How to make aromatherapy play dough!
There's hundreds of recipes claiming to be the best play dough recipe or the quickest and easiest play dough recipe, but in fact it's very simple to make playdough, just follow our recipe and instructions below, and if you're looking for a bit of a twist add some essential oils.
What you'll need to make aromatherapy playdough:
- 1 cup of Plain four
- 2 Tbs of Cream of Tartar
- 1/2 Cup Salt
- 1 Tbs Vegetable Oil
- 1 Cup Water
- Food Colouring
- Essential Oil (We tried to match up a scent to a colour)
What we used to make our playdough smell great:
Blue - peppermint
Green - lime
Yellow - Lemon
Red - Rose
Orange - Orange (note: orange oil can feel quite sticky in the playdough, so only use a couple drops and add more if necessary)
Important: If your kids are young, have sensitive skin or occassionally enjoy eating playdough, we suggest trying food flavourings as an alternative. The play-dough will smell great and you won't have to worry if it's ingested! You could try a number of essences available at supermarkets and speciality baking / cake supply stores such as: vanilla, banana, orange, bubblegum, chocolate, caramel and raspberry.
Step One
Add all of the dry ingredients into a saucepan and give it a quick stir to evenly mix
Step Two
Add the water, oil and food colouring into the saucepan. Sometimes it can be easier to add the food colouring to a jug of water to get an idea of the colour, or alternatively just add it directly to saucepan.
Step Three
Start stiring the mixtutre. If the colour is not strong enough, add more now while it's still runny. When you are happy with the colour, turn on the stove to a moderate heat and keep stiring.
Step Four
The playdough will start to get thicker. If it sticks to the bottom of the saucepan just keep scraping it off the bottom and working it back into the mixture. In a short time, it will form into a ball. Allow to cool until it's comfortable to touch.
Step Five
Adding the essential oils to make an aromatherapy playdough.
Form a ball with the playdough and then poke a small hole in the top of it. Drop 2-10 drops (depending on the oil) into the hole. Close the hole over and begin to knead the dough for a couple of minutes to distribute the oil throughout the play dough.
Note: We found this the most effective way to add a scent to the dough. We also tried adding it with the water and oil, but after cooking this resulted in double the amount of essential oil for the same strength. If you are using a food grade essence we do recommend adding this at the liquid stage.
Step Six
Store your playdough in an airtight container in your refrigerator.
We reused some Avent stackable baby milk containers with screw-on lids.
