Essential Oil Play Dough Recipe (2024)

Add essential oils to your play dough to get a fantastic smelling play dough with all the benefits of essential oils with this easy no cook play dough recipe!

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My daughter is obsessed with play dough. O-B-S-E-S-S-E-D. She would play with it morning, noon and night if I let her. But oh the smell. It isn’t bad but it is just so distinct. With this little obsession going strong I started making my own play dough. I love the recipe because it is super simple and comes out silky smooth and perfectly squishy for those little fingers. Even with the homemade stuff though it still has it’s own funky smell.

Then one day it hit me! I needed to slap my essential oils on that play dough. Or rather make a batch and incorporate it in. Not only would this be super awesome because it would smell good to me, it makes the play dough engage more of the senses as my daughter plays AND as a bonus she gets all the goodness of essential oils while she plays! Win – win! or win – win – win as it seems.

Essential Oil No Cook Play Dough Recipe

Making the dough is super simple and the oils incorporate perfectly into the recipe. I used peppermint, citrus fresh, lemon, lime, thieves, and lavender for my play dough. You can use any oil you choose, but make sure to refer to the manufacturer’s instructions to make sure that it is safe for your age child.

To start, mix the flour, salt, and cream of tarter in a large bowl. Combine the essential oil of choice with the vegetable oil and stir into the dry ingredients. Bring your water to a boil. Add any food coloring to the water and then add about 1 cup of the water, stir and slowly add the remaining water until the play dough reaches the perfect consistency and then knead the dough until smooth. Store your dough in a ziploc bag or air tight container.

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Because I have grand ideas, and really just can never do things the easy way, I had to have 6 colors and flavors of play dough. I didn’t need a gazillion pounds of play dough though so I split the batch into multiple flavors.

If you are like me and want to make a bunch of different colors and flavors of dough from one batch, you can do it, but it is a bit messier and a bit more work! Just make the dough as mentioned above, but hold the oil and food coloring until the end. Once you stir in the hot water and knead the dough, split it into your desired number of colors/flavors. Take each piece and first add the oil in by flattening into a disc and adding a couple of drops (depending on the amount of dough you are working with) and continuing to knead until it is spread throughout. Then repeat this step with the food coloring by flattening adding and then kneading the dough (expect rainbow hands) until the color is evenly distributed. I wish I would have taken an after picture of my hands to give you fair warning!

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