
So SAND DIY Review – Vanity case
We have reviewed a few SO DIY products so we were excited to review their magic sand – SO Sand DIY Vanity case. This has been gifted to us in exchange for our honest opinion, all words and comments are my own.
My 6 year old loves messy play he is a real sensory seeker. I left the room briefly and came back to find an excited boy with the box opened going through the contents. Clearly he wanted to get playing straight away.
What do you get – contents
In our Satisfying Vanity Magic Sand kit we received:
- The vanity case storage box with activity mat base
- A selection of 7 tools
- 3 packs of sand
- 3 colours for the sand
- 3 decoration packs for the sand
- instruction leaflet

I love how practical the vanity case is, it is very easy to use and my son could take it apart and put it back together himself. It provides a useful place to store the sand and fits nicely in a cupboard or on a shelf. The base also doubles as an activity mat which is great for playing with the sand. Plus it is plastic so easy to wash under the tap.

There are two tiers to the vanity case, one to keep your sand and the other for your tools.
sand and decorations in vanity case tools in the vanity case
My son really enjoyed being able to pack it all away and take his case back to the cupboard. I wish all messy play kits came with handy cases like this.

One thing I love about SO DIY is the visual instructions, my son is autistic and non verbal so visuals are really important. The box and instruction leaflet have very clear visual instructions which is helpful for me but gives my kids the independence to follow it themselves.
instructions on the box instructions
Colouring the sand
I think its great that the SO DIY products come uncoloured as my son really enjoys adding the colour. I think his favourite part is colouring and decorating the sand.

It is such a simple process of adding your desired colour to the sand and mixing it in by hand. This is a brilliant sensory stimulating activity – very calming too. It didn’t take long for the sand to colour, however my son did take ages as he was enjoying it so much.
adding colour colouring sand pink colouring yellow
mixing colour into sand colouring the sand
Decorating your sand
Once you have your coloured sand you can add the decorations and again mix them in. This is where the base activity mat was really helpful to contain the glitter.
adding glitter adding decorations
Using the tools
The kit comes with a good selection of different tools so you can mould and cut the sand. The visual instructions show how to create rectangles, cylinders and half cylinders with the tools. It also shows how to dig into your shape and add different coloured sand in the middle.

Shaping the sand
The tools are really easy to use and do help make different shapes.
shaping into a cylinder squashing the sand making a hole in the cylinder
Cutting the sand
Included in the tools are some great guides to shape and then cut the sand.
cutting the sand cutting tool slicing
My son really enjoyed the cutting element and spent ages slicing all his sand shapes.
slices of sand shaped sand
What did we think
The vanity case kit retails at around £20 which I think is a fair price. Especially as the sand seems to last well in the bags provided. The tools can easily be used with other things like playdoh so will be well used. I love the vanity case storage which works really well.

My only suggestion would be that the box could be a bit more gender neutral. It feels aimed at girls but is a great product for any child. My son loves his SO SAND DIY set and we have played with it several times this week. His little brother had to wait until he was home alone to get a look in.
I would recommend this to anyone who enjoys sensory and messy play especially sand play.

If you like the look of this then you may want to see my other reviews for SO DIY products:
Products available from amazon, these are affiliate links so I may receive a small commission if you purchase from the links below.
That looks like a real interesting kit.
The vanity box to hold it speaks to me. Usually my kids get things like this and nothing to store it in.
#KCACOLS
Author
It’s so helpful storage wise. Everything else in our house is in Tupperware as it never comes with storage.
This looks like a great kit to keep kids entertained for quite a while! #kcacols
Author
Yes glad we have it to use over the summer too
This looks like a fab toy, and very therapeutic for parents to play with too! #KCACOLS
I love that the sand comes uncoloured and so you can choose how you decorate it. What a great idea! #KCACOLS
Author
The colouring and decorating is the best bit x
£20 does seem reasonable as I’m sure you get hours of play out of it. I know my daughters definitely would. I agree with you that they could make the case and packaging more gender neutral, they do seem to be aimed at girls and I don’t know why. Boys enjoy this sort of play as much as girls do. #KCACOLS
Wow this looks like loads of fun – love the colours! #KCACOLS
Oh this looks fab! Something my kids would love, I’m sure! #KCACOLS
My son is a sensory seeker too and loves sand play and play dough etc, so this looks like the kind of product he might like. I do agree though about how they could make it a lot more gender neutral, both in the colours used (personally I am very unlikely to buy anything in the colour combo pink+lilac, whether for a boy or girl, it’s just got too much of a ‘Barbie’ kind of feel to me), but also in calling it a ‘vanity case’. Why not call it ‘tool kit’ instead, or something similar to that. I think that would better reflect what it actually is, as well as being more gender neutral. I’m not totally against things being ‘girly’ or ‘boyish’, but when it comes to toys like this, the ‘girlyness’ of it doesn’t make sense to me x
Author
I agree and seems on some advertising they are calling it a toolkit which is much better. It’s hard because seeing how drawn to pick things my niece’s are I can see why marketing is done that way but hopefully we can move away from it in future and have more neutral marketing. Having said that m t boys both really love the kit