What are these orange stains that have appeared on my hands overnight?

Update: I woke up today to find the same thing on the soles of my feet
I was washing my feet until I realized it was similar to what was on my hand
It's not annoying but I really want to know why this appears

Hi Niersena we are not absolutely certain. There seems to be a link with eating foods that contain carotene but it doesn’t always trigger. We think stress acts as a catalyst. Posters have seen doctors none of whom have come up with an answer. It disappears within a few days and seems to be harmless. It may come back. I haven’t had it for a while now but I do try to avoid eating red Romano peppers in excesss as I think is what first caused it for me.

I have had this come up twice in the last month it looks like a rust like stain on my hands. It won’t wash off but it has gone away with in a couple days it was freakin me out but this group has giving me some comfort because I don’t think it’s as serious as I thought it was but I am still going to see a dr just in case but I’ll try and update yall

Woke up with the same thing this morning. It did sort of wash off with intense scrubbing but I can still see the outline. I seem to fit a combination of everyone. Gallbladder removed, recently flipped house, soreness in eyes. Tried a new Asian street food place last night so I'm blaming that. If it comes back tomorrow I'll go to the GP and report back. Thanks for all the helpful posts. It's forums like this that prove the internet can still be a great place!

Update: it came back later in the day and I noticed that it's only affected the parts of my hand that I use my computer mouse. I did just recently but a new one and am thinking it could be some kind of contact dermatitis. Going to revert to my old mouse to see if it comes back again (scrubbed like crazy again)

Just woke up with this. I know this is probably a dead thread but just in case it’s not I’m posting to see if anyone has had any answers in the past two years.

Hi mcook12 still no confirmed answers but I check in every so often to keep the thread open and offer reassurance that it doesn’t seem to be threatening, just a mystery. We’ve established it won’t come off so is internal, tends to appear overnight and is usually gone within 2 or 3 days. Carotene and stress seem to play a part, but we cannot find out the exact process. It would be really great if a medic could come up with an exact explanation. Until then it’s nice to know you aren’t the only one.

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Just read through 18 pages on this thread to not find an answer… Come to the conclusion that we MUST be visited by aliens overnight!? Hehe.
This is the second time in the last month that I’ve woken up with these weird rust coloured stains all over my two hands. Like everyone else, it happened overnight! I definitely haven’t touched anything that would’ve caused it (no baby wipes, no fireworks/sticks etc). The only thing that I read is the common denominator for me is the stress/anxiety!
But surely this can’t be brought on by that…
Has anyone had any further info on what on earth this phenomenon could be!? My GP had no idea. He scrubbed it with an alcohol wipe and slight brown colouration was transferred onto the wipe. He then ruled it to be a “stain” from something I must’ve touched. But it definitely isn’t! So so so frustrating!
For context- I’m in Australia! Sososososoo weird!

I found out why my hands would stain. I was using a steroid ointment on my hands for psoriasis. I went to the er because I was trippin my hands were as orange as an umpa lumpa skin. All my blood test and X-rays came out normal. The orange would not wash off tho if seemed like it was internal but it was actually external. I was getting orange from the ointment. It took about 5 days to be gone once I stopped applying it.

Had the same thing happen today. It looks like yellow marker. Only on my left hand and the three middle fingers at the tips. I tried everything to no avail. Alcohol Swabs and degreaser didn't work. Ended up sanding them down a bit. At first i thought i must have touched something at work while cleaning off the machines at night, but now I'm not so sure.

35 mtf. I do take multivitamins for the iron / low blood pressure, but have never had this happen before.

Hello, I'm a scientist, and I just woke up with these on my hands, after various hours of running through these posts, as well as experimenting with different chemicals to remove this from my skin, I have found a solution:

The cause of this orangish stain on skin seems to be the same mechanism as self-tanner, but coming from different products that are NOT self-tanners.

Products containing DHA.

DHA is Dihydroxyacetone, and it interacts with the skin producing melanoids.

The reason we are all noticing it only upon waking up in the morning, is, like self tanners, it takes hours to develop, so we don't notice it right away, but upon sleeping for 5-8 hours we wake up and notice it on our hands.

Hands and feet are specifically susceptible to this process because they're the dryer parts of our skin.

Those who apply self-tanners for example will notice that if they're applied on the arm, and then applied on the hand, the place on the hand where it was applied will notice much more color change, and it will be much more difficult to remove from the hands.

