How to make super soft Moon Dough

Soft and fun moon dough recipe!

How to make moon dough! Have you gotten to play with Moon Dough yet?! This amazingly soft and heavenly smelling sensory play idea is very easy to make yourself with only 2 ingredients! This homemade Moon Dough recipe DIY has a taste-safe alternative for toddlers (with flour) and is an easy, homemade kids activity that Mom will love too. Once you know how to make moon dough -also called cloud dough- you will fall in love with this fun, playdough alternative!

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While walking through a community fair this summer, we noticed a large crowd of children gathered around one booth in particular. There was a small swimming pool filled with a powder/dough substance that the kids could not keep their hands off of. My daughter, of course, had to see what all the kids were doing and we were curious what all the fuss was about. The lady inside the booth told us it was Moon Dough and that the kids love it (that was obvious). It is easy to make and keeps them busy for quite a while. That’s all I needed to hear to try this at home.

What is Moon Dough?

Moon dough is a super soft mixture of flour and baby oil. It is typically used for sensory play. It is super soft and smells amazing!

The recipe I got from the fair included 8 cups of flour mixed with 1 cup of baby oil.

The baby oil does give it a heavenly smell, but with some further investigating I found that you can also use vegetable oil to make it more taste-safe for toddlers. (This recipe should always be used under parental supervision!)

I had an old water table that was damaged when my neighbors’ tree fell on our shed (yep, that’s a nice way to start the summer). The legs were broken off but the top of the table was still intact. I had planned to put sand or dirt in it, but this was a MUCH better (and cleaner) option.

Moon Dough does not need to be covered (although I do usually cover it to keep out bugs/animals) and it keeps quite well!

They don’t make that one anymore but this one is pretty similar:

So here is the truth about Moon Dough: I LOVE IT! Even more than my kids do. It is soft and smells wonderful. It reminds me of holding a sweet newborn baby. It is a great stress reliever! The first time I made this, the adults played with it more than the kids did. I gave a tub of it to my mom. Who needs a Zen garden when you have flour and baby oil!

How to make Moon Dough

What is moon dough made of? Well,

The original moon dough recipe was:

8 cups flour

1 cup baby oil

(I put a plastic baggie in the measuring cup because I am OCD about germs and I was afraid the baby oil wouldn’t come clean from the measuring cup then mix with my food… Yes, I probably should pick up a set of measuring cups at the dollar store- dually noted 😉

Mine was more like:

(for a large batch)

1 pound bag of flour

A 14-ounce bottle of baby oil (remember you can substitute vegetable oil!)

Now mix ingredients together. That’s it. Keep mixing until you get a soft consistency:

The more baby oil you add, the more moldable the dough becomes (to a point). If you have too much flour, it will not pack together like this:

Warning: oil will stain concrete! I learned this by making a huge oil stain in the middle of my porch. It is probably best to play with Moon Dough in the grass or on a drop cloth to avoid oil stains.

As if Moon Dough wasn’t awesome enough- baby oil comes in scents. Lavender Baby Oil Moon Dough. It is amazing. I simply used Lavender baby oil (the purple cap) in place of the regular baby oil. If you are into essential oils, I bet this recipe would be a great place to utilize a drop or two of Lavender!

You can easily customize the scents and make it holiday Moon Dough too! This Halloween Moon Dough smelled amazing and I added a little Halloween fun too!