National GeographicJM00670 Blue Crystal Growing Kit (Assorted)

Really impressed with this kit! We grew a large crystal about 8cm high. Tips: 1) When you watch the video tutorials for this type of crystal it specifies to keep the blue one in the DARK. So we kept in a cupboard up high in the kitchen. 2) we also read that slow cooling helps, so we made up the crystal liquid, dropped in the seed rock and dunked the pot in 1 inch of hot water in a steel saucepan for about 2 hours. We then transferred to the cupboard. I guess you could skip this step if doing the crystal in summer though! We weren't! It was 4c outside and 16c inside! 3) Use a container to grow it in, that you are happy to display afterwards. Or consider a large opening at the top of your container. Otherwise you end up snapping a lot of crystal shards off trying to pull the crystal out of the growing pot. This happened to us and even though damage was minimal it was unnecessary, we only took it out because my 7 year old was adament he had to hold it. For best results use a glass jar with a lid, so you have a pot for storage afterwards! 4) We left our crystal for about 12 days. The growing was continuous over the days, no doubt it would be even bigger if we continued to leave it. 5) Basic chemistry will teach you that any outside element can completely change the compounds and chemical reactions. So make sure anything you use is thoroughly clean, with no soap residue, dust or cleaning sprays present.

This was very good value for money as it was pretty low effort and after a week you have a cool looking crystal bundle! It was very exciting watching it grow and develop over time, so definitely something you could gift a child (however keep it somewhere out of reach so they can’t accidentally knock it over!)

6 yr old daughter loved checking up on the growth of the crystals each day. Final result was good and easy to produce. Loses a star for Amazon not the product as it was sent without an outer box with postage label stuck direct onto product- not ideal if you want to buy as a gift for example to have a damaged box.

My son really liked it. It was easy to grow the crystal following instructions. The crystal on the photograph grew for 7 days-its diameter was aprox. 7 cm.

The media could not be loaded.  Nice product but the end result is not as impressive as suggested on the picture

Great gift well received

Bought for a science mad seven year old who adored it. The crystals were huge and we named each of them after characters from Tracey Beaker.

I brought 2 of these, followed the instructions and neither grew. I even changed the environment slightly to see if it would help. One actually broke the glass it was growing in. I have 2 very upset kids who waited patiently for 10 days to be super disappointed - don't bother!

Nice packaging and very fast delivery my kids loved it

Mise en place rapide, puis 9 jours d’attente.Une épaisse couche de cristaux avait recouvert le fond.Ca a correctement pris sur la demi sphère qui sert de support, le résultat est plutôt joli.

Followrd instructions to the tee but did not work out. After a month something did form but did stuck to the beaker. Thought it would be a good product considering the price but disappointed.

Very bad did everything but it did not work

This product is great. Bought it for my son for Christmas. He is six years old so I had to help him set it up. Within 24 hours you could see the crystals start to form. Every day, you could tell that there was some growth and it continued to grow while the water evaporated. The longer you leave it, the more it will grow. Patience is key. That can be hard to do with a six year old. He was so excited to wake up every morning to see the growth. Takes a while but it is worth the wait. The attached picture was after the sixth day but we decided to leave it there for longer to see if it would grow bigger.