I got a question about thermal paste

[BaronBamboo]

Ok so last night I was going to put 2 fans on my heatsink. After I took out everything I got real lazy and decided to do it today. But I did rub off the paste on my heatsink but not the paste on the CPU. I assumed my temps were going to be higher but they are the same, in fact it's a degree lower... so umm why didn't my temps go up? Right now I'm at stock 38 degrees stock, which I guess is OK..

also can I safely assume my heatsink and IHS are both flat, considering the left over dried up thermal gave me the same temps?

thanks