Garlic is a nice culinary addition, but its potent smell can stay on your hands, in the house, in the mouth, and in the sweat coming out of your body for long enough to get you concerned. This is especially true if you are a regular user of this spicy ingredient. This guide will share with you tips on how to get rid of garlic smell.
How to Get Rid Of Garlic Smell on Hands
You chopped garlic cloves while cooking lunch or dinner meal and hours down the line you can still pick its smell on your fingers? Don’t worry. There are numerous home remedies that can come to your rescue when your hands smell like garlic. Below are some of them:
Rub Your Hands against a Stainless Steel Surface
Stainless steel is an old remedy for garlic smell removal and it works wonders. When garlic is exposed to the air though crushing or chopping, it releases an enzyme referred to as allinaise which then triggers reactions that culminate in transformation of allin in garlic into allicin. Allicin contains sulfur which is responsible for the offensive garlic smell.
When you rub your hands against a metal such as stainless steel, the sulfur binds to it and the offensive smell gets eliminated from your hands.
To stop the garlic smell on your hands with this home remedy, simply rub your hands against a spoon, sink, or any other item made of stainless steel and then rinse your hands under cool running water.
Alternatively, buy a stainless steel bar soap and use it for the purpose. Made of pure stainless steel, these products look like, and are used like, a regular soap – but without the lather.
Rinse Your Hands with Lemon Juice
You can as well use lemon juice to get garlic smell out of your hands. The garlic odor fighting ability of lemon juice is thought to be due to the citric acid in it. Lime juice can as well do the trick. Below is how to remove garlic smell from hands with lemon juice:
- After you are done working with garlic, wash your hands with soap and water and then pat them dry with a towel.
- Cut a slice of lemon and rub it against your hands for half a minute or so, paying special attention to your fingers, palms and the area between your fingers.
Don’t use lemon juice to neutralize garlic smell if you have cut, scrapes, or open wound on the skin or you suffer from dry skin on the hands.
Apply Olive Oil on Your Hands
If you have olive oil in your kitchen, then you have a solution for garlic smell on hands right there. Olive oil neutralizes garlic smell and make it smell nice but it is best used before, not after, handling garlic. All you have to do is apply olive oil on your hands before cutting garlic cloves. The only downside to this is that you may find the garlic cloves pretty sliding.
Palm oil also works fine.
Rub Coffee on Your Hands
This tactic helps to mask rather than neutralize the garlic odor from your hands. Simply rub some coffee beans on your hands. This will leave behind pleasant-smelling coffee scent that overshadows the garlic odor. Alternatively, wash your hands with ground coffee under running water.
The only downside to this garlic elimination remedy is that it fades away quickly and you have to keep repeating it to continue having garlic-odor-free-hands.
How to Remove Garlic Smell from Mouth and Body
Nobody likes it when their breath or body smells like garlic. This is attributed to the presence of sulfur compounds from garlic in the mouth, lungs, and sweat with a gaseous compound known as allyl methyl sulfide (AMS) being majorly to blame.
This is produced during metabolism of garlic and since it cannot be broken down in the body, it is absorbed into the bloodstream and later exhaled through the lungs thus causing the characteristic garlic smell from the mouth. Some of the AMS is excreted through the sweat (skin pores). This explains the cases why garlic body odor often witnessed.
Below is a guideline on how to get rid of garlic smell from mouth and body:
Visit Your Refrigerator Fruit Tray
When an apple is cut or bit open and left overnight, it changes its color to become brownish. This is attributed to oxidizing enzymes in the apples. These same enzymes can help to neutralize and remove garlic breath and odor. This was proven in a study done by Ohio State University scholars. All you have to do is eat a raw apple.
Other than apples, fruits such as pears, peaches prunes, apricots, eggplants, plums, and grapes are touted to be good for removal of garlic odor in the mouth or from the body.
Sip Lemon Juice
Lemon juice has also been shown to neutralize the allinase enzyme produced by garlic and thus get rid of garlic smell. As for how to get garlic smell out of mouth, all you have to do is sip a glass of freshly made lemon juice after you are done savoring your garlic-meal or eat. Eating a lemon wedge can also help. Lemon and orange peels can also help to counteract garlic smell in the mouth.
Other than lemon juice, acidic fruit juices with pH of less than 3.6 will as well help to fight garlic odor.
Enjoy a Cup of Green Tea
Green tea is rich in polyphenols. These compounds help to breakdown and deodorize the pungent sulfide compounds found in garlic. Getting rid of garlic smell doesn’t get easier than that and as a bonus, the green tea will keep you warm not to mention the many health benefits of green tea.
Read more: How to Get Rid of Garlic Breath
Eat Parsley (Or Basil)
There is a good reason why garlic menu also include parsley. It helps to counter the pungent smell of garlic and thus prevent and get rid of garlic body odor.
Having parsley as one of the ingredients for your garlicky meal is a nice way to get rid of garlic smell but you will want to take it even further by chewing a raw, fresh parsley (dried parsley won’t be so effective) immediately after the meal.
The next time you are preparing a garlic meal, what about using parsley to garnish it.
Maintain Oral Hygiene
Brushing and flossing your teeth goes a long way in not only getting rid of garlic smell in the mouth but also taste. Do not forget to scrape your tongue. It is also helpful to swish and gargle and an alcohol-free mouthwash around your mouth.
How to Get Rid Of Garlic Smell In House
We have already covered how to get the smell of garlic out of the hands and mouth but what about your house? The following tips will help you to not only prevent but also counteract and remove garlic smell from your kitchen or any other section of your house:
Keep an Exhaust Fan Running
An exhaust fan constitutes a great defense mechanism against the smell of garlic and other common house odor culprits e.g. fish. For it to be effective however you need to strike a good position for it in the kitchen.
Deodorize and Clean the Smell Out Of Cutting Boards
The chopping boards are often forgetting while seeking to eliminate foul smell from your house. Soaking them overnight in soapy water often helps. Rubbing a lemon on the chopping boards after cooking is another way to go about it. This is especially helpful if done immediately after cutting garlic.
Stop the Garlic Smell with Scented Candles
Constituting great décor items, scented candles comes in many fragrances and you are bound to get one that appeals to you. Some are also designed to impart therapeutic properties. After cooking and eating your garlic meal consider lighting one of these to eliminate any lingering garlic smell.
Other ways to get rid of garlic smell in the house:
- Brew coffee: The smell of coffee can help to counteract that of garlic.
- Clean all the dishes and wipe all surfaces that might have come into contact with garlic e.g. kitchen floor, burner, etc.
- Open the windows to let in fresh air and thus neutralize the smell of garlic
- Simmer cut lemons or oranges on the stove for 30 minutes or so to remove garlic smell from the house. Cinnamon sticks and cloves can also do the trick.
- Spray the house with an aerosol air freshener
