We all love a solid margarita, especially when you can enjoy one under the summer sun by a pool or on the beach. The tequila flashback of underage drinking in Mexico and the salty-rimmed reminder of What happened last night? Margaritas are big fun! They could also be the big brother of bad news. In this case, I’m specifically talking about the Margarita Burn. Hold up? Margaritas can burn you? You mean that figuratively, right? No I mean that literally. It’s all fun and games until the marg gets you.
A MARGARITA BURN BY Any other name…
Surprisingly, the Margarita Burn is not its scientific name. Crazy right? The scientific name is Phytophotodermatitis. It’s also quite deceiving because it isn’t the actual margarita that burns you. It’s that rascally lime. When it’s juice reacts with sunlight on your skin, it can cause a chemical burn that ranges from mild redness to blisters and second degree burns, depending on how much lime juice is on your skin and how long you’re in the sun.
I had heard of the margarita burn (aka lime burn) our first year in DR. I was shocked to find out that this was actually a thing. Since then I have been more careful to wash my hands after handling limes. On a Saturday, a couple of weeks ago, we made fixings at home for margaritas at the pool. I squeezed a bag of limes and washed my hands. Apparently, not well enough. A few days later, with patches of itchy, red spots on my hand I knew the lime had gotten me.
What I did to help my margarita burn
I’ve used the Soothe regimen of my Rodan + Fields products before for sun burn and know that steps 2 & 3, specifically, are used for eczema type issues so I started using that on my margarita burn. Luckily, it worked. The burn areas went from the itchy, inflammation stage straight to the typical brown patch with no blisters in between*. And if you’ve seen pictures of these burns, you’ll know it is a major bullet dodged.
Pictures of the margarita burn are gross and no one needs to see that here. But Google “margarita burn” and let Google remind you why when life hands you lemons (or in this case, limes) you should still make margaritas just wash your hands… twice.
Have you ever heard of a margarita/lime burn? What did you use to help the burn?
P.S. Chinola tea to kick a cold’s ass and summer cocktail recipes
*Notes:
1. I used Soothe steps 2 & 3 to help with my lime burn but that result may vary for others.
