Look at those happy faces. I've just spent an hour with each of the girls having one on one time and they just thrive on it. We were sent the Science4You Perfume Factory set to review and it has created not only a great learning opportunity for the girls but also a wonderful time for us to chat and enjoy each others company. We have talked about the science of how each of their perfume and beauty products have been made but also what it means to be a woman and how and if we have to use products to beautify ourselves. It has been so good for them to see for themselves that too much scent in a product is over powering and off-putting and we've discussed that make-up is down to personal choice and not a necessity for youthful skin.
Below is the set we received, it came in a nice large (sturdy) box and retails at £19.99. I was impressed with the amount of items we received in the kit as other kits we have had like this before have been a bit skimpy and we have constantly been washing a pipette or such. You can definitely tell this is a premium product and the girls liked the fact they had two different cosmetic colourings (pink and blue) and three fragrances (vanilla, lemon and peach) wthin the set.
To undertake all 13 of the experiments outlined in the book you need a few additional items, like salt, olive oil, flour and herbs but these are all stock-cupboard items and should not cause an issue and to be honest if you do not have something you can just give that experiment a miss, there is still plenty to do.
Miss E has been bugging me for over a week since this set arrived and she was desperate to get her hands on it, so she had the first go and we set about making perfume, scented bath salts and a fizzy bath bomb. She was not disappointed, she had a wonderful time and is already asking when we can do it again.
The 36 page educational booklet that comes with the set delves into the basic concepts of science and how it applies to our everyday lives. It is very easy to understand and the instructions are clear. As my girls are just 8 I felt I needed to be with them to supervise as they were using things like citric acid in the experiments but give it a year or two and they easily could have done this themselves with me just in the room but not being too involved.
Nothing was too complex and Miss E could do everything herself, well except open the bottles that all had childproof locks and she didn't quite have the strength for them but that was no issue. Practising with the pipette to make sure she could get tiny droplets out was her first task and then brewing her tea which would act as her perfume base. She choose the apple and cinnamon tea but wanted to add extra cinnamon as she likes the smell but this made our liquid quite thick and this then meant we had to be very patient when the fermented liquid was passing through a filter in the funnel through to the test tube.
Your child either needs to be very patient for parts of this, like whilst the tea brews or filters, or like us start on another experiment whilst you let that happen. One thing to note is that the test tube stand is made from folded cardboard and ours fell over a number of times which was a little frustrating. I think it might have been down to the plastic covering we had on the table but a more sturdy plastic stand would have been better, this is my only feedback for future improvement of this set though.
I was so pleased to see that we had plenty of measuring and mixing cups and also enough pipettes for all the different scents and colourings we had in the pack as it is frustrating when you are trying to do experiments like this and have to keep jumping up to wash things out.
Making the scented bath salts was super easy with just some measuring and mixing but both my girls seemed quite happy with that and we choose to use latex cupcake cases to store the bath salts and bath bombs in, they have plans for some major bathing fun and games tonight I'm told! The joys of having a twin to share bath time fun with, hey?
Lastly Miss E and I made a bath bomb together and this time we mixed the pink and blue cosmetic colourings to make purple and again this was very easy to make. Miss E made her bath bomb into a heart shape using a cookie cutter but sadly it expanded once it was in the cupcake cake and become a circle but as I said to her, it didn't really matter as it would be fizzing up in the bath tomorrow, once it has set for 24 hours.
Miss M has less patience than Miss E and decided that the perfume sounded as if it would take too long for her, so she also made a bath bomb and some bath salts as well as scented massage oil, which again was just measuring and mixing. Straight afterwards the girls headed upstairs for what they call a 'moosage' and had a fun half hour playing beauty parlours. I just had to make sure there was a dark towel on the bed so we didn't get any oil spillages!
In all my girls really enjoyed this set and we have enough products for more experiments another day, so I am happy with the expeience and value for money the perfume factory offered.
This Science4You set is just one of their large range, so why don't you check out what is on offer and pick something up for your son or daughter to help support their science learning in either KS1 or KS2. My son likes the look of the Chemistry 1000 set. The whole range is available to buy on Amazon.
Disclosure: I have not been instructed what to write and I remain honest. This is a Netmum's sponsored review. To find out more click the button:
