home Diseases How to use cotton swabs: several interesting life hacks. How to use cotton swabs: some interesting tips How to make cotton swabs

How to use cotton swabs: several interesting life hacks. How to use cotton swabs: some interesting tips How to make cotton swabs

How do you use cotton swabs in your everyday life besides cleaning your ears? By the way, you know that you can’t insert them into the ear canal? With their help, only the outer part of the ear is cleaned. Plus, Q-tips can be used for anything from makeup to cleaning and even arts and crafts.

● Cleaning jewelry

Want to clean your jewelry and costume jewelry? The tips of the cotton buds are soft and gentle enough to treat your jewelry and make it look new and shiny. Soak the jewelry in the cleaning solution, rub it gently with your fingers, and clean it with a Q-tip.

● Draw patterns

Use cotton swabs to create a design. If you want to paint a polka dot design on a cup, a card, or even a manicure, start by choosing a paint color. Using cotton swabs instead of a brush, you can create a pattern of tiny dots on any surface.

● Cleaning gadgets

Your keyboard, your phone, the surfaces you touch every day are magnets for dirt. If you can't remember the last time you cleaned your gadgets, immediately take the time to wipe them down with cotton swabs. They are designed to clean delicate areas of the skin, making them ideal for cleaning expensive devices.

● Light a candle

Tall candles burn for a long time, but they also run out someday. If you don't have a special long lighter or long matches, you can use a cotton swab to light the already hard-to-reach wick of an almost burnt out candle. Wet the tip of the stick in alcohol, light it and bring it to the candle wick. Have a cup of water nearby so you can quickly extinguish the stick.

● Cleaning the car interior

You can use cotton swabs and cleaning fluid to clean areas that are most often ignored, such as cup holders, seams on the steering wheel, and creases in the seats.

●Hide scuffs on shoes

A few scratches can frustrate you to the point where you no longer want to wear that good quality pair of shoes. However, most unsightly scratches can be rubbed out. Simply dip the tip of a cotton swab into shoe polish (alcohol, detergent) and gently rub the damaged area. It won't take long, and your boots will be smooth, shiny and ready for your next outing.

● Fix a jammed zipper

How many clothes have been sent to landfill due to a stuck zipper! If just such a misfortune has happened to your favorite jacket, look what a cotton swab can do. Using it, carefully apply a drop of Vaseline, soap or oil to the problem area and gently move the zipper slider to release it.

●Place them in your travel makeup bag

The beauty routine you perform every morning becomes much more difficult when you're away from home. Free up space in your travel beauty bag by packing a mini beauty kit. Instead of packing an eyeshadow palette, apply eyeshadow to the ends of cotton swabs and store them in a bag. Once you reach your destination, simply take out the sticks and run them across your eyelids. This trick also works with lip gloss and perfume.

It would seem that what could be new in the habit of using cotton swabs? Most people, armed with a cotton swab every day, carefully clean the auricle and ear canal. But many years of scientific research have shown that this is exactly what you shouldn’t do at all! And in general you shouldn’t use cotton swabs. Inquisitive contemporaries and tireless scientific researchers, following the example of grandfather Honore de Balzac, believe that “the key to any science is a question mark” and that is why they tirelessly question long-standing dogmas and traditions. Thanks to such an inquisitive mind, they successfully proved that plastic cotton swabs are far from the best invention of mankind.

Cotton swabs are harmful to the ears

It was unclean ears and the presence of wax in the ear canal that previously explained such situations as hearing loss, unpleasant odor and some others. Children and schoolchildren even fell in love with saying the phrase “you need to clean your ears!” to someone who couldn’t hear you, as soon as anyone said “what, what?”

And during the existence of the Soviet Union, due to the lack of cotton swabs in production, caring mothers made do with improvised means. Having wrapped ordinary cotton wool around a match, they cleaned the ears of their offspring and household members with the same diligence. So why has the long-standing tradition of cleaning your ears by inserting a very dangerous object into your ear come under severe criticism? There were several reasons for this.

