This slime is so easy to make!
We’ve 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 divine 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
You can either grab one of our slime kits here or purchase the following from your local stores….
- PVA glue (see Lab Notes below)
- Shaving foam or hair mousse
- Food colouring
- Activator – We have ready to use slime activator in our online shop.
- Bio-Glitter
- Covering for table
- Airtight box to store slime
- Children!
Our method
1) We poured about 200ml of PVA glue (see Lab Notes below) into the bowl and added a large squirt of shaving foam (you can use 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/Bynxq3Yn5HU
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 REALLY expensive and you absolutely don’t need to waste 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 have really strong adhesive properties and are not targeted to young children’s crafting activities because of this.
ACTIVATOR (BORAX)
You need Borax (chemical name – sodium tetraborate) to make slime, it reacts with the PVA in the glue.
Nothing else works, you need borax and PVA to make slime!
If you ever see someone advertising “borax free” activator, its either
- Not going to work because it has no borax in!
- They’re not telling the truth in order to make you to believe theirs is “safe” because of publicity in the news about borax being “unsafe”. You may have heard about safety concerns with borax over the years. In the UK the raw material (sodium tetraborate) is classified as toxic, but a weak solution, e.g. 2.5% is of low hazard. In the USA you can buy borax off the supermarket shelf, because its not classified as toxic there!
- They are misunderstanding and wrongly think their activator has no borax in it (e.g. because its a contact lens solution) but if they check the ingredients they’ll see borax listed, it might say ‘boric acid’ or ‘sodium borate’.
We make our own Activator using borax (of course!) which we sell in our online shop. We make a weak solution of borax that is safe to use. It is the raw ingredient of borax that is hazardous, a weak solution of it is not harmful. You may be able to buy activator from your local shops, but it is expensive and can be watered down so you need loads of it to activate a small amount of slime. Our activator is the strongest it can be whilst still being safe, so a little goes a LONG way!
You can grab a 120ml bottle of our activator from our shop which will activate 2 litres of slime or one of our basic Slime Kits here, or better still, check out our shop for seasonal slime kits, so for Christmas we have Santa Slime, and for Halloween we add our Spooky Slime Kit.
WHAT ABOUT CONTACT LENS SOLUTION?
Some recipes suggest using contact lens cleaner, but they often don’t tell you that you need to buy the ones which contain a borax derivative, i.e. 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! Buying contact lens solution is such an expensive way to buy activator and there’s no need to waste your money when you can buy good quality and safe activator, made for slime-making.
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 the tutorials don’t always tell you that! Companies also change their product ingredients and you’ll find one that did work previously no longer does!
We sell ready to use activator in our shop too.
We have been making our own slime activator for our workshops and parties for over 10 years now and its is strong, reliable, and safe. Grab your bottle now and happy sliming!
You may have heard about safety concerns with borax. 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?
BUY OUR DEVON-MADE SLIME KIT HERE.
Colour-changing thermochromic slime
Magnetic slime
Fluorescent/Hallowe’en slime
We now sell ready to use slime activator in our shop too. We have been making our own slime activator for our workshops and parties for over 10 years now and its is strong, reliable, and safe. Grab your bottle now and happy sliming!
Have fun sliming!
Bye for now
Ruth