10 Uses for Cotton Buds

Cotton buds are a household staple and I don't know about you but they rank pretty high in the 'don't know where they go' lists next to hair grips and pins. Believe you me my mum buys packs of 100 and somehow we go through them in a week or so, slight exaggeration but you get the gist.

So I was rubbing my brain cells thinking about all the things I actually use these white fluffy swabs for and I was pretty sure that I came up with ten legit options...

1.  The obvious, ear cleaning purpose is no doubt the top use for a cotton bud. Might not be the best option for it but it does the job and leaves the eardrums fairly clear so you can listen without being the friend that's always like huh?
2. Now next up is another fairly common use- Touching up winged eyeliner. When beginning out with winged eyeliner a wet cotton bud is you best friend. Use it to straighten any jagged lines and uneven application and you're good to go.
3. Art-ing it up. Why not go unique and create a piece of art with these white sticks. Dip each end in one colour of the rainbow (paint or even nail polish), then grab and frame and fill the width with the rainbow dipped cotton buds- they'll look amazing and it'll be a unique show piece in your home/room.
4. Under eye moisturising- Sometimes I feel like my fingers are rough or aren't in the best condition to be rubbing cream under my eye. Grabbing a cotton bud might be an alternative option, noting that you don't harshly push the under-eye area that is. Just dip the cotton end into the cream and the softened cotton will nicely get into the area with its small tip. Because the cotton softens it doesn't cause rough friction and creates a cold tool to apply the cream, like an under-eye roller ball.
5. Blending eyeshadow- now sometimes we don't have four of the same MAC 217 brush to blend in our eyeshadow, as much as we wish we did. Grab a cotton bud, they aren't so bad. I know we all dread using the sponge applicators that came with old school palettes, but I assure you cotton buds are a step up from that, although I see nothing wrong with sponge applicators to be honest. 
6. Lipstick touch-ups is a vital step we all should adopt before heading out. Pop out a cotton bud, tidy up any lipstick leaks and make sure your teeth and mark free!
7. Cleaning. Now we've addressed the ear situation, but I find that cleaning up dust from corners on my phone and keyboard with the cotton bud does wonders. It rubs off any streaky lines from my screen and leaves it reasonably cleaner, not forgetting all the dirt that builds up on my keyboard *hides face in shame*
8. Nail art. I know I'm hideous at nail art but if you've seen my nail tutorials then you'd see that I use a lot of cotton buds. Whether it's for dotting or for creating flowers and touching up, they're great because they're small and round-tipped.
9. Cuticle care- Oils are tricky to manoeuvre so why not use a cotton bud to precisely get to the areas you want to moisturise without spilling oils everywhere.
10. Now... This might be cheating a bit but the last thing I thought of was Palette cleaning. I know I've addressed cleaning but eyeshadow gets everywhere and sometimes I like to give my makeup some TLC. It also kind of makes me happy when it ends up looking brand new.

So I've been me and they've been '10 uses for a cotton bud', if you have any other ideas that I might have missed out then hit them below because I would genuinely love to know. #Moneysavymarch