This slime is so easy to make!

We’ve just made the best slime ever…..and it smells amazing!

We help kids make a lot of slime. Whether it be at a school chemistry workshop, a fun community event or a birthday party, we have literally made 1000s of pots of slime with kids. We experiment a fair amount with different slime recipes, but this recipe is so fab, it really is our best slime ever. We’re so happy about our new slime that we’ve just got to tell you about it!

This slime is….. amazingly soft and light, super stretchy, smells devine is sublime!!

This slime is made using our standard recipe but with hair mousse added, which make it so soft and makes it smell great!

Here’s how we did it together with tips on the best glue and things you need to know about borax.

Materials used

Large bowl and something to stir with

  1. You can either grab our slime kit here  or purchase the following from your local stores:
  2. PVA glue (see Lab Notes below)
  3. Hair mousse
  4. Food colouring
  5. Activator – we make our own home-made Borax solution (see Lab Notes below)
  6. Bio-Glitter
  7. Covering for table
  8. Airtight box to store slime
  9. Children!
Fancy something for Halloween…our Halloween Slime Kit is perfect for this time of year!

Our method

1) We poured about 200ml of PVA glue (see Lab Notes below) into the bowl and added a large squirt of hair mousse.

2) We stirred this really, really well.

3)  Next we added a few drops of food colouring, and stirred this in.

4) Then we added the Activator (see Lab Notes below), a little at a time, and again stirred really well.

5) The slime started to form immediately, this is polymerisation reaction of the polyvinyl acetate (PVA) in the glue. But we really needed to feel the slime in our hands to determine if we needed to add some more Activator. So, we started to touch and squidge it. As it felt too sticky we added a squirt of Activator. We kept kneading and squidging, and adding more Activator, until it was perfect!

6) The amount of Activator used is down to preference – if you like yours sticky or runny, don’t add loads of Activator, if you want it slightly rubbery, add more Activator. However, if you add too much Activator you end up with a friable putty that doesn’t stretch, but we found with this mousse-y recipe that didn’t happen. Bonus!

Watch the video to see how easy it is to make: https://youtu.be/ewwCQ6rHRMs

 

Lab notes

UK vs USA Slime
Avoid watching American videos on slime making as they use ingredients readily available over there (e.g. Elmers Glue, Mule Borax powder). You can buy these items here in the UK or online, but they are expensive and you don’t need to waster your money!

PVA glue
Not all PVA glues work, avoid the ones in the DIY section, but most kid’s PVA craft glues from any UK supermarket or craft shop will do a good job. However, the weaker they are the more activator you’ll need, some PVA glues are really strong and are aimed at older kids.

ACTIVATOR (BORAX)
We make our own Activator using borax. We make a weak solution 2.5% borax which is safe to use, although the raw powder is hazardous. You can buy this but don’t let the kids touch the raw powder, and wear gloves when handling it. Alternatively you can buy shop made activator, or grab one of our Slime Kits here, or better still, our Halloween Slime Kit is perfect for this time of year.

Borax’s scientific name is sodium tetraborate and nothing works better or is as cost effective as a solution of home-made sodium tetraborate (as found in our slime kits), and so that’s why we avoid the alternatives. For example, some recipes suggest using contact lens cleaner that contains boric acid or sodium borate. In US tutorials online, these contact lens cleaners are sometimes called “saline” – which is very misleading, because “saline” is just salty water, so its really unhelpful to call it that!

Some tutorials tell you to use a “starch solution”. What they mean is the kind you use to spray on shirts when you’re ironing them, again it needs to contain boric acid or sodium borate, but they don’t always tell you that!

The contact lens cleaner and starch solutions are expensive ways to purchase activator. You can buy bottles of premade activator in shops, again, expensive but they work. The cheapest way is to buy borax powder and make your own activator solution – about 2.5%.

You may have heard about safety concerns with borax, and if you want to use and make your own borax solution, it’s down to you to get informed about the safety issues and make a decision based on the evidence. In the UK the raw material (sodium tetraborate) is classified as toxic, but a weak solution, e.g. 2.5% is of low hazard.

 

Want more slime recipes?

Colour-changing thermochromic slime
Magnetic slime
Fluorescent/Hallowe’en slime
Fluffy slime

If you tackle this activity at home you do so at your own risk. If you have as much fun as we did, feel free to share your pictures with us on Facebook.

Have fun sliming!
Bye for now

Ruth

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