I use a butter knife, just scrape a little off and "butter" the pad. I use a LC blue pad set on 3 for the Flex it only takes a few minutes to apply to a entire car or truck and gets the coats real thin. Then I have the Polishing Pal from AutoGeeks and do around the trim and things with the little red pad on that. But I still apply the soft wax's by hand like Rainforest Rub :sadwavey: