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How to Make Slime – A Comprehensive Guide

By Sharla Kostelyk

(This post may contain affiliate links. For more information, see my disclosure policy.)

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Have you ever wondered how to make slime or are you looking for new ways to make it? Making slime is one of my kids’ favourite things to do. They could sit at the table for hours and play with it. If you think there is just one way to make slime, you’re wrong. There are multiple ways to make it and just as many ways to play with it! a collage of slimes with the text "The Complete Guide to How to Make Slime"

How to Make Slime Not Sticky

Once you’ve made your slime, you don’t want it to be sticky. You don’t want it sticking to your table, hands, and everything else. Once slime sticks, it certainly is hard to unstick!

Knead the Slime

One way to get rid of the stickiness is to knead it. Think about flour and how when you knead it, it makes it less sticky. The same thing goes with slime.

Small Amount of Baby Oil

If you’re looking to unstick the slime, then a tiny bit of baby oil will do the trick. You don’t want it slime to get super oily though. Keep this in mind as you add the baby oil to the slime. One drop at a time.

Drop or two of Contact Solution

If you’re using a recipe that uses contact solution and it’s still too sticky, you can add a drop or two more of contact solution.

How to Make Slime Stretchy

Has your slime become a blob that just sits there and doesn’t do anything? Slime is a lot more fun when it’s stretchy! If you’re wondering how to make your slime stretchy again, it’s time to follow these tips.

Hot top water

When it comes to making slime stretchy, hot tap water can do the trick. Just soak the slime in the hot tap water if it’s become too hard. This will breathe new life into it. 

Small amount of lotion

Have hard slime that doesn’t stretch? Consider a small amount of lotion in the slime. A really small amount of lotion does the trick, so don’t add much more than that.

Take the time to move it around and see if it stretches.

How to Ensure Your Slime is Not Runny

If your slime is runny, that is no fun! There are actually ways in which you can make slime not so runny. One of those tips is to add in a thickening agent.

For example, runny slime may need liquid glue to be added to it or a small amount of borax. Depending on what slime recipe you used, this will determine what you add to it to make it not runny.

Also, keep in mind that it does take some trial and error. Start with small amounts to see if this helps.

Classic Slime Recipe

What is considered a classic slime recipe is one that uses borax and glue. There are many ways to make the recipes more exciting by adding in glitter, confetti, or like the instant snow in the unique recipe below.

Slime Without Borax

Don’t have borax on hand? No worries! You can totally make slime without borax, you just need to know how. Borax is a thickening agent. So in order to create a slime without it, you’ll need to use another thickening agent. 

Thickening agents out there are things that contain boric acid, sodium borate, or borax. Some of these products are liquid starch and eye drops! You’ll need to check the ingredient list to be sure they have one of those materials listed. They both work great for helping to make slime.

Other ways to make slime without borax include making it with shampoo or making edible slime.

Making Slime with Shampoo

If you have shampoo on hand, it can be the magic ingredient. Here are the steps for making slime with shampoo:

  • You will need a ½ cup of shampoo and a ¼ of a cup of cornstarch in a bowl.
  • You will want to mix this mixture up very well.
  • From there, you’ll add a teaspoon of water and stir. Slowly add in five more teaspoons of water.
  • To make the slime usable, you’ll want to knead the slime for about 5 minutes.

If the slime is too hard, you’ll want to add a little bit of water. If it’s too runny, you’ll want to add a little more cornstarch.

Making Slime with Contact Solution

Do you have contact solution on hand? It can be a perfect ingredient in making slime. You can look at contact solution as a slime activator.

To make contact solution slime, you’ll need a bottle of Elmer’s glue, baking soda, and contact solution, plus water if you like the slime a little stretcher. You can find an exact recipe for it here.

Not everyone wants to use their contact solution for this, but if you do, this recipe works great.

How to Make Fluffy Slime

Making your own fluffy slime isn’t as hard as it may seem. Who doesn’t love playing with beautiful and big fluffy slime?! The secret?

FOAM SHAVING CREAM!

YUP. I love that shaving cream is so cheap too! You can easily add foam shaving cream to the recipe and from there you can have some fun slime on your hands. I pick mine up from the dollar store. You can buy it in different scents which then results in a scented slime.

