Cold Iron Blanch requires one hand to use and two actions to apply.
Silversheen requires two hands to use and one action to apply.
Is this intentional? Does the Silversheen just... come out of the bottle faster than the Cold Iron Blanch? Is the cap on the Cold Iron Blanch easier to open with one hand?
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For lore and description, sure - your descriptions to explain the differences work fine.
For mechanics: the difference is probably a difference in thoughts and methods of the writer who created the item.
Silversheen is from the core rulebook. As such it was certainly created first - and created at a time when the game rules themselves were a) in flux, and b) not fully understood by the game developers. How much does "Usage: held in 2 hands" cost from the item design budget? Or the two action application cost? How about the 1 hour duration? The developers at the time didn't have a good gut instinct for answering those questions. And had no other examples to look at for comparison.
Cold Iron Blanch was released over a year later in PFS guide. It is probably the better balanced item as far as hand usage, action cost, and duration is concerned.
They are both usable in their current form. Even if it is strange that they are different. If you are considering houseruling one of them to be like the other, I would use the Cold Iron Blanch as the standard and make Silversheen match.
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I have thought for a very long time that if Silversheen were released now, it would work the same as Cold Iron Blanch, including needing higher tiers of the Tool to create better grades of the precious material.
I find myself wondering if that's what will see when the Remaster releases their Alchemical Items.