What's probabaly throwarting you is the glue around the base of the bulb. It sticks the metal bulb base to the rubber surround. Also, this stuff gets into the bulb prongs and makes it difficult to seperate things from the base. Some elbow grease works here. Good luck. It's really easy once you get the hang of it. And it's important, because the new high performance bulbs last only about a year.