I’ve had the chance to experience a lot of new things as a mom. Kinetic Sand is one of those things! I wish I had something this cool to play with as a kid! Now that the kids are older, they are curious about everything, so I have found myself answering questions like, “What is Kinetic Sand? Which kind is better?”
We’ve always used the one and only Kinetic Sand in our home and I’m excited to have the chance to partner with Spin Master to learn more about Kinetic Sand and put it to the test!
If you’ve wondered how Kinetic Sand stacks up against some of the other products you can get, check out our Kinetic Sand Throwdown and see how everything ranked!
What is Kinetic Sand?
If you’re not familiar with Kinetic Sand, you might feel a little stuck when your kids throw out that question.
“Mom! What is Kinetic Sand?” and then you have to be prepared for this one, “Can we get some? NOW?”
Once your kids discover Kinetic Sand, they’re probably be hooked. I know my kids are huge fans.
So what is Kinetic Sand?
It’s sand. But better.
The Kinetic Sand ingredients include two things: 98% sand and 2% magic! You can pull it, shape it, mold it and get as creative as you want with your sand creations. You can even make sand castles without going to the beach. Maybe there’s not actual magic in there but it sure seems like it! (It’s actually 2% polymer but it’s always 100% fun!)
Kinetic Sand from Spin Master is made with 100% natural sand. If your kids like to play with hands-on products like Kinetic Sand, you can feel good about letting them play because it’s also safe for kids with allergies to gluten, casein, or wheat to play with! It’s free of all of them!
The cleanup factor is also amazing, but we’ll get to that in a little bit! But trust me, if you’ve ever moaned and groaned after having to clean up other sensory products, you’ll know exactly what I’m talking about!
It’s our family’s brand of choice because there really is only one Kinetic Sand. But we don’t just want to tell you that. We wanted to show you too.
Enter our Kinetic Sand Throwdown.
Kinetic Sand Throwdown
My kids are always pointing out similar products to Kinetic Sand so I started wondering how they might stack up. I’ve always been happy with the Kinetic Sand box sets we’ve gotten for the kids in the past. They come in great themes that hold their attention and keep them busy!
But I couldn’t stop thinking about whether or not we were actually using the best product. Just because it’s your favorite doesn’t mean it’s the best. Now that the kids are older, I knew we could set up a little friendly competition.
My kids won’t ever turn down the chance to get their hands into things like Kinetic Sand, moon dough, playdough, and slime. They were more than happy to take on the challenge!
Kinetic Sand Throwdown Contenders
For our comparison throwdown, we picked up Spin Master Kinetic Sand and some of the competitor products. Our contenders in this throwdown include:
- Kinetic Sand
- Brookstone Sand
- National Geographic Ultimate Play Sand
- Play-Doh
- GAK
These are not the only products you can find that are similar but we had to limit ourselves just a bit. Of course, once we started this project I found myself wanting to buy every sand kit we saw to test them out!
Play-Doh and GAK are not sand products but they’re some common sensory products that kids love so we decided to put them to the test too!
For each product we focused on a few features while we tested them out:
- sensory experience
- squish factor
- moldability
- mess factor
- creativity factor
- age appropriate rating
We devised a few tests to put every product in the throwdown through including:
- Feel It – For this one, we just explored how the product felt for a sensory experience. Textures and “drip factor” (as my kids labeled it) were two very important features I found us focusing on.
- Build It – Being able to build and mold things with Kinetic Sand is one of the most important features so we held some friendly competitions to see which product could hold the best volcano or mountain shape.
- Cut It – Weston insisted on exploring how each one could be cut and shaped. Carrigan loves to pretend she’s baking and cooking when she’s playing with Kinetic Sand so this is also an important factor during play time in our house.
- Clean It Up – Kinetic Sand is one thing the kids never really argue about helping clean up. I had to wonder if all products were created equal when it came to clean up. For mom, this is one of the most important tests! I want clean up to be quick and easy!
In each round, the kids explored the products and then ranked them from favorite to least favorite by giving them points. First place got 6 points, second place received 5 points, and so on with last place receiving 1 point.
At the end of the Kinetic Sand throwdown we tallied the points to get our winner! Check out what happened!
ROUND 1: Feel It Test
For the first round, we dumped the products out and explored the texture. Some were softer than others. Some felt more like sand. The GAK was stickier and stretchier than the others.
Our favorites were the Kinetic Sand and GAK. The Kinetic Sand felt the most like real sand to the kids and it had great “drip factor” which means the kids loved the way they could squish it and let it drop from their hands.
The kids just loved the GAK because it was completely different than everything else. They compared it to slime.
