I think I know what made me break out in hives. It was a pair of dish washing gloves I was using. I noticed that after I used them, my hands got all itchy and the parts of my body where the hives were started to get itchy again.
These were latex gloves and I’m fairly certain I’ve come into contact with latex many, many times before. Most of the gloves I’ve used to clean my dishes and cleaning in general have been made from latex. What made this pair of gloves different? I’m not sure. Maybe I was reacting to something in the gloves that wasn’t latex and some other substance or chemical. These were dollar store gloves, so who knows what kind of quality control was involved with them.
In any case, I threw them out and then went to Shoppers Drug Mart and bought some brand name dish washing gloves, which were still latex. I’ve used these several times now and my body hasn’t reacted to them at all.
It remains a bit of mystery but maybe I won’t be buying dollar store gloves for a while.