i wore gloves-learned my lesson long ago after coring about 5 pounds of scotch bonnet peppers without them. tried everything, ice, milk, solvents...nothing took the burn away from my hands. saw the doc the next day and he suggested 1st degree burns from the oil.
neat trick to try is eating a habanero gently picked, then one that has been messed with, where you manhandle it...way hotter. i remove the seeds and core to cause that effect as well as getting rid of the bitterness of the seeds. blend 'em up into a nice mash, add the sea salt and vinegar, and that's it. made plenty with other ingredients but end up back to the basic recipe. gonna stuff a few 2nite with sausage. remainder to make some jerk marinade with pimento berries and lime juice.
i've tried all the commercial stuff, and i still like home-made. plus, making the label every year is a blast. tried posting one and got run over by flex pretty good. pm me if u wanna see this year's version.
now if i can get my hands on some ghost peppers...