Kids love this the most: DIY non-toxic slime

I had been researching slime on Pinterest for a while, but I couldn’t find a truly non-toxic recipe, so I never tried making it. Then one day after work, I found my son and daughter each playing with a lump of it. It turned out their aunt had made some for them to play with. Seeing how happily they were playing, I settled for the so-called non-toxic recipe. My brother and I spent the whole afternoon making slime in all sorts of colors and stored them in jars to take out whenever we felt like playing.

Their aunt made the base of the slime using the most standard [glue + borax] method, then used pigments from colored pencil leads to dye it. The resulting slime was crystal clear and quite adorable. However, borax is slightly toxic and requires extra caution—make sure little ones don’t eat it. Her two older boys are already in middle elementary school, so playing with borax is fine for them.

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Since we couldn’t buy it anyway, there was no point in continuing to boycott it, so I got back to the main topic and tried all the cleaning agents we had at home. I found that Method’s heavy-duty stain remover actually reacts with glue. The gold glitter glue we had on hand made an incredibly elastic slime — you could easily stretch it over a hundred centimeters and even pull it into a large, thin film. Niu Meimei had the time of her life playing with it.

I posted photos on Facebook and immediately got friends signing up to join, so the [Little Guests’ Visit – DIY Craft Class] reopened. I specially went to the bookstore to buy gold glitter glue. I originally planned to get just one bottle per child, but when I saw the special price — just NT$17 per bottle — I bought all the colors and let the kids choose their favorites themselves. Up to them!

Each child picked their favorite color: Zhenzhen chose the blue from *Let It Go*, Weiwei picked neon green, Niu Meimei chose bright orange, and Niu DiDi chose silver white. They worked hard squeezing the glue into cups — that was probably the hardest part because it was super sticky and really tough to squeeze out.

We added Method stain remover little by little, stirring well each time. Once it started to set, you could take it out and knead it as much as you wanted. If it felt too wet, we added more glue; if it was too sticky, we added more stain remover, adjusting until it didn’t stick to our hands — and then it was done.

The slime made with this brand of glue is softer and stickier, and you can easily stretch it into long strands, but it tears easily when pulled apart. It also feels like it’s melting and slips through your fingers, almost like a liquid slime.

It was really too sticky to work with easily, so I kneaded in a bit of plain glue to firm it up a bit. Sure enough, we managed to stretch out a beautiful film.

Weiwei didn’t like the sticky TT slime, so he went off to play on the slide by himself. As a result, his neon green slime was taken over by Zhenzhen. A child’s smile doesn’t lie — just look how happy she is!

Although this slime doesn’t stick to hands or the LG mat, it does stick to clothes and doesn’t come off easily — you have to wash it with water to clean it. That’s why Niu DiDi kept playing, kept getting dirty, and kept going to change clothes.

Niu Meimei passed out again — playing is hard work too, just look how tired she is!

After Weiwei and Zhenzhen went home, Niu DiDi kneaded all the slime into one big lump, turning it into a weird brown color. He insisted it was the color of cola, not poop.

Although we ran out of gold glitter glue, a prepared mom like me had already gotten Plan B ready — I took out a big 500ml bottle of refill glue plus food coloring, and immediately started round two of playing with Niu DiDi.

Niu Meimei was sound asleep and not causing any trouble, so mom could calmly make colorful slimes. First, I added food coloring to the glue to mix the color, then put in a small amount of Method stain remover and stirred a little until it started to solidify. I kept adding and stirring until it didn’t stick too much to the container, then took it out to knead. After smearing and kneading it around, it gradually became less sticky until it didn’t stick at all — and then it was done!

We made quite a few colors until we used up the whole bottle of Method. Then we stored everything in jelly cups to play with another day. Up!

By the way, the ingredients listed on this bottle of stain remover are pretty much unreadable (like the thousands of types of surfactants — which ones are actually used?). I called customer service to ask for the full ingredient list and they didn’t know either. So I can’t guarantee this slime recipe is non-toxic, but after all, their main selling point is [safe and non-toxic], and the guarantee from such a big company should be more reliable than mine, right? Anyway, remember to wash your hands thoroughly after playing!
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