Sodium Hydroxide, NaOH, Is a Very Strong Base

Sodium hydroxide, NaOH, is a very strong base. If a concentrated solution of this base were to spill on a latex glove you were wearing, it would feel like regular water. If the solution were to land directly on your skin, however, it would feel very slippery. Why?

A) The sodium hydroxide solution is reacting with your skin oils and transforming them into soap, which feels slippery.
B) The strong NaOH solution lifts the oil directly out of the skin cells and you feel the oil as a slippery sensation as it floats on the skin surface.
C) NaOH kills skin cells on contact. The dissolved skin cells feel slippery because the cells still contain the natural oils of the skin.
D) One of the properties of sodium hydroxide is that it is slippery. You are simply not able to sense the the slippery feel through a latex glove.