Plastic droppers: to clean or not to clean?

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CreativeWeirdo

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Does anyone use these kinds of plastic droppers? Do you clean them? If so, how? Or do you just not bother?

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Does anyone use these kinds of plastic droppers? Do you clean them? If so, how? Or do you just not bother?

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I use those. I buy 300 at a time from Amazon for under $20. Each bottle of EO and FO has its own pipette attached to the bottle with an elastic. Apart from that, for me, they're a one-time use. I feel that they would be far to difficult to clean and sterilize (not that they're sterile to begin with).
 
^^ same here. I don't know who came up with the idea to use an elastic to keep one attached to each bottle of FO, but it's genius! Even if I'm pouring directly from the bottle and not using the pipette as such, it serves as a handy anti-drip device.

Any my FO cabinet smells nice from the blend of all the scents coming from the pipettes. :)
 
I reuse mine - but I don't use them frequently. I used one just this week to add ROE (which is very thick) to my lotion bars. I use dishwashing liquid to clean it. I squeeze about a teaspoon into a small glass, and draw it up into the pipette. I then add extremely hot tap water into the glass and keep drawing and expelling, until the pipette looks clean. Then I start with luke warm water until there are no bubbles left inside the pipette.
 
For me I think it depends on what I used it for. If it’s just to make my water measurement perfect or something not to messy, then I do what @KiwiMoose does. If I’m in a mood, after they dry I squeeze up some rubbing alcohol and shake it about and out. But if it’s to drizzle mica/oil mixture or soap batter or something equally messy and hard to clean in normal circumstances I toss em.
 
I use them, clean them and re-use them. Depending on what I used them for, the cleaning can be fairly easy or require more steps, materials & time. I always use hot soapy water, and end with an alcohol rinse. Sometimes I start with alcohol if it was ROE that I was removing from of a bottle because ROE is quite viscous. I don't use them frequently, though.
 
I reuse mine - but I don't use them frequently. I used one just this week to add ROE (which is very thick) to my lotion bars. I use dishwashing liquid to clean it. I squeeze about a teaspoon into a small glass, and draw it up into the pipette. I then add extremely hot tap water into the glass and keep drawing and expelling, until the pipette looks clean. Then I start with luke warm water until there are no bubbles left inside the pipette.

Same.
 
I do have glass droppers which I use most often. If I do use a plastic pipette I try my best to clean them for reuse. In both cases I do as the others have already said - start with hot soapy water and follow with rubbing alcohol. Sometimes I start with rubbing alcohol. I've never used them for mica as far as I can remember. With the glass droppers the pieces can come apart which makes getting to the inside of the tube easier.

I don't use either very often though. Mostly just to add drops to potential EO blends.
 
I use these glass pipette droppers. Cleaning is super easy. I remove the bulb and flush the pipette with a bit of 70% or 91% alcohol that I spray into the wider end using a little spray bottle. They’re great for when I’m developing EO blends and also for drizzling mica in oil. I expected some breakage, but there’s been none of that in almost two years. I did toss one because it was etched, possibly due to exposure to lye(?) in a container in the sink.
 
I use these glass pipette droppers. Cleaning is super easy. I remove the bulb and flush the pipette with a bit of 70% or 91% alcohol that I spray into the wider end using a little spray bottle. They’re great for when I’m developing EO blends and also for drizzling mica in oil. I expected some breakage, but there’s been none of that in almost two years. I did toss one because it was etched, possibly due to exposure to lye(?) in a container in the sink.

These will be quite helpful with my microbatches. I regularly toss 3-5 plastic "disposable" droppers every batch and feel guilty as heck about it. Will definitely look into these, I notice some listings even have a little cleaner brush too. Thanks!
 
These will be quite helpful with my microbatches. I regularly toss 3-5 plastic "disposable" droppers every batch and feel guilty as heck about it. Will definitely look into these, I notice some listings even have a little cleaner brush too. Thanks!
I'm thinking the same thing. A set is already in my Amazon cart.
 

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