What to do with earing posts so they don't hurt?

i wear post earings. i buy inexpensive ones cause they're so cute and i usually end up loosing one anyway. unfortunatly most of the earings are made of cheap materials and make my lobes too sore to wear them more than an hour. some years ago i heard there is a way to coat them to make them bearable to wear. i tried clear nailpolish but it didn't work. does anyone have another remedy?