Glitter, either you hate it or love it! If you hate it, you find it stuck in odd places. If you love it, you find it stuck to odd places. We LOVE glitter and we love sharing our favorite sparkly glitter slime recipe with you!

How To Make Sparkly Glitter Slime

Learn how to make sparkly slime for the ultimate slime making experience.  No, the glitter doesn’t fall out of the slime! That’s actually a common reader question.  I can’t speak for the glitter before it makes it into the slime mixing bowl, but once incorporated you are all set!

Oh and slime is science too, so don’t miss the great information on the science of slime below.  Watch our awesome slime videos and see how easy it is to make the best glittery slime!

Glitter Glue vs Clear Glue

I’m not a huge fan of the pre-made glitter glue, so I essentially make my own. I find the glitter glue you can buy for slime making results in a slime less stretchy and more crumbly then I would like. So I use my versatile gallon jug of clear glue to make glitter slime instead.  All you need is glitter and lots of it!

I have a lot of information packed into this page so read carefully! You will find a FREE printable recipes cheat sheet at the end of this page along with lots of helpful resources!

Basic Slime Recipes

Our easy, “how to make” slime recipes show you how to master slime in 5 minutes or less! We have spent years tinkering with our favorite basic slime recipes to make sure you can make the BEST slime every time!

We believe slime shouldn’t be disappointing or frustrating! That’s why we want to take the guesswork out of making slime!

  • Discover the best slime ingredients and get the right slime supplies the first time!
  • Make easy slime recipes that really work!
  • Achieve awesome slimy consistency the kids’ love!

Which Slime Recipe To Use?

We have several basic slime recipes that can all be used for this sparkly glitter slime recipe. You decide which one works best for you depending on what slime activator you want to use. This allows for some flexibility depending on where you live in the world! Not everyone has access to the same ingredients!

Each of the basic slime recipes below have the full step by step photos, directions, and even videos to help you along the way!

In the recipe below, we used our number one saline solution slime recipe. This is our #1 most viewed slime recipe, and we love it. Awesome stretchy slime in no time is my motto!

Helpful Slime Making Resources To Get Your Started

These are the best resources to look through before, during, and after making your awesome glitter slime! We talk more about slime science below too.

Extreme Glitter Slime

A Bit Of Slime Science

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 of the science concepts that can be explored with homemade slime!

What’s slime science all about?  The borate ions in the slime activators (sodium borate, borax powder, or boric acid) mix with the PVA (polyvinyl acetate) glue and forms this cool stretchy substance. This is called cross-linking!

The glue is a polymer and is made up of long, repeating, and identical strands or molecules. These molecules with flow past one another keeping the glue in a liquid state. 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 the clump of spaghetti!

Is slime a liquid or solid?

We call it a non-Newtonian fluid because it’s a little bit of both!  Experiment with making the slime more or less viscous with varying amounts of foam beads. Can you change the density?

Did you know that slime aligns with the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS)? 

It does and you can use slime making to explore states of matter and its interactions. Find out more below…

Get your free printable slime recipe cards!

Glitter Slime Recipe

Ingredients:

  • 1/2 cup Clear PVA School Glue
  • 1 tablespoon Saline Solution (must contain boric acid and sodium borate)
  • 1/2 cup of Water
  • 1/4-1/2 tsp Baking Soda
  • Food coloring
  • Glitter

HOW TO MAKE GLITTER SLIME:

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

STEP 2: Now’s the time to add the glitter. You can never add too much glitter! Mix into the glue and water mixture.

GLITTER SLIME TIP: We like to use a mix of fine, tinsel, regular, and chunky glitter for a super glitter effect. You can easily add an ounce jar of glitter or more to slime. Hint, we stock up at the dollar store when we can.

Additionally, you can choose to use food coloring that coordinates with your glitter.  This one here we did not use any coloring and the glitter is intense!  If you choose to use food coloring, I would limit it to a drop or two.  You don’t want the slime to end up looking too dark.

how to make glitter slime

Below you can see three different shades of pink/purple glitter that we added to our glue and water mixture.

STEP 3: Stir in 1/4- 1/2 tsp baking soda.

Baking soda helps to firm and form the slime. You can play around with how much you add but we prefer between 1/4 and 1/2 tsp per batch.

I get asked all the time why do you need baking soda for slime. Baking soda helps to improve the firmness of the slime. You can experiment with your own ratios!

STEP 4: Mix in 1 tbsp saline solution and stir until slime forms and pulls away from sides of the bowl.   This is exactly how much you will need with the Target Sensitive Eyes brand, but other brands may differ slightly!

If your slime still feels too sticky, you may need a few more drops of saline solution. As I mentioned above, start by squirting a few drops of the solution onto your hands and kneading your slime longer. You can always add but you can’t take away.  Saline solution is preferred over contact solution.

glitter slime that is fun to play with

STEP 5:  Start kneading your slime! It will appear stringy at first but just work it around with your hands and you will notice the consistency changes. You can also put it in a clean container and set it aside for 3 minutes, and you will also notice the change in consistency! 

Don’t worry if your slime making gets a little messy, check out 3 ways to get slime out of clothing.

glitter slime

How To Store Slime

Once you learn how to make glitter slime or any slime in general, you want to keep it stored properly with a good seal, so it keeps as much as stretch as possible!

Slime lasts quite a while!  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.

If you want to send kids home with a bit of slime from a camp, party, or classroom project, I would suggest packages of reusable containers from the dollar store or grocery store or even Amazon. For large groups we have used condiment containers as seen here.

storing glitter slime

MORE FUN SLIME RECIPES TO TRY

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