The rankings came in:
- 1st – Kinetic Sand – 5 points
- 2nd – GAK – 4 points
- 3rd – Brookstone Sand – 3 points
- 4th – Play-Doh – 2 points
- 5th – National Geographic Ultimate Play Sand – 1 points
ROUND 2: Build It Test
Our next test was our build it test! We used each product to build a volcano shape (Carrigan pointed out later that the could be mountains too) to see what held up the best! Moldability a huge factor when it comes to the kids being able to be as creative as they want. If they can’t build and sculpt the sand and have it keep its shape, the fun fades quickly.
Our favorites for building, molding, and sculpting were the Kinetic Sand and Play-Doh. The kids felt that they could build taller with the Kinetic Sand than the Play-Doh so it took the top spot.
The two products that were the worst for building and sculpting were the National Geographic Ultimate Play Sand and the GAK. The National Geographic Ultimate Play Sand barely held shape and it was impossible to build anything with the GAK.
The rankings for building and sculpting:
- 1st – Kinetic Sand – 5 points
- 2nd – Play-Doh – 4 points
- 3rd – Brookstone Sand – 3 points
- 4th – National Geographic Ultimate Play Sand – 2 points
- 5th – GAK – 1 points
ROUND 3: Cut It Test
Weston is the one who suggested we add the cut it test. He’s seen it in a lot of slime videos. I think how the product can be cut into shapes with cookie cutters and then with tools reflects on the mess factor. Some fall apart when you start to cut while others resist being cut at all.
For the kids to really let their imaginations fly, being able to use different tools is important!
We felt like two products were superior to the others in this test. The Kinetic Sand and the Brookstone Sand were the best. We could cut them into different shapes and they held shape well. When the kids used the tools to cut the shapes, both sands cut well without falling apart completely.
Play-Doh cut well but was sticky feeling on the knife. The National Geographic Ultimate Play Sand cut well but then started to lose shape as grains fell off. Sands Alive didn’t cut through all the way because of the super squishy texture.
Then there was the GAK… major fail.
We had a tie in this round!
- 1st – Kinetic Sand & Brookstone Sand – 5 points
- 3rd – Play-Doh – 3 points
- 4th – National Geographic Ultimate Play Sand – 2 points
- 5th – GAK – 1 points
ROUND 4: Clean It Up Test
The final test is the one that was the most important to me! My kids love arts and crafts but they don’t always want to help clean up. Plus, getting creative can be so messy!
I’m a huge fan of anything for kids that is easy to clean up! I’m used to cleaning up the Kinetic Sand and love that it’s squishy and soft without being sticky. It sticks to itself but not to the kids or the table so it’s easy to clean up and put away.
Of the two non-sand products, GAK was so easy to clean up. It doesn’t have any sand grains so it just all stuck together. The Play-Doh is also pretty easy to clean up but leaves a bit of a residue on the table.
With the sand products, there was a weakness. The National Geographic Ultimate Play Sand was a challenge to get cleaned up. It’s very grainy and doesn’t hold shape as well as the other sands so we couldn’t just squish it all back together and put it in the bowl.
In the photo, you can see how it didn’t stick to itself well. This is what made it hard to get it all back into the bowl.
It also stuck to the kids’ hands.
The Kinetic Sand was the easiest to clean up of the all the sands. It squishes back together without leaving a bunch of sand scattered about. It doesn’t stick to the table or our hands. The Sands Alive sand was easy to clean up too.
The Brookstone Sand cleaned up well but left behind some reddish-pink coloring on the table that we had to clean up.
The cleanup rankings:
- 1st – Kinetic Sand & GAK – 5 points
- 3rd – Brookstone Sand – 3 points
- 4th – Play-Doh – 2 points
- 5th – National Geographic Ultimate Play Sand – 1 points
Best Play Sand for Kids
Final scores:
- 1st – Kinetic Sand – 20 points
- 2nd – Brookstone Sand – 14 points
- 3rd – Play-Doh & GAK – 11 points
- 5th – National Geographic Ultimate Play Sand – 6 points
I wasn’t surprised to find that our Kinetic Sand was the brand to come out on top. It met the wants and needs of my kids while also getting mom approval!
I love that both of my kids can play with Kinetic Sand together. They spend a lot of time being creative together and I rarely hear any arguments when they’ve got the Kinetic Sand out!
There is definitely only one Kinetic Sand!
Kinetic Sand is available at Target so it’s convenient! Be sure to stock up on some today! Summer will be over soon and it’s perfect for rainy days!
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Kiara says
I used to have moon sand and it was a good stim toy