Features:

  • Grow crystals in 8 colors - blue, pink, red, purple, green, orange, yellow, and teal; chemistry has never been so fun and colorful!
  • Growing is easy – easy-to-follow instructions and 4 silicone growing chambers make growing and saving your crystals easy
  • Night light display – show off your 5 favorite home-grown crystals on the included light-up display
  • Start a rock collection – Includes 5 real gemstone specimens and a stem learning guide teaching all about crystal formation
  • 100% satisfaction guarantee - join the millions of parents who have chosen National Geographic’s award-winning science toys. You'll love this crystal lab, or your money back!
Outstanding product

My 6 year old loved this. It's a great opportunity for hands on science and teaching basic lab safety and techniques. We made 1-2 crystals at a time and improved our processes along the way. One batch we left for 4 weeks and they were a lot larger than the 7-10 day crystals so let some grow longer if your kids allow! Also it comes with some sample gems and a small book on gems. My 6 year old found it really interesting and brought the book and gems to school to share with her class. Great set. Highly recommend.

but still they came out pretty great. We tried different combinations of colors

The crystals weren't quite as colorful as those on the box, nor were they quite as "pointy", but still they came out pretty great. We tried different combinations of colors, temperatures, covered vs. uncovered. The best crystals grew when the instructions were followed exactly. Placing the crystal solution in the refrigerator resulted in a more uniform solid crystal with fewer jaggies, although it grew faster. Using a small chip off of the seed crystal still grew crystals, but not quite as nice as using the whole seed. Mixing different color packets with different color seeds resulted in light pinkish crystals which are sort of transparent. Note that others who mixed the crystal solution in an aluminum pot ended up with really fuzzy crystals. Instead, I heated the water in the microwave with a toothpick in the water to allow it to boil. Then I carefully poured the very hot water into the growth cups and stirred the solution in until completely dissolved. Letting them grow uncovered resulted in some condensate on the side walls of the cup as the water evaporated. Letting them grow covered (Saran wrap), didn't leave any growing on the sides of the cup. The resulting crystals were a bit smaller than the "normally" grown ones.

Awesome crystal growing kit with enough extras to practice until you get the perfect crystals

Fantastic kit ! My only mistake on our first experiment was trying to allow all of the water/chemicals to evaporate before removing the crystals from the solution. Pro Tip: remove the crystals from the solution before the water level reaches the crystals, if you wait to long, there will be little crispy collections of material at the tops of the crystals which detract from their beauty.

The perfect crystal grow kit!

This is the best crystal grow kit we've ever experienced. We got a MASSIVE crystal grow yield from each of the colors. We used distilled water and had extreme attention to foreign particulates/dirt to the mixing/pan containers to ensure a pure solution. We let grow for about 5 weeks each or until the solution level reach the top of the crystals. PROs: excellent crystal yield and the colors remain vibrant for a longer period than most kits. Materials provided were high quality. Sample stones provided were also really cool and a nice touch. CONs: The crystals seem to leach salts onto the night light stand for a few days to weeks. We had to constantly clean the light stand off. Minor gripe. The leaching stopped after a few weeks and the crystals are fairly stable now. I would buy this kit for all my friend's kids. It really is that awesome.

Fantastic Kit! Here are some tips Use distilled water ...

Fantastic Kit! Here are some tips Use distilled water so you have no impurities. Make sure you have good light. We noticed on a few that the crystal was growing up the side of the container. Therefore the crystals were growing sideways. We were able to take them out, trim off the sides and put them back in to continue growing. We let them grow almost 4 weeks. The seed rock does not pop out with a spoon. The easy way is to use a razor blade along the outer edge of the seed rock on the bottom. Eventually you will cut deep enough to where you can use the razor blade to get the seed rock out.

Paying extra for Nat Geo name

You can get the same kit for almost $20 less. Search Ultimate Crystal Growing Lab – 8 Colors to Grow and Light-up Display! Only difference is it doesn't have the Nat Geo name on it.

A great teaching toy

We bought this kit for a Christmas gift and it was a big hit while we were setting up the experiment. You get 8 crystal mixes and seeds to work with and four silicon growing chambers. You will need to have a space set up where the chambers can sit for 7 to 10 days for the crystals to grow without being moved. One word of advise DO NOT US ALUMINUM CONTAINERS TO BOIL THE WATER AND DISSOLVE THE CRYSTAL MIX. The aluminum will react with the mix and you will end up with crystalline cotton candy instead of crystals shown on the box. The company Discover with Dr. Cool sent us a replacement crystal mix and seed to replace the botched crystal.

Wow! I'm so amazed how great this worked!

Ok so this kit takes a bit of effort but WOW the results are stunning! I bought this for my 6 yo daughter for Christmas. We set up the first 4 crystals per the directions and let them sit 10 days. We had fun looking each day to see how big they were. After they were done, I removed the crust from the edges of the cup, poured off the liquid, and eased the crystal out of the cup. They came out easily. To get the seed rock out, I used a razor blade, went around the edges and flaked off the crystal growth to expose the edges, then used the corner of the blade to pop the rock out. I was veeeery careful and all 4 crystals came out intact! It takes patience but totally worth it, the resulting night light is a treasure she will probably keep for life.

End results are beautiful

I initially bought this for my niece but it was so tempting that my niece never knew about it 😈. It's fun and end results are pretty. Boil water, pour the boiled water in a bowl (exact water level marked on each cup), add the powder and stir until all powder is treated. Pour the solution into the cup, wait for 12 minutes and then drop the seed carefully into the solution. Place the cup in a dark area and keep it steady and untouched for 7 days. My end results are in the photos. Removing the seed is not that tricky, u need a knife and u need to remove the crystals forming around the seed edges. Once those are removed, stick the knife in between the seed and the crystal and gently remove the seed, crystal will be delicate at this time. Avoid cleaning the seed or exposing it to pressurized water directly when out of the cup.

Whole Package Screams Quality

The whole package screams quality. I am very eager to grow these with my niece and nephew. Pros: The whole package screams quality, the small touches like a "fill" line are really appreciated. The silicon growing containers allow for easy removal of the crystals, minimizing the chance that they will be damaged. The LED's in the night light is very bright, I'm very eager to see what the final results will look like with the crystals glowing on it. I didn't expect to see a glow in the dark mix, which is a very welcomed surprise. The light base is super cool; part of me wants to put the night light in my room instead of the kids' room like i originally planned. Cons: The premixed bags and limited supply of seed crystals don't lend itself to much experimentation. If any experimentation is to be done, it's best done with the 3 colors you probably don't want on the display stand. With only 4 growing chambers that will fit the display stand, it means that in order to get 5 crystals to fill the display stand you'll have to wait 7-10 days for the first batch of crystals to finish growing first then wait ANOTHER 7-10 days. This is less than ideal for kids (and adults) who tend to not be the patient type, and requires an extra amount of planning if the finished night light is supposed to be a present. Other notes: According to review photos, the glow in the dark mix is clear to white when grown, so I'm curious to see if i can mix it to create lighter variants of the other colors.

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