The Quick and Easy Guide to Sensory Bottles
After the fun, but messy, sensory bin involving sand and water, I wanted to slow things down a bit in terms of daily cleaning. I had been itching to try out sensory bottles for awhile now and with July 4th coming up, I could have an excuse to make not one, but three!
We had some old VOSS bottles lying around in wait for this project. We don’t drink VOSS, but I really liked the bottle shape so I had picked several up awhile back. They were clean and sanitized and definitely taking up space. If you have toddlers, I highly advise you to use VOSS, as their flat tops and bottoms make it easier for them to handle. Also, we ended up going with plastic, as glass would be too heavy for her little hands at this point (especially if they were full to the brim with water).
If you do any research on sensory bottles you’ll see that there are several different bottle bases you can use. I was torn between hand sanitizer, hand soap, and unflavored gelatin. I ended up ruling out hand sanitizer because several bloggers mentioned that it would strip color off confetti (a primary ingredient for my bottles) and create a cloudy mess with the stripped color. My husband was campaigning hard for gelatin (ulterior motives, I think). However, I did not want to use food in these sensory bottles on the off chance that Vicky managed to get one of them open. Eventually hand soap won out and we were off to Wal-Mart and the Dollar Store to buy it in bulk. We also picked up some clearance glitter and assorted sequins and some vinyl sticky stars. I stuck the sticky stars back to back so they would float around and not get stuck anywhere.
Side note, the bonus of using hand soap is that when you’re done with the sensory bottles, just let them sit for a bit and you can actually use the hand soap, sans the bottle ingredients. No waste!
When I got home, I set to work putting together the perfect mixture. I wanted to have my objects move around, but not so fast that Vicky couldn’t really focus on the details. I wanted something a bit slower than a snow globe but faster than a lava lamp. Can you tell I’ve been contemplating this for awhile?
I ended up only filling up about a tenth of the bottle with water. Then I added my ingredients. In this case, it was Dollar Store confetti, vinyl stars, glitter, and other odds and ends. If I was using food dye for this particular bottle, I added it at this point, before adding the food dye. Then I filled the rest of the bottle with hand soap. And I do mean fill. These bottles work best when there is as little air as possible.
Then I shook it. Like a saltshaker. Like a Polaroid picture. You know what to doooo.
You will get some bubbles, but they will disappear after a bit. Test out the viscosity (how thick the liquid is) and add or remove water until you get it how you prefer. Remember, more water means faster movement. More soap will make it slower. I actually ended up with three bottles that moved at three different speeds.
After I decided that the bottles were good to go, I had my husband super glue the tops to the bottles. If Vicky manages to get them open, there’s a special school run by a man named Professor Xavier that I would like to enroll her in…
Here is our finished product! Try it out and let me know how it goes! Happy Independence Day, y’all!