So, how do you remove it? Using a cotton ball or paper towel soaked in acetone, press and hold on the effected area for about 20 seconds then begin to rub, using either the cotton ball, or an exfoliative pad, and this will remove the color.

Now for the bigger question:

Which products did we use containing DHA? And why weren't we aware of it, why wasn't it included in the marketing material? So think to yourselves, which liquid/moist products have you used that could contain DHA in the last 24 hours?

Baby wipes? Skincare products? Cleaning products? Paints? Lotions? Self-tanner?

So, don't panic, you may photograph it and show it to a doctor if you'd like, but it is a harmless interaction with your skin.

Also, give your hand a smell, does it smell a little sweet? Does it smell a bit like urine? Soy sauce? DHA causes these strange smells to be released from the skin when it is chemically interacting and causing the melanoids to be produced.

Cheers!

I woke up with the same thing that everyone here is describing. I tried cleaning it off with soap and rubbing to no avail like everyone else. No handling of anything odd that I don't use everyday, I didn't go outside the day before, etc., same story like everyone in this forum.

I was convinced it was an internal issue until I tried what the poster Scientist suggested and rubbed it with acetone. It took a few minutes but it definitely went away. I let the acetone soak for like 20 seconds and rubbed for 2-3 full minutes. This makes me think that Scientist is likely to be right about the mechanism being DHA or something similar. I would suggest that others try to rub the stains off with acetone and see if it works. This has definitely made me feel much better that it is not a liver/kidney issue.

The question is still open as to what caused this--I saw that DHA is common in fish oil and nuts but I did not have contact with those recently. I will put a list of supplements/medications and products I use below in case anyone has any leads.

Orally: birth control pill, caffeine pill, Vitamin D, spironolactone, Cholestoff plant sterols and stanols, psyllium husk

On skin: Cerave cream/lotion, tretinoin gel .1%, hydroquinone (Melalite), Faded Serum by Topicals (Azelaic Acid, Kojic Acid). Potentially Tide detergent when doing laundry and I did come in contact with yellow sticky fly traps.

The day before the stains appeared I ate pasta with marinara sauce, tomato feta salad, prosciutto with mozzarella, some salt and pepper chips, and I had 1 glass of red wine. I also have a lot of tropical plants in my home and I live in San Diego CA.

We had a friend who had something similar and the doctors said he had eaten too many carrots! He got it on his face as well.

I reside in Canada and have observed several people posting about this recurring issue on various websites. Recently, individuals from my homeland in Europe have also begun posting about the same problem. Surprisingly, no one appears to have identified the precise cause of this issue. I have searched these websites and discovered that there is no mention of this problem prior to the year 2020. It seems to be a novel phenomenon that has emerged within the past four years. What could it be?🤔

I just got these spots on two of my fingers that appeared overnight. Nothing recently changed in my diet. No carrots or orange fruit/vegetables.

The only thing that I can think of is some here have posted it could be with overripe produce. I did clean out our produce drawer in the fridge 2 days ago and handled some okra that had grown moldy. Perhaps it’s related?

I believe some of these case are contact related maybe fungal. I too found this thread by experiencing this a few days ago. My experience…

My work has a cafeteria with a pretty extensive fresh fruit bar that I frequent for breakfast. 2 days ago a grabbed a bowl of a favorite mix that I eat all of the time of melon, strawberry and blackberry. I usually eat this with a fork, but on this particular day I forgot to grab one. As I normally do I brought it back to my desk to eat and proceed to eat just using my left hand while I checked some emails with my right on the mouse. Later that afternoon, maybe 6 hours later, I noticed the same orange staining you all have shown or described on my left thumb, index finger tip and middle finger tip. Same experience as you all. It would not wash off. The location of the staining is too coincidental to me as that is exactly the contact point I would have as I ate the fruit with my fingers. That is why I suspect some kind of contamination on the fruit.

After a few days this has 90% faded and I would guess will be gone soon.

Hope this story helps some.

Dear All, About the Orange iodine like stains;
I have read most of the posts. I have had these stains twice. Definetly not fungus or allergy and not something I ate.
I’m a Canadian living in Turkey. Here in Turkey, there’s a kind of explanation for those orange stains, though it’s not 100% certain. There’s a belief that it might be the result of being taken, abducted, or kept by UFOs or UAPs. Another perspective is that it could happen when a person is in a spiritual environment beyond their conscious awareness, possibly encountering spiritual beings.

