As some of you may know I’m not always a fan of kids craft/science kits and often pass on the opportunity to review them, which was my initial response with the Experimake Superb Sea Shaped Soaps Kit by Nickelodeon. But they convinced me to give it a go …
Experimake science sets have been designed by scientists to encourage kids to learn through play with the Superb Sea Shaped Soap kit being aimed at 8+ years. It comes with everything you need to make 6 scented and colourful soaps along with some fabulous educational support explaining a little about the history of soap and the chemical reaction that occurs between soap, dirt and water (that’s the science bit!).
What’s In The Experimake Superb Sea Shaped Soap Kit
Protective gloves
Clear soap base (150g)
Vanilla fragrance (5ml)
Red and blue cosmetic colouring (5ml)3 gift bags
3 pipettes
2 wooden spatulas (like lolly sticks)
3 plastic moulds (fish, seahorse, shell)
3 gift labels
Booklet/manual with instructions, safety information and educational support.
All the equipment comes carefully packed with in cute illustrated, cardboard trays that can be used as desk tidy’s afterwards (I love this!).
A key part of any creative kit whether it’s craft or science is the instruction manual. The Superb Sea Shaped Soap kit comes with a ‘bumper’ user manual that not only contains easy to follow instructions along but is crammed full of other helpful and interesting info …
– Advice for supervising adults
– Safety rules to follow
– Chemical data and warnings for all ingredients
– General first aid info
– Extension kit ideas using additional ingredients such as dried flowers, salt, oats etc
– Educational support in the form of a periodic table, soap facts and details on how and why soap, water and dirt interact.
The instructions are really easy to follow and my 10-year-olds managed on their own after I’d helped them make a blue fish to start with. You will need to get a weighing scales and also a container to melt the soap in (paper cups are ideal for this).
The melted soap is very hot so an adult does need to be around to help/keep an eye on things. he easiest way to melt the soap is in the microwave but you can also use the bain marie method.
Once the blue fish had been made Ro and Ra started to get adventurous, spurred on by the booklets suggestions of adding other ingredients such as dried flowers, oats, salt etc.
They mixed the blue and red colours together to make a purple seahorse scented with lavender (the lavender was an extra we picked from the garden).
Then they added rose petals to get a gorgeous pink rose seahorse.
They even tested their skills making a layered sea shell!
Because the kit also came with three little gift bags and labels their obvious next step, once all the soaps had been made, was to carefully package them up and give them to friends and family.
What Did We Think?
The girls absolutely ‘loved’ playing with this kit (watch the video above to see how they got on) and really enjoyed the flexibility of the materials that allowed them to experiment with other ideas and make their soaps individual. The addition of some soap fun facts made them go off and google a bit more about soap and its history which was perfect extension work to the kit.
Be careful getting the soap out of the moulds once they have cooled (don’t be tempted to try and do this whilst the soap is still warm) and the fish, in particular, is very delicate due to the fins being so thin. Pushing too hard could crack the moulds you won’t be able to re-use them.
I felt the scientific diagram explanation showing how soap, water and dirt react together was a little poor and could have been explained either more simply or needed a little more explanation (the use of the terms polar chain and polar extremity will probably not mean anything to most kids, and possibly quite a few adults). But this is a minor niggle and the content did spark an interest in the girls to find out more.
Experimake Superb Sea Shaped Soaps is a great STEM based kit that kids can DO, LEARN from and have FUN with! It’s currently only available from The Entertainer toy shop priced at £20
Top Tips
– Don’t panic if the soap sets in the plastic cup. Just re-heat it again.
– Try not to over mix as it creates bubbles in the soap. Alternatively, you can embrace the bubbles. They are a classic sea life texture!
– Scrape up any spillages when cool and re-melt them.
– When the soap has hardened it will still be quite warm. Put it in the fridge initially and then into the freezer to speed things up.
– Try and protect the moulds. You can buy additional clear soap base to make great gifts for teachers, friends and family.
If you liked this you make be interested in my other craft kit reviews.
Now one lucky reader can win their own Experimake Superb Sea Shaped Soap Kit. All you have to do is follow the Gleam form below.
– This giveaway is open to residents of the UK only.
– One winner will be chosen via Gleam and announced on this page.
– The winner will be contacted by e-mail within 3 days of competition ends. If the winner does not respond within 28 days another winner may be chosen.
– Your details will not be passed onto any third parties by BlueBearWood.
– The winner will be sent ONE Experimake Superb Sea Shaped Soap Kit.
– Delivery is not the responsibility of BlueBearWood and may take some time to arrive.
– Any damage or problems with the prize is not the responsibility of BlueBearWood.
– Entries using any software or automated process to make bulk entries will be disqualified.
– There is no cash alternative.
– Competition starts on 01/09/2017 – 22/09/2017 11.59pm.
EXPERImake Superb Sea Shaped Soaps Giveaway
I love making with felt so any kit that contains felt gets my vote!
We love the Design & Make Steampunk Jewellery kit
making bath bombs is great fun x
Making soap kits is always fun
We love wool and felt craft kits -pompoms are a big hit here at the moment
We love Bird House Kits.
Love making cards and collage.
We love a bit of crafting. My girls love making bath bombs and seasonal things like Christmas/Easter decorations x
I like lots of different crafts, but something a bit different like this is really good
I love making candles with the little ones because you can be so creative with colours and scents
I love cross stitch but for the kids they tend to like anything messy lol
I Use to enjoy airfix models of aircraft
We like the sewing kits from Wilko. They are inexpensive and fail safe and can be used with relatively little supervision
I like ones where you learn a new skill, like knitting or jewellery ones.
we love to make jewellery 🙂
LIKE CROSS STITCH, SO RELAXING
Anything with stickers included is always a bonus.
I like sewing/knitting kits
Anything to do with moulds I love the outcome
I do enjoy cross-stitch. x
Anything that makes something you can use as a treat afterwards – there’s something really nice about being able to use something we’ve made ourselves like soap or chocolate!
making bathbombs
cross stitch is a great way to help me relax
i love making candles, experimenting with different colours and fragrances
Making bath bombs!
We like sequin art at the moment
Candle Making. Thankyou for the competition x
Educational kits are great, my daughter also loves knitting and science kits
I love any type of craft. One of my favs is perfume making.
We love all sorts of crafts in our house my main one is cross stitching
Card Making or Cross Stitching.
Bath bomb kits are so good!!
I love sewing kits x
Card Making
I like card making, so many variations, styles and colours. 🙂
card making
Bath Bomb kits are great
A pottery painting kit
I like ones that are easy to use and give quick results. My younger grandchildren are not known for their patience!
I love crossstitch kits
Candle making. This looks really cute for my niece.
bath bombs 🙂
I prefer kits that are complete. I have bought some for my children for Christmas before that’s required extra things like oils food colouring – which I didnt have at home, rendering those kits useless until I could go to the shops.
It never made mention of it on the packet either, which was frustrating.. Its like giving a child a toy minus the batteries!
Making jewellery with the kids is fun!
Any types of craft but I like the ones that have everything in so you don’t have to start looking for things
Anything that I can paint xxx