There are many ways to make snow at home using baking soda but don’t worry if you run out of baking soda! You can still make awesome, fluffy snow without baking soda. Let’s hearn how to make instant snow without baking soda.
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I love playing in the snow any chance that I get, and I love discovering new ways to make snow on those days that mother nature doesn’t cooperate.
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3 Easy Ways How to Make Instant Snow Without Baking Soda
1st Method: How to Make Instant Snow With Shaving Cream and Corn Starch
Supplies Needed:
- Shaving Cream
- Corn Starch
- Mixing Bowl
- Large Baking Sheet (Optional for playing with snow)
Steps:
- Put some corn starch in you freezer the night before or at least a couple hours before making your snow if you want it to feel cold!
- Pour about 8 ounces of corn starch into a bowl or on a baking sheet.
- Add about half of a 10 ounce can of shaving cream and mix the corn starch and shaving cream together (use a spoon to do the initial mixing if you don’t want messy hands).
- You can add more or less shaving cream to corn starch ratio depending on the texture of snow you want. The more shaving cream you add, the better the snow will pack into snowballs!
Test Results:
- Cold Test: The shaving cream and corn starch method did feel pretty cold at first thanks to the corn starch being in the freezer beforehand. After playing with the snow for awhile it warmed up quickly but still kept its wonderful snow-like texture.
- Packing Test: You can definitely make a nice snowball with this shaving cream and corn starch method, but a snowman becomes a little more difficult!
- Texture Test: I have to admit the texture of this snow is probably my favorite out of the ones we test in this blog! Not necessarily because it feels the most like real snow, but it just feels so cool in your fingers. It’s like the perfect consistency of fluffy snow, yet also packs for a good snowball. I guess you just need to make it and try it for yourself!
- Clean-up Test: The messiest part of this shaving cream and corn starch method was that I decided to use my hands instead of a spoon to mix the ingredients in the beginning and everything stuck to my hands! Then I got smart and used a spoon to mix and then played with the snow after it was mixed and my hands stayed much cleaner and it was super easy to wipe up any spilled snow too!
2nd Method: How to Make Instant Snow With Salt and Water
Supplies Needed:
- Salt
- Water
- Mixing Bowl
- Large Baking Sheet (Optional for playing with snow)
Steps:
- Pour about 15 ounces of iodized salt into a mixing bowl.
- Add a very small amount of cold water. Begin with a teaspoon amount and stir the snow and water with a fork. If you need more water just be careful not to add too much. Since salt dissolves in water, if you add too much water then your snow will just be a melted puddle of salt water!
- Keep stirring with a fork to fluff up your salty snow mixture. When it gets to a fluffy texture then you are ready to enjoy your snow!
Test Results:
- Cold Test: The salt and water instant snow method is the winner in the cold test department! As long as you use very cold water, then the temperature of your snow should feel very realistic!
- Packing Test: The packing test for this salt and water faux snow was surprisingly pretty good as long as you add in enough water. We were able to make a snowball and even a snowman after adding more water.
- Texture Test: Depending on how much water you add, this salt and water snow actually makes for a great powdery texture for snow if you use very little water. It looks the most realistic and if you were wanting to use it for decorating purposes then this would be your method to stick with. Although it can also be good for packing when you add extra water, you do want to use caution if you have dry or cracked hands when playing with this snow. The salt will sting if it gets in any cuts or cracks in your hands. Trust me I learned this from experience!
- Clean-up Test: Because salt dissolves into water, this snow is very easy to clean up by wiping any spills up with a wet rag and rising the bowl out with water.
3rd Method: How to Make Instant Snow With a Diaper
Supplies Needed:
- Diapers
- Scissors
- Water
- Mixing Bowl
- Large Baking Sheet (Optional for playing with snow)
Steps:
- Use scissors to cut the bottom seam of a (clean) diaper out.
- Carefully pull out the cotton padding in the diaper and shake out the tiny little polymer beads that are inside the diaper and put them into a bowl. If you want to make lots of snow, you can repeat this step with a few diapers.
- Slowly add a little cold water to your bowl of magic diaper beads and watch in amazement as the beads absorb the water as it turns into nice and fluffy snow! You may want to stir the water into the beads with a fork to help speed up the process.
- When you are done playing with your diaper snow, you can dry it out and then use it again by adding water next time!
- Caution: Whether you decide to keep your diaper snow to reuse it or throw it away, do not put it down your sink! It can clog your drain!
Test Results:
- Cold Test: Feels nice and cool to the touch but it is certainly not the coldest of our three methods of snow. If you are going for that arctic feel then you might want to stick with the water and salt instant snow method.
- Packing Test: This snow is nice and lightweight and super fluffy, but it is not any good for packing into snowballs or snowmen.
- Texture Test: The diaper snow method ranks right near the top as far as texture goes! It makes the type of snow that you see in movies gently floating through the sky and is very light and fluffy. This would also be great snow to use for decorating. The best part is that when it dries out and shrink you just need to mist it with a little water and it fluffs right back up time and time again!
- Clean-up Test: The clean-up test is where this diaper and water snow method fails. The sticky properties of the polymer beads that make all the magic happen also like to stick to countertops and basically anything else when they are wet. The best way to clean this snow up is to let it dry out overnight and wipe it off the counters and sweep it off the floors the next morning.
Test Results Comparison:
Coldness:
The instant snow with salt and water (method 2) takes home the trophy for the coldest temperature of snow. The corn starch and shaving cream (method 1) is a very close runner up in the coldness test, but it did not seem to stay cold for as long.
Packing:
The shaving cream and corn starch (method 1) was by far the best instant snow without baking soda in the packing category. The consistency of the shaving cream and corn starch make this snow perfect for packing snowballs, but it was a little too crumbly to stack those snowballs into a snowman.
Texture:
This is the toughest category to rank the different methods that we tried because they all had a great snow-like texture in some form or another. When push comes to shove though I would have to say the shaving cream and corn starch (method 1) takes the top texture award! I just love how light and fluffy it is and yet you can still make a perfect snowball too!
Clean-up:
The easiest snow to clean-up is the water and salt snow (method 2). Since the salt will dissolve if you add too much water, the clean-up process becomes very easy to rinse all the snow off with water and wipe it off with a wet rag.
The Best Instant Snow Recipe Without Baking Soda:
After playing around and making winter wonderlands with all these different types of snow, it’s time to decide which one is the very best in the overall category. My vote for the best instant snow recipe without baking soda is Method 1: How to make instant snow with shaving cream and corn starch.
To me, having snow that is great for packing into a snowball wins big points and that is exactly what the shaving cream and corn starch snow did best! I mean what fun is it to have snow if you can’t even make snowballs for a snowball fight right!? The downside is that it does not pack well enough to make a snowman though.
And even those of you that love the fresh power type of snow are in luck with the shaving cream and corn starch method too because the amazing texture of this snow is both powdery and packable too!
Although the shaving cream and corn starch snow did not quite win the coldness contest or clean-up test, it came as a close runner up in both areas. The overall texture and ability to play with this snow for hours wins my vote for the best way how to make instant snow without baking soda!
So it’s time to grab your shaving cream and corn starch and turn your kitchen into a winter wonderland of snow filled fun!
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