Cool Create Sparkle Activity Kit review

When Cool Create offered to send us their Sparkle Activity Kit to review, I had a look at the product description and noticed that it promised hours of entertainment. I still wasn't quite prepared for just how many goodies are inside though ! There are over 600 items, including 500 temporary tattoos and lots of colouring activities.

The kit targets girls aged 4+ but all three of the Madhouse kids - so that's two girls aged 10 and 14 and a 6-year-old boy - enthusiastically looked through the contents to see what they wanted.

In the end, I split everything three ways and they still got loads each - a complete sheet of tattoos and a selection of colouring and painting supports.

I was surprised to see all three of them sat at the table, happily occupied while I was busy in the kitchen - for that alone, it's priceless ! Definitely a boredom-buster, sanity-saver and peace-restorer during a wet weekend or the school holidays !

The Glitter Colour-Up posters are great fun - they are on thick card with thick contour lines so it's almost impossible to go over the edges and parts of the background are already coloured in. 

This means that they produce really vibrant, beautiful designs - even better, they are useful and decorative because they can be used as door hangers, book marks or postcards that could be framed on a bedroom wall.

Pierre was very excited about trying the Magic Paint Sheets, which have a palette of watercolour paints embedded at the bottom of each picture. You just have to use a wet paintbrush to activate the paint and use it to complete your design.

They're great in theory but, as is often the case with magic painting books, the colours are quite wishy-washy so Pierre added more water and then the paper got so wet, it almost ripped. It's a mess-free alternative to regular painting but you don't really get the same results.

So, what's next ? Ah yes, the glitter tattoos !

These were a huge hit and, although there are lots of "girlie" designs like hearts, flowers, butterflies and unicorns, there are also lots more unisex ones, such as animals and rainbows. 

A few of them didn't work, falling apart when we peeled off the backing, but most of them adhered perfectly and they are actually pretty resistant, surviving for several days, even after bathtime. I particularly loved the jewellery tattoos which were a bit different and great fun, offering ring, bracelet, earring and nail tattoo designs.

In total, the bumper kit contains 4 large sheets of glitter tattoos (500+ tattoos), 10 magic painting posters, 1 sheet of glitter stickers and 10 colourups, as well as 8 felt-tips and a little paintbrush. That's plenty to keep three kids occupied, let alone one ! This would actually be a great kit for keeping everyone busy at a kids' birthday party too.

star rating : 4.5/5

RRP : £19.99

Disclosure : We received the product in order to write an honest review.