Bamboo Cotton Swab Review

In one of my personal posts a while back, I wrote that I had given up buying cotton swabs because of the large plastic container they come in. While that was what I intended to do, I just couldn’t do it. My ears need a cleaning deeper than the corner of my towels can give! But I wasn’t about to cave and just buy a plastic pack of them. I ended up finding these, the case of which is cardboard, which I was super excited about. Once I got them though, I realized I wouldn’t be purchasing them again. Check out why:

• Form: So these are cotton buds connected by bamboo instead of plastic or cardboard. They come in five different colors and also in different shapes. The ones I purchased were pink and shaped kind of in three sections. The cotton is packed on a little lighter than the common Q-Tips brand.
• Price: I paid about $6 total for a 200 count pack, which is 3x more than I would normally pay for a pack of 500.
• Fragrance: These have no fragrance.
• Packaging: The whole reason I decided on these was for the packaging. They are described as being wrapped in cardboard. And that’s true, the cute brown container they come in is cardboard, but (and this is my fault for overlooking this in the pictures) the circle on top is not simply a hole, its a plastic window. Furthermore, when this arrived in the mail, it was wrapped in a layer of thin foam as well as a large plastic bag. I purchased mine off eBay, which I assume is straight from the source because it was from a seller based in Shiang Hai, and the characters are Mandarin. I know that it is possible to find these on Etsy as well (at a higher price), but I will not be trying those because IF they don’t come with all the extra wrapping, what’s likely happening is that the Etsy sellers are purchasing these in bulk, foam and plastic wrapped, then discarding that wrapping before shipping them off to make their customers feel as if their purchase was low waste.
• Use: I like these just as much as the Q-tips brand cotton swabs. They work great for cleaning ears or removing small bits of makeup. Since the cotton is wrapped lighter, it is a little harder on the skin but it’s not uncomfortable.

I was really disappointed with these as soon as I opened the package. The extra packaging essentially cancelled out the fact that these use bamboo and cardboard. I’ve been using these sparingly, just once in a while when I’m really in need so to stretch the time before I’m on the hunt for another kind to try. Although really, I should ditch cotton swabs altogether because cotton is not exactly an environmentally friendly plant. But that’s for another post.