Any tips on Crest Night Effects?

Hi,
I'm on my 5th night of Crest Night Effects. I'm finding it difficult to
apply evenly. It hardens on the brush before I can cover all my teeth. Also,
are all the tubes of equal strength? I've noticed they are numbered. Are you
supposed to apply them in order? I don't remember reading this in the
directions. Another problem I'm having is that even though I'm drying my
teeth with cotton b4 I start, I am getting some saliva on my teeth during
the application, which causes the gel not to "take".
Any tips appreciated. The results so far are just so–so. However, there is
no sensitivity which I like.
TIA

Here's what I did when I was using Crest Night Effects (I've since
switched to Crest Whitestrips Premium). First, I sqeezed the entire
contents of the tube into the bowl of a plastic spoon. Then I dried my
upper teeth and used the brush to apply the paste there, working
quickly. Then I dried my lower teeth and again worked quickly to apply
it with the brush. I did have some drying on the brush, but not as much
doing it this way as I did when I was squeezing little bits out of the
tube directly onto the brush. Also this allowed me to use one had to
sort of hold my lips out of the way while I brushed the stuff on with my
other hand, which helped with the saliva problem.
I never noticed the tube numbering so I have no idea what that's about.
–KMS