How To Make Butter Slime Without Clay

When you hear about butter slime, does it make you think of slime made from a stick of butter? That would be something, wouldn’t it? Given all of the edible and unique slime recipes, I get it! However, our easy-to-make butter slime recipe doesn’t use butter or the traditional soft clay either. Try this fun homemade slime recipe today for cool textured slime!

HOW TO MAKE BUTTER SLIME WITHOUT CLAY

WHAT IS BUTTER SLIME?

Why is butter slime named butter slime? Honestly, I don’t have an official answer just my thoughts.

Butter slime feels soft and silky. It’s firmer but still smooth and stretchy. Of course, butter isn’t stretchy! However, this slime keeps more of a shape, and you can add play dough tools to it or even a butter knife and make chunks.

Of course, this pale yellow-colored slime also resembles a rich yummy stick of butter. Just no tasting allowed. Now you could also make real butter for a cool science activity. That would be tasty!

More fun with butter slime! Also, check out our traditional clay slime recipe!

THE SCIENCE OF SLIME

We always like to include a bit of homemade slime science around here! Slime is an excellent chemistry demonstration, and kids love it too!

Mixtures, substances, polymers, cross-linking, states of matter, elasticity, and viscosity are just a few science concepts that can be explored with homemade slime!

How do you make slime? The borate ions in the slime activator (sodium borate, borax powder, or boric acid) mix with the PVA (polyvinyl acetate) glue and form this cool, stretchy substance. This is called cross-linking!

The glue is a polymer of long, repeating, and identical strands or molecules. These molecules with flow past one another and keep the glue liquid. Until…

You add the borate ions to the mixture, and it then starts to connect these long strands together. They begin to tangle and mix until the substance is less like the liquid you started with and thicker and rubbery like slime! Slime is a polymer.

Picture the difference between wet spaghetti and leftover spaghetti the next day. As the slime forms, the tangled molecule strands are much like a clump of spaghetti!

>>> What is Slime? Read more about slime science here.

Is slime liquid or solid?

Slime is called a Non-Newtonian fluid because it’s a bit of both! Experiment with making the slime more or less viscous with varying amounts of foam beads. Can you change the density?

HOW TO STORE SLIME

I get a lot of questions regarding how I store my slime. We use reusable containers in either plastic or glass. Make sure to keep your slime clean, and it will last for several weeks. I love the deli-style containers listed in my recommended slime supplies list.

If you want to send kids home with slime from a camp, party, or classroom project, I suggest reusable containers from the dollar store, grocery store, or even Amazon. We have used condiment containers and labels for large groups, as seen here.

We have the best resources to look through before, during, and after making your butter slime! Make sure to go back and read the slime science above too!

Printable Slime Recipes Guide

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How to Make Butter Slime

Want to get the smooth buttery texture of butter slime without clay? The secret ingredient is cornstarch!

You can use any of our basic slime recipes to make butter slime, but here we use our liquid starch slime recipe. You could also use our saline solution slime recipe or borax slime recipe!

BUTTER SLIME INGREDIENTS:

• 1/2 Cup of Washable PVA White Glue 
• 1/4-1/2 Cup of Liquid Starch
• 1/2 Cup of Water
• 3 tbsps Corn Starch
• Yellow Food Coloring
• Bowl, Spoon, Measuring Cups
• Play Kitchen or Play Dough tools (optional)

HOW TO MAKE BUTTER SLIME STEP BY STEP

STEP 1:  In a bowl, add 1/2 cup water and 1/2 cup glue and mix well to combine completely.

STEP 2: Now’s the time to add yellow food coloring and cornstarch. Mix well.

STEP 3: Pour in 1/4 cup of liquid starch and stir well.

You will see the slime immediately start to form and pull away from the sides of the bowl. Keep stirring until you have a gooey blob of slime. The liquid should be gone! 

STEP 4:  Start kneading your slime! It will appear stringy at first but work it around with your hands and you will notice the consistency change.

SLIME MAKING TIP:   The trick with liquid starch slime is to put a few drops of the liquid starch onto your hands before picking up the slime. However, keep in mind that although adding more liquid starch reduces the stickiness, and it will eventually create a stiffer slime.

LEFTOVER CORNSTARCH

Remember to keep cornstarch on hand! Cornstarch is always one of the supplies packed into our homemade science kits! It’s a terrific ingredient for cool kitchen science activities and is great to have on hand to whip up an easy science experiment!

Some of our favorite cornstarch recipes…

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