5 Beauty Uses: Cotton Buds

I spend many of my posts getting all excited about various glamourous lotions and potions, but sometimes the most useful of beauty products are the simplest. One of the most used things in my makeup box fits under this roof: the lowly but oh so useful cotton bud.

1. Eyeliner Correcting
Everyone has this problem: you've just finished the perfect cat eye flick to your eyeliner and now it's time to repeat on the other eye - except you can never quite recreate that flick. By over lining my eye, I then use a cotton bud soaked in eye makeup remover to remove parts of the liner in order to match the other eye. For those with a rather over enthusiastic lining hand, this technique is also great for toning down the panda eyes!

2. Mascara Flecks
Another problem faced on a daily basis: applying mascara with particular force and getting those annoying little flecks of mascara everywhere: eyelids, temples or even down the cheeks! Again soaking a cotton bud in eye makeup remover and dabbing onto the flecks can easily remove them without any noticeable removing of foundation.

3. Acne Creams
On a slightly more unconventional note, direct blemish treatments are often seen as easiest administered by fingers - but fingertips carry bacteria which, when spread from spot to spot can cause more damage than the treatment prevents! Applying cream or gel products with cotton buds means no bacteria is spread and your skin can get to looking perfect again!

4. Eyeshadow Fallout
The classic smokey eye is a great look for any night out - but if you get a little over excited with it, you can end up looking a bit scarier than anticipated. A dry cotton bud can be passed along the line of the smokey eye to reshape it back to normality, picking up the eyeshadow from the skin effortlessly. Also, if any eyeshadow falls under the eyes during application, a swipe from a cotton bud will pick up the residue.

5. Eyebrow Shaping
Only recently have I discovered this method for keeping your eyebrows looking tame. Though I (through my excitable overplucking) have quite small sculpted eyebrows, they tend to go a bit wild throughout the day, and can end up facing all over the place - a fact my boyfriend finds incredibly amusing. Using literally a tiny amount of vaseline on the end of the cotton bud, it can be dabbed onto the part of the eyebrow past the arch in small measures to keep them set and in place - who needs brow setting products?! A note of caution on this one - do not use any more than the teeniest tiniest amount of vaseline, or apply the vaseline onto the larger part of your brow - unless you fancy looking like your eyebrows have been dipped in a vat of grease.


Can you tell I love a good cotton bud?! I hope everyone found this useful, feel free to comment below if you have anymore ingenious uses for your lowly cotton buds!