By Charlotte Kuchinsky
for AsSeenOnTVCritic.com
Floam is one of those products that looks spectacular when you see the television infomercials, but doesn’t begin to live up to its hype. Luckily, I waited until the product hit the shelves of Wal-Mart before I purchased it for my grandson who had been begging for it for several months. Even then, the stuff was unbelievably expensive at $9.99 for a tiny tub in a single color. Of course, I purchased it anyway, knowing that it would put a smile on my grandson’s face. However, when I got it home and opened it up, I immediately wished I hadn't bothered.
First of all, Floam smells like toxic waste. It is disgusting to say the least. I quickly discovered that whatever chemicals are in the compound are capable of triggering a migraine within less than one-half hour. That made me want to rip the product out of my grandson’s eager hands for fear that the smell alone would do him harm. Although Floam claims it is safe for children age three and up, I have to wonder what kind of mother would allow her child to play with something that smelled so obviously chemical.
Then I touched the stuff. Floam feels like a combination of glue and slime. By that point, I was doing everything within my power to bribe the disgusting sticky goo out of my grandson’s hands. It took some time and a promise of several new packs of Play-Doh to convince him to turn loose of his new "treasure," but eventually I managed to do just that.
When I went to clean up the Floam from his craft table, I discovered that its colors definitely aren’t colorfast. It took more than hour of scrubbing and a half-dozen different types of cleaners just to get the color faded from everything it touched. Worse than that, those little microbeads that make up the Floam compound stick to anything and everything they touch, making them virtually impossible to get rid of immediately. Some I just had to let dry out before I could remove them from the surface of his table and chairs.
What is Floam?
According to the manufacturer, Floam is a micro-bead compound. Operating similarly to Play-Doh, Floam can be used to sculpt shapes and objects. But unlike its competitors, Floam can also be used to coat objects with a fine layer of microbeads. Once you are done, you can either leave it in place and let it dry to a nice hard surface or return it to its container to use another day. Floam claims that it is made to be used over and over again.
I personally would never compare this product to Play-Doh, because the latter is far superior. I tried to put a thin layer of Floam around an old ball to let it dry out. I wanted to see if the compound worked as claimed. But I couldn’t get the Floam to stick to the ball. It was too busy sticking to me. What little I was able to get on the ball did dry out overnight, as promised, but flaked right off without much effort.
How Long Will Floam Keep?
The company says if you keep Floam in its airtight container, it will stay wet and continue to last for many months. I can't speak to that claim because soon after I got it away from my grandson, I threw it in the trash.
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