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Easy 4-ingredient Fluffy Slime

Are you looking for an easy fluffy slime recipe without Borax? A few weeks ago we made a gorgeous batch of 3-ingredient glitter slime, and today we’re sharing how to make fluffy slime. My kids are crazy for slime, and they’re clearly not alone! After making countless batches of slime, I wanted to figure out how to make this fluffy slime with saline solution so that my kids could take full control over the recipe on their own. This is the perfect fluffy slime, and the recipe does not disappoint. Of course you could buy slime, but isn’t the DIY route much more fun? The difference between slime and fluffy slime is the texture. Fluffy slime actually has the consistency of marshmallows. It’s bouncy, puffy, and, well, fluffy! Super Easy Fluffy Slime This post contains affiliate links.

Why is slime so exciting to kids?

We’ve been making slime for years (take a look in the book, TinkerLab: A Hands-on Guide for Little Inventors or click here our original recipe!), and even at ages 7 and 9 my littles still go bananas over this stretchy magical material. What is it about slime? It’s a sensory material with a texture that’s playful and stretchy, and encourages children to invent, build, sculpt, play, and even relax. My kids played with this slime for an hour the other day and they didn’t want to stop.

How to Make Fluffy Slime without Borax

There are four key ingredients in Borax-free fluffy slime: white glue or PVA glue, shaving cream, baking soda, and contact lens solution For the shaving cream, Barbasol (shown below) is the best one we’ve tried). For the PVA glue, Elmer’s School Glue is my hands-down favorite. It’s a classic and we buy it by the gallon. Slime comes together with an activator, and this is usually Borax. Why? Borax contains sodium borate, a combination of boric acid and salt. When boric acid combines with water and pva glue, a chemical reaction binds the glue molecules, pulling them into what we recognize as slime. It’s all pretty magical. Some folks are concerned that boric acid could be dangerous to kids. I’ve read the reviews and I’m not concerned, but I have found that it’s a whole lot easier to give kids a bottle of contact solution than it is a box of 40 Mule Borax. Some (not all) contact solutions contain boric acid, further proof in my mind that boric acid is nothing to worry about as it goes in my eyes each morning.  For this Borax alternative, Renu saline solution by Bausch & Lomb works great! Fluffy slime ingredients _ TinkerLab

Fluffy Slime Ingredients

White shaving Cream – 3 cups (750 ml) (Barbasol brand works!) Elmer’s School Glue – 1/2 cup (120 ml) or a 4 ounce bottle. We love this glue. If your kids love making slime, splurge for the gallon! Baking Soda – 1 teaspoon (5 ml) Contact Solution with boric acid as an ingredient – 1 tablespoon (15 ml) (Renu brand works!) Food Coloring: optional

Instructions for the Best Fluffy Slime Recipe

Step 1: Add three cups of white shaving cream (not clear shaving cream) to a large mixing bowl. Don’t worry about exact amounts. This recipe is forgiving and a little more or less will be fine. Step 2: Add 1/2 cup Elmer’s School Glue to the mixing bowl Step 3: Add a teaspoon of baking soda to the mixing bowl. Step 4: Stir everything together with a spatula or large spoon. Step 5: Add a tablespoon of contact solution (15 ml)  to the bowl. Stir it all together!
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5 from 26 votes

Fluffy Slime

Regular slime with the addition of shaving cream to make it extra fluffy.
Prep Time10 mins
Active Time15 mins
Total Time25 mins

Instructions

  • Add three cups of white shaving cream (not clear shaving cream) to a large mixing bowl. Don’t worry about exact amounts. This recipe is forgiving and a little more or less will be fine.
  • Add 1/2 cup Elmer’s School Glue to the mixing bowl.
  • Add a teaspoon of baking soda to the mixing bowl.
  • Stir everything together with a spatula or large spoon.
  • Add a tablespoon of contact solution (15 ml) to the bowl. Stir it all together!
  • Once the slime comes together, remove it from the bowl to knead and stretch it with your hands for a few minutes. It will be sticky at first, but it becomes non-sticky and pliable pretty quickly.
  • Play with your slime!

Notes

This slime can be store for about a day in a tight container. Longer than that and the shaving cream sort of melts away and it loses its fluffy consistency.

Make the Homemade Fluffy Slime Recipe

Step 1: Add 3 cups shaving cream (750 ml)  to a bowl. Don’t worry about exact amounts. This recipe is forgiving. 4 cups (1000 ml) would be fine, too. Step 2: Add 1/2 cup Elmer’s School Glue (120 ml) to the Bowl Step 3: Add 1 teaspoon baking soda (5 ml) to the bowl. Step 4: Stir everything together. Step 5: Add 1 tablespoon contact solution (15 ml) to the bowl. Stir everything together with a spatula or large spoon. See the next set of photos to see how it comes together in about a minute! Once the slime comes together, remove it from the bowl to knead and stretch it with your hands for a few minutes. It will be sticky at first, but it becomes non-sticky and pliable pretty quickly. Play with your slime! This slime can be store for about a day in a tight container. Longer than that and the shaving cream sort of melts away and it loses its fluffy consistency. Mixing Fluffy Slime

Slime Safety Tips and Precautions

  • When playing with slime, if you’re concerned about it getting on your furniture, be sure to cover the table with oil cloth or a non-porous table covering.
  • Always supervise children when making and playing with slime.
  • Slime is not a food – do not allow children to eat slime. Always wash hands after using slime.

