Clear Slime Recipe

Clear glue slime is a sticky and gooey substance that makes a great science experiment or a fun material for children to play with. Stretching, molding, and kneading clear glue slime improves a child’s fine motor skills and is perfect for sensory play.

Clear slime only requires a few simple ingredients, including clear glue, borax, and water. When making clear slime without borax use clear glue, baking soda, water, and contact lens solution.

Clear Slime Ingredients and Supplies

For this clear slime recipe, use the following ingredients and supplies.

Ingredients

• ½ cup Elmer’s clear glue
• 1 ½ cups of warm water
• ½ teaspoon of borax

Supplies

• Measuring cup
• Large mixing bowl
• Measuring spoon
• Mixing spoon or craft sticks

This clear slime recipe was tested using Elmer’s clear glue. Substituting Elmer’s glue for another brand doesn’t guarantee the same texture and consistency as the clear slime.

In this recipe, clear slime is made using borax, which can be harmful to your health. Borax irritates skin and eyes and can hurt the throat and lungs if inhaled. Young kids and toddlers are particularly at risk from borax toxicity, as they may accidentally ingest the chemical from hand-to-mouth contact.

Be careful not to breathe in the powder when mixing. Watch kids while they’re playing with this clear slime to make sure they wash their hands before touching their mouths, eyes, or faces.

How to Make Clear Slime (Step-by-Step)

Here’s how to make a soft and stretchy clear glue slime:

1. Mix Clear Glue and Water

Measure ½ cup of Elmer’s clear glue into a large mixing bowl, and add ½ cup of hot water to the glue. Be sure not to use boiling water, as it’s too hot. Hot tap water works well. Use a mixing spoon or a craft stick to stir and combine the ingredients.

2. Mix Borax with Water

Add ½ teaspoon of borax into the remaining cup of hot water. Stir the ingredients together until the borax is dissolved in the water.

The borax powder and water serve as the slime activator, causing a chemical reaction that creates the slime. Stir for one more minute to ensure no particles are settling on the bottom or floating around the cup.

3. Pour Borax Water into the Glue Mixture

Add the borax solution (borax powder mixed with water) to the bowl with the glue and water mixture. Use a craft stick or a mixing spoon to combine everything. The ingredients will begin to form slime instantly.

As the slime starts to take form, there shouldn’t be any leftover water in the bowl.

4. Knead the Clear Slime

Using your hands, knead the clear slime for several minutes to improve its texture and consistency. Keep kneading the slime by hand in a mixing bowl or pick it up and continue kneading it on a tray.

5. Let the Slime Sit

To make a crystal-clear slime, pour the slime into a shallow, air-tight container and let it sit for two or three days. Most clear glue slimes don’t turn out crystal clear at first because tiny air bubbles form during the kneading process. But, as the slime sits for a few days, the bubbles disappear, creating a perfectly clear slime.

The clear glue slime stays clear only when it’s not kneaded or stretched. As soon as children start playing with the slime, the bubbles appear again.

Making Clear Slime Without Borax

Homemade clear slime can be made without borax, too. Although borax has been used in cleaning products for decades, it poses health risks, including digestive problems, and skin, eye, and respiratory irritation. Less than 5 grams of borax can be lethal for a child if ingested, so don’t leave children unattended with a box of borax.

To avoid health risks associated with borax, consider making clear slime without borax. Here’s an easy borax-free clear slime recipe:

Ingredients

• ½ cup Elmer’s clear glue
• ½ tablespoon baking soda
• ½ cup warm water
• 2 tablespoons contact lens solution

1. Mix Baking Soda with Water

In a medium-sized bowl, add ½ cup warm water and ½ tablespoon baking soda and mix. Keep stirring the ingredients until the baking soda dissolves in the water.

2. Add Glue to the Mixture

Add the clear glue into the water and baking soda mixture and slowly stir to combine all ingredients. Continue stirring slowly to create a bubble-free, crystal-clear slime mass.

3. Mix the Contact Lens Solution

Pour 2 tablespoons of contact lens solution into the bowl with other ingredients. Use a craft stick to gently mix all ingredients without creating bubbles. Continue stirring until the slime has a consistent texture. Unlike slime made with borax, this compound is sticky at this stage, so don’t knead the slime with your hands.

4. Pour Slime into a Lidded Container

Pour the slime into an air-tight plastic container and leave it for two to five days, or until all bubbles are gone. Keeping the slime in the container will allow air bubbles to rise to the surface and disappear, resulting in a perfectly clear slime.

After a couple of days, the slime shouldn’t stick to fingers when picked up. If the slime is still sticky, knead it for several minutes to create a compact mass that doesn’t stick to fingers.

Clear Slime Tips

These clear slime recipes create gooey, stretchy, and soft slime that molds and kneads easily. Here are some helpful tips to make playing with clear slime more fun and enjoyable for children.

Mix Fun Slime Add-Ins

Add glitter, confetti, pompoms, microbeads, or small toys to clear slime to make it more interesting. Tiny objects, including buttons, googly eyes, colorful beads, and toys less than ¾ inch in size, are fun add-ins to mix into the clear slime.

When using glitter, add it to the ingredients before the slime activator (borax and water solution) and mix it well. To create a fun and sparkly slime, add at least a quarter of a small vial of glitter to the slime.

Knead any other decorative add-ins into the slime after it’s already made, but before it’s transferred to an air-tight container and left to sit for a few days.

Use Craft Sticks and Old Bowls

Clear glue slime and glitter are challenging to clean off utensils and out of bowls. Using craft sticks instead of a mixing spoon makes the cleaning process easier. To mix slime ingredients, use a single bowl that will serve for craft projects and won’t be used for food.

Store Slime in Plastic Containers

Use air-tight plastic containers to store clear glue slime for up to three weeks. A single container works perfectly for keeping an entire batch of slime. Smaller plastic cups with lids can work just as well for storing smaller batches of differently colored slime.

Even a perfectly stored slime becomes sticky with time. To avoid a sticky texture, throw away clear glue slime after a few weeks and make a new batch.

Knead the Slime Before Setting It Aside

Clear glue slime is firmer than white glue slime, so adding too much slime activator creates a tough, rubbery mass. If the slime isn’t gooey enough, instead of adding more slime activator, knead the slime until it gets a gooey texture that no longer sticks to hands.

(Photography ©A Subtle Revelry by Ashlyn Savannah Photo).