hey mate, welcome to the forums....
to answer ur question, im not sure if this is the best way, but recently i have been using the cap of syringe needles (which make great liiquid glue appliers....ithink they cld even work with ca, but im guessing ud have to clean it out often) over the applicator... seems to work ok so far, the only prob is that they now stand so high, i knock them over alot more hehehe.... anyhoo, i used to use a toothpic, but that wasnt so great...i had the tpick get stuck in the applicator, the tpick broke when i tried to pull it out, that was the end of that bottle heheheh....
another thing which may help you, i have started not applying ca from the bottle, instead putting some in a film container lid and using a sweing needle with a cut off head in a pin vice to apply the glue..... its much neater....
anyways, hope this helps!!