Review - Aquabeads Disney Princess Cinderella Set

As an Aquabeads blogger, the latest set that I received to review was the Aquabeads Cinderella Set (affiliate link).

The Cinderella Set comes with three template sheets. With the first two sheets you can make Cinderella's head, and a glass slipper and carriage. Then the set also comes with a large plastic Glass Slipper Ring Holder, two ring bodies, and the beads to make two rings, which can be stored and displayed in the ring holder. There is one layout tray and a sprayer in the set, along with all the beads that you need and full instructions.

The beads come in a range of Cinderella colours and there were plenty of beads in the set to complete the designs. The set includes both plain beads and jewelled beads, which look really pretty in the finished designs as when they are fused together with the water they become really shiny.

When you have placed the beads on the board, you need to spray them with water which makes the beads stick together. You need to use quite a bit of water, and then tilt the board slightly so that the excess water can drain off. Leave to dry for several hours and the finished piece will be nice and sturdy.

Mia really loved the idea of the glass slipper ring holder, and the fact that the set made two rings that she could wear and then store in the holder. The ring pieces were simple to make and stuck together well, and she was really pleased with it.

Unfortunately we didn't have as much success with the Cinderella head. I sprayed with water and left overnight, and when I came down in the morning it had curled up and come apart. I tried my best to rescue it but it was too fiddly and so I had to give up. We've made similar sized pieces before with the Frozen Playset so I'm not sure what I did wrong this time, I think that perhaps I should have placed something over the design to flatten it while it dried.

The shoe and the carriage worked really well and made some nice little pieces to play with.

As we've found before, the Aquabead designs can be quite fiddly, and even though the packet suggests suitable for children aged 4+ I think that older children will have much more success with Aquabeads. Mia at 5 still finds them quite frustrating, especially larger designs, whereas Harry at 8 enjoys using them much more. The trouble is that if you knock one bead it can push all the others out of place, and as you can no longer see the design underneath you effectively need to start again. I personally find it much easier to use a bead dropping tool to place the beads (available to purchase separately or included in some of the larger sets).

The big advantage that Aquabeads have over other similar bead crafts is that the beads are stuck together with water so even young children can complete them by themselves. There are also plenty of different character options available so you can find a theme to suit any child.

I received this Aquabeads set in exchange for a review, Amazon link is affiliate.