I’m a little strange, but I love the smell of shaving cream. I’m talking about that beautiful white foam that sprays from a can. Seriously. They could make that into a cologne, and I’d readily buy it for my husband (since he can’t actually use it to shave).
So when I thought up this activity and it involved using the Barbasol shaving cream, I was super excited. Not only was my child going to get to learn some cool information about colors, but I knew that I would get the lingering smell of that shaving cream.
Unfortunately, the smell of the shaving cream is besides the point.
This is a fantastic activity to keep little hands busy while you do things like cook dinner, wash dishes, or fold laundry. It’s even baby safe! It teaches how the primary colors combine to create the secondary colors. It’s quick to put together and will last at least a night depending on how quickly your kiddos smush and move the shaving cream around.
Materials Needed:
- 3 Gallon-Size Ziploc bags (Make sure it’s the kind with the zipper-slide closure)
- Barbasol Shaving Cream
- Red, Yellow, and Blue Food Coloring
That’s literally it. Three simple supplies.
Set Up:
- Open two of the food colorings and the shaving cream and have them prepped to use. You’ll quickly only have one hand, so it’s easier to open these first.
- Open one Ziploc bag. Scrunch up the middle bottom so that it angles down to the corners. This will create a little mountain to keep the food coloring on each of its sides so that it doesn’t combine before you’re ready.
- Put about 40-50 drops of 2 colors of the food coloring in each of the corners (for example, red in one corner and yellow in the other corner). Keep the bag upright so that the colors don’t run.
- Spray some shaving cream into each of the corners first, making sure to cover the food coloring completely. You can use your hand to smush the shaving cream down into the food coloring.
- Spray a little more shaving cream in the middle until the bag is ¼-⅓ full with shaving cream. You don’t need to fill the bag too full or you won’t be able to have room to move the shaving cream around.
- Try and remove as much air as possible (without squishing out the shaving cream) and zip the bag closed.
- If you are worried about the bags opening, you can use packing tape to cover the zipper to ensure it will not open.
Once these are all set up, let your kiddos start squishing and smushing and combining the colors! The colors will start out separated, but as they squish the shaving cream around, the colors will combine into a tie-dye effect secondary color.
I personally love how the blue and yellow turn into green the best, but the red and yellow is pretty cool, too. Admittedly, the purple isn’t quite as purple as one would hope, but it accomplishes the task.
Once the colors are combined, the kids can draw faces and even practice writing their letters and numbers in the shaving cream!
Have fun and happy squishing!