Why you shouldn't clean your ears with cotton swabs

As experts from the American Academy of Otolaryngology have proven, by penetrating a cotton swab into the ear, we remove only a small part of the wax. We ourselves push the main mass even deeper into the ear, thereby contributing to the formation of cerumen plugs.
“Poking”, scrolling and pushing a cotton swab into the ear, we ourselves, without knowing it, regularly disturb the eardrum, touching it.
By using a cotton swab in the area of the thinnest tissues and organs, we risk significantly worsening hearing, causing disruption of the auditory organs.
As scientists have proven, the earwax produced by the body is actually extremely beneficial. In principle, it is extremely difficult to argue with this, because the human body really does not do anything for nothing.
Earwax regularly produced by the body significantly reduces the risk of injury to the hearing organs from foreign objects.
Insects such as bees, mosquitoes, midges and even flies, every now and then trying to bite a person and crawl into the most unexpected place, will not be able to penetrate into the depths of the ear, since it is sulfur that protects this organ.
in modern humans, who are so susceptible to various fungal diseases, the risk of getting fungus in the ear canal is significantly reduced. According to Seth Schwartz, a specialist from the Academy of Otolaryngology, it is sulfur that stands guard over this situation, since it copes well with such threats.
itching, dry skin in the ear, inflammation of the ear tissues - all this will not happen to you, because earwax acts as a natural moisturizer for the ear canal.
The more often we clean our ears, the more wax there will be. Producing too much earwax is called wax hypersecretion. The main cause of hypersecretion is irritation of the skin of the ear canal. And the main reason for such irritation is hearing aids and cotton swabs.

After such stunning discoveries by scientists, a logical question arises: how then to remove wax from the ears? There is only one answer - no way! It doesn't need to be deleted. If you doubt how clean your ears are, or whether there are wax plugs in the ear canal, or you are bothered by strange sensations in your ears, the only right decision is to consult a specialist doctor. For daily hygiene and wiping the outer part of the ear, it is quite enough to wipe the skin with a cotton swab or even just your finger. At least, this is what Russian specialist, otolaryngologist Vladimir Zaitsev advises to do.

Plastic cotton swabs are bad for the environment

For those who are not convinced by the list of reasons why cotton swabs are extremely dangerous for cleaning ears, here is another argument. Each of us knows that cotton swabs are made of plastic. So it is plastic that is the main threat to the environment of the entire planet! And this problem, having acquired global proportions, became the main topic at the European Commission meeting in Brussels, which took place just a couple of months ago. It was in May of this year that the Deputy Chairman of the European Commission, Frans Timmermans, published a list of plastic products that are now prohibited, including cotton swabs. In his opinion, a ban on these products should help “together solve the problem of plastic waste in the world’s oceans.” Plastic products make up more than 80% of waste. It is thanks to the listed scientific facts that ear sticks are already banned in a number of countries or are on the verge of being banned. These include France, Britain, Italy and Scotland, the Czech Republic.

Perhaps such scientific discoveries will seem strange to some, and some will even say that they cleaned and used them for many years and nothing happened! But as an argument, we can recall the phrase that the greatest British writer William Somerset Maugham once said long ago. Thinking about the benefits of discovery, he asked: “What could be more useful than learning to live in the best way for yourself?”

Vladislav Sergeevich Zaichenko, otolaryngologist at SM-Clinic, tells Letidor how to properly clean your ears and why ear sticks are completely unsuitable for this.

What's happening

With the start of sales of cosmetic cotton swabs in our country in the early 90s, otolaryngologists everywhere noted an increase in the incidence of external otitis media, primarily of fungal origin, and an increase in the number of patients with sulfur plugs.

In fact, the main purpose of these sticks is to correct makeup, that is, they have nothing to do with the ears.

Most people use cosmetic sticks to remove wax from their ears, to “clean” them. However, in reality, by doing this they not only do not achieve any better results compared to washing their ears every day, but also create conditions for the development of many diseases.

Why are ear sticks dangerous?

Using cotton swabs to “clean” the external auditory canals, the patient not only removes wax from the areas adjacent to the eardrum, but also “clogs” it there, creating wax plugs for himself.

Earwax, secreted by the glandular cells of the skin of the external auditory canal, has a protective function. It has antimicrobial and antifungal effects and is a natural mechanism for removing dust and foreign bodies from the external passage. That is, wax is needed and you cannot clean your ears until they shine.

The skin of the external auditory canal is extremely thin and delicate, and the use of even such a seemingly delicate instrument as cotton swabs leads to the formation of scratches and abrasions on the skin.

As a result, the patient independently creates the preconditions for infection, practically opens the door wide for it, and first of all (including due to the widespread and uncontrolled use of antibiotics) we are talking about fungi.

It should also be taken into account that in the external auditory canal, especially in its deep parts, even under normal conditions, conditions are extremely favorable for the development of fungi and microbes: it is warm, dark and humid.

Thus, “cleanliness lovers” very often develop external otitis, both fungal (otherwise known as otomycosis) and microbial, and sulfur plugs form. And in those who are especially diligent, an injury to the eardrum may occur.

How to clean properly

It’s not for nothing that ENT doctors have a joke: it’s not without reason that nature created us in such a way that you can put a finger in your nose, but not in your ear. As you know, every joke has only a grain of joke.

Many people who care about the aesthetic side of the issue will probably angrily object: how can it be that everyone now walks around with dirty ears?!

Of course not.

Their doubts will be dispelled by the fact that, due to the anatomical structure, only the outer parts of the external auditory canal are accessible to visual inspection, especially at a distance (and rarely does anyone, except an ENT doctor, look very carefully into your ears). washed with the tip of the little finger during a normal shower.

Thus, the optimal care for your ears is daily washing.

People prone to the formation of wax plugs can use special products in the form of drops (sold in regular pharmacies), which dilute the earwax and increase the likelihood of it coming off during washing. But it is almost impossible to remove an already formed plug using such drops (as well as other products that are sold for these purposes). And in case of unpleasant symptoms, you should immediately consult a doctor.

● Cleaning jewelry

Want to clean your jewelry and costume jewelry? The tips of the cotton buds are soft and gentle enough to treat your jewelry and make it look new and shiny. Soak them in the cleaning solution, rub them gently with your fingers, and clean them with a Q-tip.

● Draw patterns

● Cleaning gadgets

● Light a candle

● Cleaning the car interior

You can use cotton swabs and cleaning fluid to clean areas that are most often ignored, such as cup holders, seams on the steering wheel, and creases in the seats.

●Hide scuffs on shoes

A few scratches can upset you to such an extent that you no longer want to wear this good and high-quality one. However, most unsightly scratches can be rubbed out. Simply dip the tip of a cotton swab into shoe polish (alcohol, detergent) and gently rub the damaged area. It won't take long, and your boots will be smooth, shiny and ready for your next outing.

● Fix a jammed zipper

●Place them in your travel makeup bag

One of the beneficial materials for hand made work is cotton pads. They absorb paint well, flowers made from them fit perfectly into bouquets that will adequately decorate any postcard.

Crafts made from cotton pads made by the hands of children are especially valuable. An elementary example is the caterpillar, a cheerful, positive character in cartoons and children's books. This is a regular applique that uses different colored components.

You can create entire flower fields from cosmetic cotton pads. One such composition combines both artistic and applied creativity. In addition to cotton pads, you will need a minimum of materials: an A3 sheet, colored paper, glue and paints.

First, we draw the background (you can simply paint the sheet with blue or blue paint, or you can depict additional elements on it - the sun, stars, etc.)
Glue the cotton pad together as shown in Figure 2-4.
We cut out additional elements from paper (stems, leaves, grass).
All that remains is to arrange our flowers beautifully on a piece of paper.

