Moisturizer + Corn Starch Play Dough (with Video) ⋆ Sugar, Spice and Glitter

Recently, while conducting my house-wide possession purge I discovered two giant bottles of half-used, vanilla-scented moisturizer.

Now that I’m a bit more discerning about what goes on my sensitive skin, I am not going to use it, but I felt guilty throwing it out… I thought the least I could do was try to make a play recipe out of it. The worst that could happen is that I “waste” the other ingredients I mix into it.

That’s how this awesome, super-soft and kid-made play dough came about.

Moisturizer and Cornstarch Play Dough Recipe

I love my go-to play dough recipe. It lasts forever, is gentle on sensitive skin, and is really versatile.

However, it’s sometimes fun to have a completely different play dough experience. Different ingredients, different texture, and one that the kids can easily help make (with no hot water to worry about).

There’s not much of a recipe to it, though. We’ve made it twice now and both times I’ve found the measurements to be different. Here’s the basics:

1 to 1 1/2 cups moisturizer (can use hair conditioner)
2 cups cornstarch

Dump into container and give a good mix with a spatula or spoon. The mixture will initially be very crumbly, until you start kneading it.

If after a couple of minutes of good kneading, the dough is still crumbly, add in a tablespoon of moisturizer.

If the dough is too sticky, add in a bit of cornstarch.

This was really good for helping the kids slow down and observe the textures and reactions of the dough. They understood that just a little bit extra of one ingredient effected the whole texture of the dough. We used some wonderful adjectives to describe the texture that we were experiencing, and contrasted it to the texture that we wanted.

You’re looking for a stretchy and silky-smooth dough that doesn’t flake or crumble.

This will likely be the smoothest and softest play dough you have ever handled. It is the perfect play dough to use with scoops and spoons, or for a child with sensitive skin. (My oatmeal and coconut oil play dough used for our Chocolate Play Dough Cookies is also awesome for sensitive skin.)

Check out our quick video to see just how easy it is to make our cornstarch play dough and just how soft it is to play with:

While it will last for quite a while, the lack of any preserving ingredients and the “absorbent” nature of the corn starch incline me to throw it out after a week of being left at room temperature.

So, far we’ve used this recipe to make Vanilla Buttercream Play Dough, Neopolitan Ice Cream Play Dough, and we did a variation last year with conditioner in place of moisturizer for our pastel-coloured Spring Play Dough.