How To Make Slime Stretchy Again

Stretchy slime is the goal all slime making little scientists have. The more it stretches, the softer it is, and the more popping sounds it makes, the better your slime concoction turned out. Sometimes though with time the slime dries out or we get the Slime Recipe wrong when trying to make slime less sticky, but don’t stress. You can learn how to make slime stretchy to bring back its luster, stretch, and fun.

Not sure how to make slime? Then check out my post on how to make slime without borax.

How to make slime stretchy again

Just add a little bit of this and a little bit of that, and we have a gorgeous and fun to play with substance called Slime.  If you haven’t already made slime yet, check out my post on How To Make Slime. (If you don’t have glue, don’t worry, you can learn How To Make Slime Without Glue too!)

My kid’s make slime all the time, it’s their favorite daily pass time. Apparently, it’s good for their mental health!

After spending all that time making slime and leaving it in a covered container, sometimes it loses that stretchy feeling. This simple slime fix is super easy and works like a charm. It will teach you how to make slime stretchy and soft too. Read on to see how to make slime more stretchy.

We recently made slime and while we were creating this recipe the slime was PERFECT. It had the right amount of stretch to it without being too sticky. But then, after a few days we took it out of the container and it wasn’t stretchy anymore.

Every time we tried to stretch it, it broke. It didn’t resemble slime. Previously, when this would happen… I would throw the slime away.

But then, I discovered that there are two pretty simple and cool tricks that you can use to make it stretchy again. I was blown away by the simplicity of how to make slime stretchy.

How to make slime stretchy

• Make sure your activator is properly mixed together before adding it in. If you are using a mix of Borax and water, sometimes the Borax powder sinks to the bottom, so you are adding more water to your slime instead of Borax. Give your activator a little bit of a shake to make sure it’s all mixed together.
• Add in your activator slowly. Sometime’s it just takes a little bit for the activator to start working so if you rush this part of the process your slime will get harder and rubbery faster.
• Keep slime in a closed container.
• Use lotion to make your slime less rubbery and if you’ve added too much activator.
• You can add a bit of hot water to also make it softer and stretchier.

Turn that slime fail into a slime success!

There are 2 ways to make slime stretchy again.

1. Use lotion to make slime stretchy

If you were wondering how to make slime less hard, fix rubbery slime, or if you need to make your slime less sticky, lotion is the easiest answer! You can use this fix on store bought slime too!

Just add a squirt of lotion on your slime and knead it in. If you want to make your slime more stretchy, add more lotion until you get the consistency you want.

Add in a squirt of lotion.. mix and knead with your hands. Then add some more lotion and repeat. Keep doing this until it has the right amount of stretch for you. This is what I ended up with.

This method also worked with our fluffy slime recipe and butter slime recipe.

How to make slime stretchy without lotion

Don’t have lotion? Then here’s a method with something you definitely have at home, hot water!

Method 2: Put your slime in hot water to make it stretchy

In this method I took the slime and brushed it quickly against the hot water running in the tap. Do not use boiling hot water.

I would quickly place the clear slime or fluffy slime under the tap, remove it and mix. I repeated this about 6 or 7 times and then ended up with the slime you see below. It had a good amount of stretch to it

Alternatively, you can add some hot (still touchable) to a bowl. Add in your slime for a few seconds (10-15.) Then take it out. Once you take it out and it’s not too hot for your hands begin to knead it.

One of my kids favorite slime recipes is the clear slime recipe. They love looking through the clear slime. These techniques will also show you how to make clear slime stretchy too.

Experiment with it. Definitely do not throw it away. I hope you learned how to make your slime stretchy and that you give these suggestions a try.

Do you know of any other tricks on how to make slime stretchy again? Please share it in the comments below.

This post was originally published on February 2, 2018. It was updated on December 24, 2021.