it is actually still wet, so don't rub it against anything or it is going to come off. Once you have that first layer, you are expected to put on a second layer for added protection. An annoying process to say the least. Taking off the skin is even harder, because you have to apply new liquid from the bottle, and then wipe it off.

There aren't many positive things that I can say about this product. To be sure, if you are able to get it on the cut, and keep it on the cut, it does serve as a good protection, but not really much better than a bandage with all the time you waste. In addition, putting it on yourself is even harder than putting it on someone else. Picture this; you put it on, and can't use what you have put it on for a while. So you open the bottle, put it on a cut on the top of a right-hand finger. Well that means you can't use your right hand to close up the bottle when you are done, making everything awkward because you don't want the bottle too harden, or what is on your hand to come off. Not a fun thing to do. Also, when you apply this stuff to your cut...IT HURTS! Wow does it hurt. You can feel the nerve endings being burned off with every stroke of the brush on your skin. Its not fun, and I don't recommend using this on children.

The only active ingredient in this product is hydroxyquinoline, which is an antiseptic, and it also contains 6.7% alcohol, oil of cloves, and pyroxylin solution. It needs to be kept at room temperature, and it also much be kept out of the reach of children. It can be easily found at any drug store, and most grocery stores, and has become a popular product according to lots of people that I work with. I really don't see how it could last very long though, because it annoys the heck out of me any time I even try to use it. It is messy, it is painful, and it is just plain unfun to use this product. I don't recommend it, unless you have the patience, and the time to sit there and deal with a cut. I can see where if you are really worried about appearance, that you would use this product to hide a cut, and you won't have to wear any unsightly bandages. But, for everyone else, I would say stick with what you know and avoid spending any money on this liquid skin.