[The Artist Formerly Known as Hawk]

Well a quick look on wiki tells me that the chemical that causes these irritations, urushiol, is imiscible with water, so I'm guessing unless you are quick at washing it off the skin, it will probably soak into your pores very quickly and be unnafected by the water. However alcohol apparantly mixes with the urushiol quite well, which likely breaks it down/turns it into some other solution, which would be better at preventing irritation.

So really your best bet is alcohol, of any kind. Maybe you can try various brands in an attempt to find out which works best and which is best from an economical standpoint.

No point using the families best brandy if budwieser works just as well eh?