My stains were on the right side, specifically on my right hand, near the pinky and part of the palm. It was clearly visible that I had pressed half of my palm onto a surface with some kind of liquid. I’m quite sure it was a liquid. It looked as if I had used my hand to support myself or push off from the surface. The shape of the stain matched the wrinkles on my hand. When I opened my palm fully, I could see where the stains had been. But when I held my hand in a specific position, I could see exactly how the stain had formed and how I had positioned my hand at that moment.
In turkish this is called KINALANMAK so you can search and see yourself.
I am most curious.

Little green men eh making orange stains well they are Christmas colours 🤣🤣🤣

Hello everyone
I woke up today with the same spot on my right hand, but it's not just me, my sister does too, she have spots on both her hands, and we think it's due to a medication we took together the night before (flu medicine)

Does it have an odor? Is it accompanied by swelling? Has anyone tried 70% isopropyl alcohol? I too have similar looking rashes but I also have lots of slices and cuts and where it looks like my fingers have been paired into with a scalpel or something??? I do notice different odors depending when I break out with these types of rashes but isopropyl alcohol, white vinegar, apple cider vinegar juice, or peroxide all seem to help the best. I too have to scrub as though I am scraping the top layer of skin off of my hands. I experience this on other areas of my body. Also, does anyone feel like it can be spread by touch? I can't help but feel like fungi, bacteria or mico-bacteria is a component. My nails, cuticles, free edge of my nail and finger tips seem to be most effected by this and most sensitive to it. It is v very painful to me though. Does anyone else experience and pain? I try to stay away from fruits and vegetables because of this reason. You never know when you're buying your fruits and vegetables what started molding around your fruits and vegetables to land on that. The other thing is it's not just about the mold or fungus that's growing it is the continuous spores being shot out which I think might be a component here. If anyone knows anything about mold, or fungus it's me. And for some reason some individuals seem to be extremely sensitive to this. I can't help but think that is some kind of new type of fungus or something when you take into account global warming and all the constant changes in our environment. Mainly due to pollution and global warming. I have seen every kind of specialist you can imagine. Everything always comes back normal. I do have some labs that are slightly out of range (usually liver, kidney) but I'm told that that's normal and it doesn't indicate anything?? If anyone gets any answers on the subject please post it!!!! This has been my hell for close to 20 years now. It's also been my kids hell.

I've found my community!! Hahaha. I'm 29, female from Singapore.

Just like everyone on this thread, I woke up this morning and thought I had stained my hand on something. I can't seem to attach a photo here so I'll just describe it - it was darkest on my left index finger and a bit of my palm. I have a tiny bit of staining on my right palm as well but it's mainly one concentrated dot and other tiny (very faint) dots.

The only change in my routine was taking an Omega 3 fish oil (1000mg) supplement before I went to bed. Thing is, I've taken it before in the past but never had this issue. Another thing I did was touch an old phone battery that had expanded but there was nothing leaking out of it. My dad touched it too, and he even pried it out with his bare hands and he doesn't have these orange stains.

I did feel jittery before bed which happens sometimes when I drink tea, which I did, though it was many hours ago. Also for some background, I had pneumonia 2 months ago and since then I'm more prone to this jitteriness + heaviness on my chest. But I haven't been on any medication in more than a month!

I'm floored that almost no one has found the definite cause of these orange stains!!

It's a real honour to join your illustrious club.

36F, woke up this morning thinking I must have cut myself, but the stains are rust-coloured and don't wash off. It's on both palms and also deeply staining my nailbeds on one hand. I went to a doctor because...I was weirded out, and he didn't have any real suggestions apart from maybe somebody played a prank with the spray bottle at my gym. I'm perplexed, to say the least.

Good luck out there, everyone.

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I woke up with the same type of stains this morning. Also happened a few days ago. I don't understand what this could be. So glad I found this forum. Doc said it was external and gave requisition for blood work.

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Is there anybody out there? 4 days later woke up with them again.

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Do you all take vitamin D supplements? Or are exposed to the sun alot? Someone online said it was a vitamin D overdose. I was taking a high dose because of seasonal depression and I woke up with the marks on my hands. They disappeared in about 3 days. I'm trying to find a commonality because I don't spray tan or eat many carrots...