Another option for applied creativity is eclectic flowers made from cotton pads. In this case, you don’t even need paper, just paints and glue. The step-by-step process of creating such beauty is depicted in Figure 2-5. To ensure that the paints fall in neat droplets, use a pipette.

Crafts from cotton swabs

If you have faded decorative flowers lying around at home, you can give them a second wind with the help of cotton swabs. Flowers made like this will look much more original than dull fabric inflorescences. We will need:

a set of cotton swabs;
gouache;
stems from old decorative flowers;
Super glue.

Take 10-15 cotton swabs (the more there are, the more voluminous the inflorescence will be) and cut in half. Place all the halves with the cotton sides facing up and fold them into a flower shape. Thoroughly coat the place where the stem is attached to the inflorescence with glue and attach our flower to it. Once the glue has dried, you can paint our crafts made from cotton swabs in any color by simply dipping them into the paint.

Another way to make flowers from cotton swabs is to use polystyrene foam balls, which can be purchased at any craft store. The working mechanism is similar: cut cotton swabs in half, stick them into a polystyrene foam ball to make a flower like a dandelion, and dip the ends of the sticks in paint. Twisted wire can be used as stems.

Using the same principle, you can make other crafts from cotton swabs: hedgehogs, the same snowmen, etc.

flower composition

For an older child, a master class on making a flower arrangement, for example, in the form of a bouquet in a basket or in the form of a topiary (this is the word used today for original small trees made by hand) will be interesting. It is always fashionable to give such a gift to your mother on March 8 or her birthday.

For production you will need:

cotton pads (the quantity depends on the size of the composition);
needle;
beads;
packaging box for cotton pads;
polyurethane foam;
glue;
a piece of green silk or lining fabric for leaves;
stapler

We roll up the cotton pads and secure them into buds, as shown. We put the finished flowers aside and make leaves. They will be located around the perimeter of the vase and will serve as a living pillow for delicate and fragile flowers. The folding sequence for the leaf fabric is shown below.

We fill a jar from under discs (you can use any other one, for example, from under ear sticks) with foam and let it dry. Level the surface of the foam with a knife - make it flush with the edge of the can.

The jar itself can be painted in your favorite colors or decorated using decoupage.

We begin gluing flowers from cotton pads and leaves to the surface of the foam.

The work is ready. Flowers can be made in the form of calla lilies. Then the disks do not need to be completely rolled up, but can be fastened using staples and a stapler.

How to make a bouquet of roses - watch the video.

DIY crafts made from cotton pads can also be timed to coincide with such favorite holidays as New Year and Christmas. Cute airy angels, smoothly descending on threads of rain along the entire perimeter of the decorated room - just such an option. You can use them as Christmas tree decorations, garlands, or simply additions to New Year's gifts.

The manufacturing steps are shown below. By following the basic rules of this simple master class, you can quickly and at minimal cost make your living room intriguing, and the atmosphere of the nursery soft and romantic. Making angels begins with the design of the head and its smooth transition to the body - the dress.

At the end of the work, the head can be decorated with a wreath made of yellow-gold braid, wire, or painted with paint.

New Year's wreath

We have already figured out how to make flowers from cotton pads. Next in line is a chic souvenir, similar in manufacturing method to a flower, but a little more complicated - a floral Christmas wreath. These are often hung on entrance or interior doors, placed above the doorway or on the gate. True, such decoration is more homemade, since it will not withstand precipitation and fluctuations in air temperature.

Assembling the wreath step by step is not difficult, but it must be done carefully and slowly. The same disks bent into four sectors are used as blanks. The corner at the base is chopped off and attached to the main ring. The parts need to be fastened as close to each other as possible. This will create an effect of softness, fullness, and artistic exoticism.

Regarding the mounting plane, it must be remembered that only the front half of the ring should be filled with artificial flowers. The back should be left flat and smooth, since it needs to be in contact with the wall or other surface on which the wreath will be placed.