Make Regular Slime

If you’d like to make a batch of regular slime with Borax, this is our original slime recipe that came before all the slime craze hit the world.

Make Clear Glitter Slime

Similar to fluffy slime, Clear Glitter Slime uses contact solution and baking soda. Instead of white PVA glue, we’ll use Elmer’s glitter glue. This stretchy, gorgeous slime is fun to make at birthday parties, with each child taking home their original DIY concoction.
Glitter Slime from the TinkerLab Slime Lab
For more sensory activities, see our list of 30+ sensory activities here.
30 Sensory Activities That Kids will Love to Explore

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65 Comments

  6. 5 stars
    I just made four batches of the fluffy slime using what you posted and I must say that this is the happiest Ive been with making slime using other people’s recipes. Your fluffy slime recipe made awesome fluffy slime and my kids and I love it!!! I’ll definitely be bookmarking your website. Thanks again

  7. 5 stars
    Quick and easy method and I found all the ingredients at home , thanks so much for making a boring day so interesting.😘

  8. 5 stars
    This is my first attempt at slime and it worked! Talk to me about storing slime. How long does this last? Plastic bag ok? Thanks!

    • Wonderful news! I’m happy to hear that the recipe worked for you. As you suggest, we recommend storing in a plastic bag for a few days, sometimes longer. 🙂

      • I have been looking at the comments and this slime sounds awsome I ‘ m trying asap

  11. The list of ingredients has glue first so I did that instead of following instructions. Didn’t turn out properly (however they’re still having fun with it). If you could reorganize your list above the instructions that would be helpful for those who don’t read all the way through. Lol

  12. 5 stars
    This is the best recipe ever. I tried a ton of fluffy slime recipes and yours is the best. 👌👌 awesomeness

  16. Ok so I tried making this as a gift for my son and it sucked I followed the recipe exactly and it didn’t form anywhere near slime. I was extremely upset as I was not able to provide a gift for my son. I think that maybe change the recipe idk. But I do know one thing I will not be using anymore of your recipes.

    • It worked for me! Mabye you went wrong somewhere…What was wrong with the slime? If it was too sticky/ runny, add more baking soda and contact solution. If it was too hard you added to much baking soda/ contact solution. You could either try making it again, or microwave it for 30 secs or so and then knead it some lotion to soften it up a bit

  17. 5 stars
    My 4 year old loved this! Can you add food coloring? We used a metallic colored glue the first time. Definitely making more.

    • We didn’t try it with this recipe, but you should be able to add food coloring or liquid watercolor 🙂 I bet it was gorgeous with metallic glue.

  21. 5 stars
    I made so e of it and it was so fluffy if I had all the glue in the world and everything else I needed I would make so much of that slime!😸😸😸😸

  24. 5 stars
    This is the best recipe ever. I tried a ton of fluffy slime recipes and yours is the best. 👌👌 awesomeness

  26. is it worth buying the ingredients like does is it turn exactly like the picture or its not worth spending money on something that does not work and just make my mom mad at me does turn like REAL slime ?

    • 5 stars
      Rachelle is right. I did as her tutorial did and it worked! however I am not sure if “similar” components will be successful. because I’m not a chemist ^ _ ^ Now my kid is sitting at home- making my products. And the purpose of me coming back here is to thank Rachelle.
      thank you!

  32. Hi, I made this slime and put it in a container. It went hard after like 3 days. Hope I can get some more glue to make this again. What did I do wrong: where it’s stored?? Help

    • The shaving foam can lose its fluffiness after playing with it, so it won’t stay fluffy for more than a day or so, and at that point it turns into regular slime. We generally store ours in a zip-up baggie or plastic container. Maybe there was air in your container?

  33. I think so… I’ll try making some more slime when covid is over and storing it in a baggie with no air. Thank u so much!

  34. 5 stars
    Second time making this recipe with my grand daughter (master slime maker), fluffy, stretchy and fun! We add gold glitter for the WOW!

  35. 5 stars
    Hey, my slime turned out AMAZING!! This is the best website and I’ll make sure to always use it. Do you have any pro-tips to keep the slime good and how long do you think the slime will last and thats its good from the pro-tips?

    Thank you,
    Chloe Napoli

    • I’m so glad you enjoyed this recipe! The shaving foam will eventually “unfluff” so this recipe will last a day or two.

  36. Hello, my name is Gonzalo

    Do you know how to make the slime last longer? After 2 weeks my slime went back to being glue. That made me very sad because it was so cute 🙁

    • Hi Gonzalo, This slime doesn’t last very long in its fluffy state, unfortunately. You could try adding more shaving cream to refresh it.

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