Don't do it
Written: Jul 28 '07
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Pros: Not a one
Cons: Sticky, nasty, smelly, unworkable, doesn't wash off, ruins clothes and hair
The Bottom Line: Don't go near this stuff. It's a mess and the kids hated it.
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| restaurantmom's Full Review: Floam |
Luckily, we didn't fall for the television advertisements for the multiple-tub kits of Floam with all the accessories (and the shipping and handling fees.) On an impulse, we grabbed a single tub for my 4 and a half year old on the clearance shelf at the supermarket, so the expenditure for this adventure was only $3. Maybe it was defective. Maybe not.
We opened the tub and there was this sticky goo with lime green Styrofoam beads, the kind you hope never escape from the cheap stuffed animals kids win at carnivals. The package said you have to mix the product thoroughly before use, so I reached in a hand in (big mistake) and grabbed as much of it as I could get out of the little deli container and tried to knead it like bread dough. It stuck to my hands like mucilage, with big snotty strings stretching from finger to finger. With both hands thoroughly coated in impenetrable goo, I tried to grab the foldout instruction sheet. It said that sculpting tools might be useful, so once I got the pamphlet unstuck from my fingers, I went in the kitchen and grabbed a pastry scraper, a spoon, a rubber spatula and some unidentified widget left over from a dinosaur excavating toy. In the process, I got gluey goo on three drawer handles, and 24 hours later I'm still trying to get it off. (Hot water, Windex, soap, a scrub brush - nothing dissolves this stuff.) I used the pastry scraper to try to get it off my hands and kneaded it back and forth on the table with the pastry knife and made a sort of turd-like tube. It didn't stick to the table, but it did stick to the metal pastry scraper, as well as the rubber spatula I tried to use to get it off the scraper. Figuring it was mixed now, I used my hands to pull it off the pastry scraper, and it pulled apart in a big gooey mess, getting stuck all over my hands.
I assumed it stuck to my hands because I had "un-mixed" Floam on there already, so I went to wash my hands in the kitchen. Hot water, dish soap, a scrub brush (which I have since thrown away because I couldn't get the Floam out of it) NOTHING would get this stuff off my hands. I grabbed a kitchen towel and that got glued on too. (Had to throw it away later.) Paper towels - don't even go there. I had admonished my son to wait until I washed my hands to touch the stuff, but he was impatient and dove in as soon as my back was turned. He was shirtless, but unfortunately, his 18 month old sister had on fresh pajamas after her bath and climbed up on the table to join in. It got stuck to her pajamas from neck to ankles, in her hair, in her eyebrows. My son tried to grab the stuff from his sister, and they got glued together. My son got upset and started to cry when he couldn't get his fingers separated. I grabbed my daughter, and took her to the bathroom, peeled off the pajamas (which I have since had to throw away) and began to scrub her with soap, hot water and a scrub brush (which I have since had to throw away.) She began to howl, but I couldn't get the stuff off. I grabbed a bottle of mineral oil, and that seemed to break the stuff up a little better, although I still haven't gotten it all out her hair. Meanwhile, my son was still crying because his hands were now glued to some cloth dinner napkins that he had grabbed to try to wipe the sticky off his hands. I grabbed him and scrubbed him, but it was difficult because there was Floam all over my dress (which I have since had to throw away) and it kept resticking itself to my son's bare backside. I went back into the dining room to try to scrape the stuff back into the container and scrub the table clean. I put all the damaged clothing into the washer (big mistake) and put the kids into fresh pajamas.
When his Dad got home from work, my son announced: "Mommy got me Floam and it's sticky and nasty and gooey and doesn't do anything. We need to throw it away and never bring anything like it into this house again!"
This morning, when I took the clothes out of the washer, I noticed Floam beads hardened and glued to two dinner napkins, the baby's pajamas, a kitchen hand towel, two bath hand towels, my dress and the inside of the washer barrel. The baby has a few beads inexplicably stuck to the back of her clean pajamas, which won't pull or scrape off. The hairs on my left arm are dotted with lime green crust which can only be removed by pulling the hairs out, and my engagement ring has Floam impacted inside the diamond setting, which I have been unable to pick out with a sewing needle. I also can't get some hardened remnants out the strainer plug to the kitchen sink.
Recommended:
No
Amount Paid (US$): 3
Type of Toy: Arts and Crafts
Age Range of Child: 3 to 5 Years
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Epinions.com ID:
restaurantmom
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Reviews written: 2
Trusted by: 0 members
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