Sensory

Play Dough Scented with Body Wash

Colleen Beck OTR/L

Colleen Beck, OTR/L is a pediatric occupational therapist and the owner and author of The OT Toolbox website. She manages all of The OT Toolbox social media accounts and runs the popular newsletter. Colleen created The OT Toolbox in 2011 and since then has written thousands of blog posts designed to support therapy providers, educators, parents, counselors, admin, and caregivers in promoting the healthy development of kids. Check out Colleen's blog posts below:

by Colleen Beck OTR/L
February 12, 2015

Oh, how we love play dough! This month on the 12 months of Sensory Dough series is scented dough. I can’t wait to see what the other bloggers joining us have to share for scented sensory dough you can make at home. The olfactory sense is a very powerful one. Scents can be calming or alerting to children (and adults!) and can evoke memories. Scented sensory play and activities are beneficial to children who are over-responsive or under-responsive to the sense of smell.

We created our scented dough with an item that it seems we always have around the house. Body wash smells amazing, comes in so many scents, and it seems to multiply in the cupboard.

(OK, not really, but we do seem to have a TON of body wash. All the time.)

Make Play Dough scented with Body Wash

Did you know you can make your own homemade scented play dough using body wash? This stuff smells amazing and is so easy to make!

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We’ve got a ton of body wash collecting dust in our cupboard. They come in as gifts, samples, collected from hotel stays…and they are definitely used…but today, we made dough! This dough can use any scent of body wash, although different brands may change the dough’s consistency. We trialed two recipes with this dough and came up with a soft, moldable, scented dough that we loved!

For our dough, we used Bath and Body Works Velvet Sugar
and Bath & Body Works Beautiful Day
(which has a great apple-y scent).

Shower gel scented play dough made with flour and baby powder. A fun sensory play experience!

This dough is very easy to make. The green dough used the Bath & Body Works Beautiful Day and baby powder and became a soft, moldable dough that was very soft to the touch. The pink dough used Bath and Body Works Velvet Sugar and flour. It was a firmer dough and not as soft to mold.

Body Wash Sensory Play Dough Recipe

To make the dough, add 1 TBSP body wash to 1/2 cup baby powder (or flour). Mix together by hand to make a crumbly mixture. Add 2 TBSP water and continue mixing. The baby power will be difficult to mix with a utensil and mixing by hand is easier. Add a few drops of food coloring and continue mixing. The flour dough needed more kneading.

Time to play! The body wash gives these doughs a great scent. Many dough recipes that have salt lose the scent. This recipe seems to hold it’s scent for a while after playing.

The pink dough (made with flour) was much more resistive and a greater workout for the hand muscles compared to the green (baby powder) dough. If you’re looking for hand strengthening, the pink really worked those intrinsic muscles!