Before the Star, when I got lube on bullet bases, I just used a piece of paper towel laying on the flat bench top to swipe/wipe the base...
Yep, that or the towel, rag, etc, as mentioned my
@Rally too.
It's really not the most awful and onerous chore. Perhaps I'm just getting spoiled or lazy. As I get older, there are more and more things "I'd prefer not to" (Bartleby - Mellville). I've also discovered that tumble lube covers a LOT of ground without compromise too though.
I remember when I found that 45, used, in a dilapidated cardboard box in a gun store right at forty years ago. I held up the lubrisizer and opened my mouth to ask "how much" and a guy hollers "$30 for the box!" I didn't bother to look at what else was in there, I just headed to the register. There was a small assortment of "undersized" H&I dies in a coffee can and bunch of other junk, but I felt pretty danged privileged driving home and looking over at that 45 in the passenger's seat.
At that moment, I was still transient/mobile, still in the Army, and had to pan lube or buy commercial cast. Having the 45 was like a huge leap forward and remained a treasured find for many years.
Not to disparage the old tool, as I keep it around. I may need it again some day. Not that I may find some young fella to pass it onto these days. Seems like making an effort to achieve gain these days is a silly notion. I Know ZERO young people interested in casting these days, and I know a lot of pretty decent young people.
Come to think of it,... I'll be seeing a couple today who asked me last week if I "press my own bullets," meaning hand-load. They were talking about how expensive it is to shoot these days. I told them "yes, and I cast all my own bullets." That elicited an "AWWWWESOME!" from one of the two, but it was time to get to work. I may have to start cultivating those two young minds and may just have a new use for that 45 now. Let those boys "pay their dues," learning to do a few things "the hard way."