A friend asked for a simple slime recipe the other day, and I realised that it had been a long, long time since we’d made any slime at our house too.
So I shared this simple sensory play idea with my friend and my kids!
This is the easiest slime recipe I know of…
Slime!
What you’ll need…
Lux flakes, or other pure soap flakes.
Hot water.
A tub to put it in.
Something to mix with.
Yep… that’s it, just two ingredients.
What to do…
Tip your soap flakes into the tub and add hot or boiling water – a rough idea of ratio is 1 cup of soap flakes to 3 cups of water, but you might need to play around and add more of either ingredient to get it the consistency that you want.
Mix up your soap flakes a water. We got our the electric beaters, but old fashioned hand egg beaters would be fun if you have some, or just a regular whisk or spoon will do.
If you want to play with your slime right away whip it up till it is nice and bubbly. It will be light and fluffy, but if you want it to be really slimy, mix it up and let it sit over night….
The next day it should be the consistency of snot. Delightful!
I suggest you put a towel or cloth under your tubs to catch the drips. A plastic table cloth would become really slippery with the soapy slime, and the towels can just be chucked in the wash, no extra detergent needed.
The big kids had lots of fun just sinking their hands into the gooey, slimey, snotty goodness, as well as mixing and pouring it.
Noey loved it too, but since this is pure soap and water I had to supervise him really closely to make sure he didn’t put his soapy hands in his eyes.
Yesterday we added green colouring to a small amount of the slime along with some leaves, rocks and crocodiles… to make the slimiest swamp ever!
The slime will keep for a long time, provided it doesn’t get too much dirt or crud in it.
Be careful how you dispose of it, when I was teaching preschool we once tipped a tub full of slime down the outside drain, then it rained and the courtyard was filled with bubbles! Oops. Also not great for the environment for it to get into the storm water.
If you haven’t coloured it you can recycle it by adding a scoop to your wash. If you have coloured it you might add a scoop to the bath for a bit of fun (if your child isn’t soap sensitive).
No go forth and get slimy!
Audrey really enjoyed the slime! The next time we make it we are gonna set the camera up on the tripod and make a stop animation drawing in it – we spread some thinly on the table to draw in. When she was done, I took the opportunity to scrub the table down, though getting the soap off was still a big job even spread over the whole table LOL
Oooh drawing in the slime would be cool!
And yeah we spilled some on the floor and it was surprisingly tricky to clean up till I tried with a dry cloth!
thanks for sharing this my dear! A fun activity to do while we are home bound while the little man learns to sleep :) xx
What a great idea! My boys would love this, it looks like so much fun. But messy! I’ll keep it up my sleeve though…
We love our slime here (that sentance sounds a little odd now i read it back !) Anyway…ours has been going for six months and still good…although now a little blue and glittery too!
Thanks for sharing this Kate! I can’t wait to do this with Max :)
hehe, crud in it. Ahh, all our stuff ends up with tons of crud by the end, lol. Good tip about the towels instead of the plastic floor mat! That’s one of those things that is easy not to think of until you end up slipping over on your well thought out protected plastic floor covering haha. Thanks for this simple recipe.. too easy!
Great. We’ve tried a cornflour-slime, but I love the look of this one. I know my Cam won’t be able to resist having a ball with this.
How could I have never made slime for my kids! What a sad mum I am. Woo Hoo, I bet Miss Possum is juts going to LOVE this activity! Thanks Kate!
That looks both really gross and really fun. We’ll have to try it out.
Looks so much fun! Thanks for sharing
We had a blast! Thanks for the idea!! GThey are now in the shower washing all the “slime” off!!!!
http://lrbritton.blogspot.com.au/2012/08/slime.html
Kate I cant tell you how much I love this. We love messy play but R has eczema and so all the usual recipes for goop and slime are just not suitable for his sensitive hands. This is perfect though! I shared this on my wall this morning too.
where do you find soap flakes? are you in the U.S.? I’ve checked target, walmart and a few grocery stores. :(
In Coles/woolies in the detergent aisle, “Lux” soap flakes.
I am not sure what would be the equivalent in the US. Here the most common type are ‘Lux Flakes’ and you get them in the laundry isle… they are ‘pure soap flakes’ so you could make look at grating up some pure soap bars, but then that wouldn’t make it an ‘easy’ slime recipe would it!!
I want to make this for my children at child care how much will a full lux flakes box make?
A whole box will me a LOT of slime!!! I’d start with maybe a cup of flakes per child… so if your water table is big enough for four kids start with four cups of lux flakes and 12 cups of water. You can always add more flakes and/or more water after you’ve mixed up the first batch if you want more.
Be careful how you dispose of a large amount of this slime too. When I was teaching preschool a staff member tipped some down an outside drain and when it rained a day later the court yard was filled with bubbles! LOL
Thanks for that the kids just love the slime, we added colour, glitter, kitchen utensils and cups and the kids had great fun making “sloppy ice creams” I guess my next question would be how should I dispose the slime without making bubble city? It’s in a huge meter by half meter plastic tub?
If you haven’t coloured it and it is not super filthy you can add it to your washing machine or add it to anything that you want to be soapy… so water play etc.
You can also leave it to dry out a little, put it plastic bags and dispose of it in the rubbish bin.
It should also keep in a seal container for a while, provided it is not really dirty… just check it every now and then to make sure it isn’t growing anything.
This looks so fun
i really want to try this
hope it works as well as this
I tried 5 times, it all turned into foam-like thingies….
I’m sorry it didn’t work you for you.
You may have used too much water, and not enough lux flakes, the quantities are not an exact science, especially if you are not using lux branded soap flakes. Sometimes if gets too foamy when you mix it, if you let it sit for a few days the bubbles will settle.