We have made a LOT of playdough over the years and this is our favorite no-cook playdough recipe consisting of cornstarch and conditioner. This simple 2 ingredient playdough recipe great for kids of all ages. Whip up a quick and easy batch of homemade play dough in less than 5 minutes. The reason we love it so much is that it has this amazing soft and silky texture like no other homemade playdough around!
Best No Bake Playdough Recipe: cornstarch & conditioner
My kids love a fresh batch of homemade playdough. This is the EASIEST play dough recipe because it is no cook play dough. Making this play dough only uses two ingredients and about 5 minutes: cornstarch and conditioner. My kids love to mold and create with homemade play dough for hours.
Related: Traditional playdough recipe has been shared over 100K times
A bonus with this homemade playdough recipe is that after playing with the silky play dough, your hands will feel like they just had a spa treatment. Did we mention this is our favorite no cook playdough recipe?
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Ingredients Needed to Make Playdough
- 1 part Hair Conditioner
- 2 parts Corn Starch
- (Optional) Food Coloring or Food Dye or even glitter
Watch Our Easy Playdough Recipe Tutorial Video with cornstarch and conditioner
Directions To Make Cornstarch Play Dough Recipe
Step 1
Mix 2 parts cornstarch with 1 part hair conditioner in a bowl.
Step 2
Stir with a spoon then dump onto flat surface and knead with hands until combined fully.
(Optional) Step 3
If you want colored playdough, then add drops of food coloring. Keep adding food coloring until you have achieved the desired play dough color.
Playdough making tip: We have found that adding the food coloring at this stage is the easiest. You can add it in step 2, but it can be controlled so much easier in this step.
Finished No Cook Playdough Recipe
Your playdough is now ready for play!
Safety Information: This is playdough recipe is NOT taste-safe and should not be used with younger kids who are still putting things into their mouths. Check out our favorite Edible playdough recipes.
Storing Your Homemade Conditioner Play Dough
Because this no cook playdough recipe’s primary ingredient is conditioner, it tends to last a little longer than food-based playdoughs. After play, store your playdough in an air tight container at room temperature for up to 2 weeks. If the playdough consistency changes during storage, then follow directions below to fix your homemade playdough!
How to Fix Your Cornstarch Playdough Texture
Since not all hair conditioners are the same consistency, you may need to alter the amounts just a bit so it is dough consistency:
- Play dough consistency is not soft enough: Add additional hair conditioner at any step to adjust the softness.
- Play dough consistency is too soft: Add some additional cornstarch and knead into dough.
No Cook Play Dough Recipe
This super simple 2 ingredient homemade playdough recipe is the easiest and softest we have ever made. Combine the two ingredients quickly and get playing within minutes! And because it is a no cook play dough recipe, kids can help!
Materials
- 1 part Hair Conditioner
- 2 parts Corn Starch
- (Optional 3rd ingredient) Food Coloring or Food Dye or even glitter
Tools
- bowl
- spoon or something to stir
Instructions
- Add 2 parts cornstarch to 1 part hair conditioner in a medium bowl.
- Stir until combined.
- Knead with hands.
- If desired, add food coloring.
Cloud Dough Playdough Recipe
Think of this as a mix between playdough and cloud dough. It is light and airy like cloud dough, but molds better as the conditioner helps the cornstarch become more pliable.
Related: Toddler Safe Cloud Dough Recipe
More Play Recipes with Corn Starch
- Another fun thing you can make with cornstarch is Oobleck.
- We’ve had lots of fun playing with oobleck in the past on Kids Activities Blog.
- We have also made goop or silly putty with cornstarch.
Homemade Playdough Gift Idea
We made our Silky Play Dough as a gift for a friend. We packaged the play dough up with glitter, a couple of play dough toys (rolling pin, cookie cutters, sequins, etc) and cupcake liners.
If your gift recipient may not be able to play with it immediately, then you can create a cute make-your-own-play-dough kit that has the two ingredients packaged separately with a printable instructions card and an airtight container for storage.
More Playdough Recipes from Kids Activities Blog
- Try this fun homemade play doh ice cream!
- Make playdough animals with this fun activity.
- This fall playdough is scented like autumn.
- This is a fun play dough cake idea for birthdays.
- Make this adorable and sweet Peeps playdough recipe.
- Make homemade gingerbread playdough and have some holiday fun.
- This Christmas playdough idea is a candy cane with both white play dough and red.
- Make Kool Aid Playdough…it smells delicious!
- Looking to make playdough with younger kids? Check out our 15 fun edible playdough recipes.
- This peanut butter playdough recipes is one of my favorites.
- This sparkly and colorful galaxy playdough is really cool and easily made at home.
- This homemade playdough with essential oils is our favorite sick day activity.
- All of our favorite homemade play dough recipes.
- You can buy this 2-pound bucket of playdough?!
- Check out these awesome playdough mats.
- Have you tried this cornstarch clay?
How did your soft no cook playdough recipe turn out? Is it the softest playdough you have ever made?
This worked out wonderfully. We added some glitter to ours as well.
Those worried about the chemicals contained in conventional conditioners can opt for organic vegan one or others that are safe for ingestion.
So glad to see you on HHMBH!
This looks like so much fun. I am really thinking about making this for our daughter if I can get the conditioner away from Mom 🙂
The end results were lovely…very velvety and fun play dough. But it took a lot of kneading and a lot of tweaking the amounts to get it just right. And even after that, the dough did stick to everything and fell apart pretty easily.
Oh my! This stuff is amazing! My children are having a fabulous time playing with this gorgeous soft play dough. My hands feel beautifully soft and smell amazing after rolling it. I now need to head off to the supermarket to buy some more conditioner… we’re addicted! Thanks for this amazingly simple and quick recipe.
Just tried with hand cream and came out perfect!! My 3 year old can ´t stop touching it. He loves it!!
Would have been easier to have the portions to use. Going to try it.
could one use fabric softener in stead of conditioner?? has anyone tried this?
It works, but it ´s not the best for little hands. The chemicals in fabric softener may cause rashes.
Try baby conditioner instead
my second batch got moldy within days. still an easy and cheap recipe and fun while it lasts, but no longer something i would give as a gift. my 1st batch is still ok so no idea why the inconsistecy.
Maybe if you added a bit of salt it would stop it going moldy?
tried this and it didn’t work. It could be because you didn’t even mention the amounts you used.
Anne, don’t be snotty.
I don’t think she’s being snotty, just stating a fact. The post is called “play dough recipe” yet there is no receipe given.
I will fix that. Thanks for the advice!
I found the ingredients at the very first of the post…great idea ~ Thank you!
Are you all blind? What do you think she posted? 1 part conditioner to 2 parts corn starch IS a recipe. My god people don’t pay attention any more do you?
maybe if you would have read the whole post you would have sen clear as day “1 PART CONDITIONER 2 PARTS CORN STARCH”
This means you need to use twice as much corn starch as you do conditioner..for example if you use 1/2 a cup of conditioner you will need to use 1 whole cup of corn starch. ( this is the amoutn we used and it was a perfect amount although it was very sticky at first so we just kept adding a little bit of corn starch until it firmed up and was play dough consistincy. 🙂
It says one part hair conditioner to two parts cornstarch…. if you add one cup of hair cond. then add two cups cornstarch… 🙂
Yes she did, she said 1 part conditioner and 2 pts cornstarch… meaning ex: 1c conditioner and 2c cornstarch, 1tbs conditioner and 2tbs corn starch.
I wonderful if you could add a pack of Kool Ade for colors and scent. Going to give it a try.
🙂