kept coming apart [SEP] everyone knows the saying do not put anything in your ear smaller than your elbow but we all use cotton buds to clean out our ears just about every one of these came apart one i had to have a friend pull out with a pair of tweezers i was just glad she was home years ago they used to make cotton buds with wooden sticks there was a good reason they stopped and went to a more flexible and softer cardboard i think these are not the safest cotton buds on the market i really do not like these buds they come apart the wood does not flex and is thin and almost pointy not a fan