Ideally, we always put a dropper squarely back in its bottle after the drops have landed on our tongue. But things happen. We might accidentally touch the tip of the dropper to our tongue or lips, or when inserting it back in the bottle miss the opening and touch the side of the bottle.

If the tip of the dropper touches the top of the bottle’s rim, that’s fine, but anything other than that is not putting the dropper squarely back in the bottle and qualifies as a “dropper error” or “X<!#¥ I can’t believe I did that!”

The thing we DON’T want to do is shrug and slide the now ‘compromised’ dropper back in the bottle.

Instead, take a breath, go to the sink and wash the outside of the dropper in warm soapy water, rinse it off really well, because you don’t want any soapy residue on the pipette, then place the dropper on a piece of paper towel to air dry.

Once it’s dry, place it back in the bottle. Eventually, you’ll probably need to do this so it is good to know the drill.