As I’ve said many times before in past posts, our little lady E is rather taken with the concept of cosmetics. Whether its bath products, makeup, nail varnish, jewellery, accessories or fashion, E seems to have creative vision and flair for style. As my husband and I have firmly established E is a girly girl, a diva through and through, god help us when she hits the teenage years as no doubt she will cost us a fortune in cosmetics!
As you can imagine E was therefore overjoyed when we were recently sent the ‘Project Mc2 Camryn Doll & Nail Polish Experiment‘ to review.
What Is Project Mc2?
Project MC2 (pronounced ‘Project MC-Squared) is an online American TV series featured on Netflix set in the fictitious city of Maywood Glen, California. This series features a team of four super smart ladies whom combine their love of Science, Technology, Engineering, Art and Maths.
To complement this series Project Mc2 released a range of dolls, each one designed to tackle a different mission as part of the secret organisation NOV8 (short for innovate). Each doll within the series comes with a stylish and smart signature outfit along with a clever task/ experiment for children to carry out and complete.
The experiments included within the Project Mc2 sets encourage children to dabble with S.T.E.A.M (Science, Technology, Engineering, Art and Maths) through a range of interactive, interesting and fun tasks.
Camryn Coyle & The Nail Varnish Experiment
Camryn Coyle (the doll which was kindly sent to us) is said to be the Queen of construction and the Nail Polish experiment sent within this set requires children to construct/ put together their own nail polish by combining a range of simple and safe household ingredients.
Whats Included?
Included within the ‘Project Mc2 Camryn Doll & Nail Polish Experiments Set’ is:
- 1 x Camryn Coyle Doll (this is a fully articulated doll with moving knees, hips, wrists, elbows, shoulders and neck)
- 1 x Ball Dress Outfit (with detachable wings and mask)
- 1 x Hammer
- 1 x Excavator
- 1 x Funnel
- 1 x Comb
Household Ingredients that you will need (which are NOT included):
- Powdered eye-shadow/ blusher
- Clear Nail Polish
- A bottle container or a mixing palette of some kind
Should you be considering purchasing this set you may also wish to get hold of some cheap clear nail varnish along with some eyeshadow or blusher sets that you will be happy to part with in order to carry out the experiments suggested.
Time To Experiment
In order to make your very own nail polish children must first use the hammer and excavator included to break up eyeshadow to make it into a powder. They must then pour this powder into a clear nail varnish bottle using the funnel included.
These experiments are not for children to carry out alone, they require parental supervision and guidance to ensure safety and also to reduce a whole heap of mess.
Eyeshadow powder is usually made from a mixture of talc and colour pigments which is then pressed into a palette. By combining crushed eyeshadow with clear nail varnish (which is usually made from Ethyl Acetate which scientists term as a ‘non-polar solvent’) children can create a range of different coloured nail varnishes.
However, neither the nail varnish nor the eyeshadow/ blusher required to carry out this experiment is included within this set and given that I personally use rather expensive eye makeup (such as Urban Decay) I wasn’t really willing to dig into my beloved palettes in order to create children’s nail varnish. We therefore made use of my Maxfactor blusher which I wasn’t entirely happy about so kept the experiment to a minimum to reduce cost.
We refrained from wasting an entire bottle of clear nail varnish and instead opted to mix our colour using an old lid, we then combined fragments of my rose blusher along with some clear nail varnish to create a rather fetching shade of pink. Whilst this seemed to work at some level, in reality the nail varnish produced was far from smooth and although E enjoyed carrying out the experiment she wasn’t entirely enthralled with the results neither was I given that my MaxFactor blusher now looked as if it had done ten rounds with Mike Tyson.
The Project MC2 Experiment Doll Range Purchasing Information
There is a huge range of Project Mc2 Experiment Dolls available all of which feature a different S.T.E.A.M experiment for children to explore and carry out.
Each of the Project Mc2 Dolls have a recommended retail price of £24.99 and are currently available to purchase from high street and online stores including Smyths Toys and Amazon where the Camryn Doll & Nail Polish Experiments Set is currently on offer for only £21.99.
Our Final Thoughts
To be honest and rather blunt I’d much rather buy E a range of cheap nail varnishes than fork out for this set as it’s far cheaper and less messy in the long run. However, I understand the point of this product is to encourage children to carry out experiments and to get hands on with S.T.E.A.M.
Lets face it though folks, who in their right mind really wants to encourage their kids to break up eyeshadow?! Especially so if said eyeshadow happens to be your own or worse, an expensive gift from your husband which you happen to treasure and save for special occasions.
Whilst I appreciate the intentions and ideas behind the Project Mc2 Dolls, I feel that these sets lack content as half of the ingredients/ items required to carry out experiments aren’t included. Not only that but the doll included which E happens to adore was flimsy as her legs seemed to randomly fall off during play. Whilst we have repaired this doll by clicking joints back together which perhaps may be part of some kind of experiment in itself it doesn’t really reflect a quality product in my eyes.
Still, these dolls seem enjoyable enough to play with, E certainly seems to have fun playing with her Camryn doll and for that reason I would recommend giving these dolls a go purely as an educational tool.
You can find further information upon the Project MC2 Series & Experiment Dolls here. You can also find and read past posts and reviews which I’ve carried out upon the ‘Project Mc2’ range here.
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Doll Product Rating
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Experiment Product Rating
Disclosure: We were sent the above product for the purpose of this post however all opinions are my daughters and my own.