Once the wreath is ready, we proceed to the loop for fastening. Its appearance should not spoil the impression of the entire product. Therefore, a silk ribbon, folded into a loop and neatly attached to the back of the ring, is ideal.

The general appearance of the finished product is shown in picture 26, it is very delicate, stylish and soft. An angel will be placed in place inside a wreath of blooming roses. The similarity of the materials used for crafts will give the souvenir the character of a single composition.

Lamb

When working with a younger child, you can invite him to fantasize, imagine which animal or plant has similar circles in its body. Surely it will be:

panda;
owl;
chicken with chicken after painting the rims yellow;
monkey;
sunflower.

An interesting craft for a lamb or ewe. For those who are not lazy, it will not be difficult to make a whole herd, decorating them with multi-colored toy accessories. The step-by-step instructions are as follows:

Let's prepare:

If you don't have colored felt, you can use a special fabric dye.

We start by folding the disk in four and securing the resulting shape with staples. We sew each received element and put them tightly on a silk cord.

To complete the work, we give the lace with strung disks the appearance of a ball. The first stage of work is completed.

All that's left to do is a simple design of the face. For this, the same pieces of felt are used, cut to the shape and size of the intended animal. Here you can play with colors and use materials of the most unexpected colors, the result will be more fun.

If the idea was to make a lamb step by step, we supplement its head with horns made of wire; if it was a sheep, there is no need for them.

Having attached the horns to the head, for example, with plasticine, and also embroidered the eyes and nose with threads or beads, we finish the work. The result is a skillfully executed, handmade toy that will look original on a branch of a Christmas tree, for example.

The figure of a chicken from yellow disks will be obtained by gluing two circles (one slightly larger than the other), depicting the head and torso. The eyes are black beads, the beak is a red triangle.

Christmas card

A holiday card featuring a cheerful snowman is super easy to make! All you need is a sheet of colored paper (preferably blue), cotton pads, glue and markers. Take the largest diameter discs, as they will have to be shortened.

Cut out the “body” of the snowman. We only need three discs, two of which need to be shortened to make the snowman look more natural.
Glue the disks to the paper (Figure 2).
We “revive” the snowman by drawing his face, arms, headdress, etc. It is more convenient to draw on cotton pads with felt-tip pens, although you can also use watercolors or gouache.

You can add some zest to the craft with the help of additional details - nail polish, ribbons, etc. Let your child use his imagination. There is no doubt: the “Snowman” leaflet that the kid created is much nicer to receive than the most expensive New Year’s cards.

Snowman made from paper plates

We offer you a simple and interesting type of home decor for the New Year holidays. The materials are the same cotton balls and paper picnic plates of different sizes. This decor can be used to decorate walls, the front door, or make a separate panel.

Lay out a snowman from three paper plates, securing them with thin strips of tape (if you are making the composition in the form of a panel, you can use glue).
Glue cotton balls to the plates, giving the snowman volume.
From paper or other available materials, make eyes, a nose, and a headdress for the New Year's hero.

Cheerful little penguin

Another idea that even a child can implement. To simplify the work, we have prepared a template that needs to be printed on paper. However, you can use any other penguin drawing you like, or draw it yourself. The principle of making crafts is the same in any case.

We need:

printed template;
cosmetic cotton balls;
PVA glue;
scissors;
scraps of black and orange cardboard.

To get started, download and print the drawing template. Then cover the entire white area with glue and carefully place the cotton balls on it, being careful not to go too far beyond the borders. Then cut out the penguin's eyes and beak from cardboard and complete the craft.

Any New Year's characters (snowman, Santa Claus, Snow Maiden) are created in a similar way. The main thing is to find a quality template.

Whether it is souvenirs made only from cotton pads, or crafts from cotton swabs, they carry a charge of positive energy, develop thinking, and contribute to the development of a child’s horizons. Let there be more of them. Let them unite children and make their inner world wider, brighter, more fun.