Making it scented is a great way to incorporate the olfactory sense into this sensory play.

Edible Slime

One of the latest trends is slime that is taste safe or edible. This Edible Shark Fluffy Slime is our favourite. There are many other edible slime recipes you can make that use ingredients such as pudding, candy, marshmallow fluff, icing, and Jello.

Ensuring that Slime is Safe

When you’re making sensory play recipes with your kids, you need to make sure that they are safe. One of the rules to making slime safe is to make sure your kids don’t eat it.

There are ingredients in typical slime that don’t make it safe to eat. Kids who have sensitive skin can also react to it when it comes in contact with their skin. You can instead use an edible recipe which will be safer for the skin and takes away the worry of toxicity. 

If your kids have sensitive skin, they can also wear clothes and gloves while they make it and play with it.

You can read more important safety tips here.

Slime Ingredients

There are many different ingredients that can be used to make slime. These are some of the most common:

Styrofoam Balls for SlimeStyrofoam Balls for SlimeStyrofoam Balls for SlimeLiquid StarchLiquid StarchLiquid StarchElmer's Liquid School Glue, ClearElmer’s Liquid School Glue, ClearElmer's Liquid School Glue, ClearElmer's Liquid School Glue, WhiteElmer’s Liquid School Glue, WhiteElmer's Liquid School Glue, WhiteSaline SolutionSaline SolutionSaline SolutionShaving CreamShaving CreamShaving CreamHolographic Chunky Glitter SequinsHolographic Chunky Glitter SequinsHolographic Chunky Glitter Sequins

Why make slime?

Not only is slime a cool science lesson in chemistry, it is great for providing sensory input and it is good as a calming tool. For kids (or adults) who are struggling with anxiety, it provides a stress reducing effect. It can be used like a stress ball, but that’s not the only way that it is calming.

Slime engages both the visual, tactile, and proprioceptive sensory systems. Proprioception (also sometimes called heavy work) is very effective in calming as it provides much needed feedback to the body.

Depending on the type of recipe you use, there may also be other sensory systems such as olfactory (smell) engaged with this type of sensory play as well. You can find some fun ways to play with your slime here.

Our Favourite Slime Recipes

hands holding dripping black slimeBlack Glitter Slime Easy Recipe
Bug Slime without Borax
Chocolate Milk SlimeMilky Slime Recipe
Christmas Nativity Slime
Cool Camo Fluffy Slime
Spider Slime Recipe: Just Like A Spider Web
Dino-riffic Dinosaur Slime
Easter Fluffy Slime
slime that has coloured mini beads and small bunny toys in itEasy Easter Slime Recipe
Edible Shark Fluffy Slime
Fall Leaves Slime
blue slime with a yellow toy fish and a green and red toy fish in itFluffy Fish Slime
Frozen Inspired Elsa Slime
thumb pulling blue slime filled with confettiFun Birthday Slime Recipe
Glow in the Dark Slime with Glitter
Googly Eye Monster Slime
Hallowe’en Sensory Game
Holiday Scented Christmas Tree Slime
clump of orange slimeHow to Make Pumpkin Slime
Mardi Gras Slime
Minnie Mouse Slime
Peppermint Scented Slime Recipe
Rainbow Confetti Party Slime
Santa Slime Christmas Gift Idea
Simple Hallowe’en Slime
finger presses into an air bubble in shamrock slime to get at a gold coinSt. Patrick’s Clear Slime
St. Patrick’s Day Fluffy Slime
Stretchy Butterfly Slime
an almost opaque white slime with red round confetti and bright green tree shaped confetti is seen held in a hand with only the thumb visibleHow To Make Stretchy Slime
hand presses into blue slime with coloured confetti in itStretchy Superhero Slime
Textured Butter Slime
Timon Inspired Lion King Slime
Unicorn Fluffy Slime
Valentine’s Day Fluffy Slime
Valentine’s Day Slime

Do you enjoy making slime? What’s your favourite thing about it?

Looking for more great sensory play recipes? Join us for a five day email series on Sensory Activities and Solutions and get a free sample of our Sensory Play Recipes eBook.

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