Yes, you can actually make shaving cream play dough! But be prepared, because this is MESSY! And while on the inside, I was trying to hold back my mini freak out about the mess, my 3 year old and 5 year old were loving it. I mean REALLY loving it. I haven’t seen them enjoy an activity this much in ages! I’m not sure if they were more into the play dough, or more into the giant mess I was letting them create. Either way, this was tons of fun! (And the clean up wasn’t nearly as bad as I thought it would be.)
What do you need to make shaving cream play dough? It’s pretty simple! Just one can of shaving cream and some corn starch. And of course, you can add some food colouring too if you like.
Shaving Cream Play Dough
The full printable recipe is at the end of this post, but here’s what you’ll need:
- Shaving Cream
- Corn Starch
- Food Colouring
- A large, cleanable surface
I put the corn starch right on top of my table on a vinyl table cloth. You might be able to make it in a bowl, instead of putting right on the table? I just think the best part of this activity was for the kids to be able to feel it squishing between their fingers. At least it doesn’t require any cooking, like normal play-dough. So there are no messy pots and pans to clean up.
Add equal parts shaving cream to the corn starch. I just guessed. I didn’t feel like putting shaving cream in my measuring cups, so I just kept on spraying it out until it looked like a good amount.
Squeeze and kneed the mixture until it becomes dough. If it’s too crumbly, add more shaving cream. And if it’s too sticky, add more corn starch. It took some effort trying to find the right amounts of shaving cream and corn starch to get it to stick together.
My girls LOVED this. The texture of the shaving cream with the corn starch is really cool! It becomes silky smooth when you squeeze it.
Did I mention you’ll have to be prepared to clean the floor too?
It took about 5 minutes of kneading before it turned into workable dough. Just play around with it and you’ll get a sense for the amounts of corn starch and shaving cream you’ll need. It took some effort, but eventually it started to stick together into a play-dough-like ball.
I could have washed my hands before I took these pictures, but that might have given you the impression this activity is cleaner than it really is. I don’t want you having any false impressions going into this!
Add a few drops of food colouring to the dough if you like. Or you can just leave it white. It’s totally up to you!
We used Barbasol shaving cream from the dollar store. It worked really well, but wow, was it ever smelly! It was definitely heavily perfumed!
I’m not sure if you can tell in the photo below, but this dough is very soft! It’s much smoother than regular play dough.
We made two good size balls of dough, and we didn’t finish the entire can of shaving cream. A little goes a long way.
Shaving Cream Play Dough
Materials
- 1/2 cup shaving cream
- 1/2 cup corn starch
- food colouring
- a large cleanable surface
Instructions
- Mix together equal parts shaving cream and corn starch. (Don't worry about measuring exactly).
- Knead it together until it starts to form dough.
- Add more corn starch if it's too sticky.
- Add more shaving cream if it's too dry.
This is a fantastic sensory activity for the kids. The texture of the dough is really cool and even though it’s a bit messy, it cleans up easily. It only needs two simple ingredients and takes about 5 minutes to knead into dough. Try it the next time you and your kids are up for a little bit of experimenting!
If you’re looking for more fun kids activities, check out these other playdough recipes:
Oh, fun! I love these kinds of homemade kids crafts. I don’t have any children, but I bet my nephews will love this. Thanks for sharing on Great Idea Thursdays Debbie. I hope to see you again next week.
awesomely fun idea!! ? For u: can you store & keep a while? Just curious….thx-can’t wait to try with my boys!!
Playing in shaving cream is really popular, but it may be something you want to reconsider. The ingredients in shaving cream are really nasty, add to a child’s chemical burden and can have negative effects upon their health. As they play with the shaving cream, the ingredients are being absorbed through their skin. In fact, most of the ingredients in the shaving cream are really scary. For instance, triethanolamine is a skin irritant, It is also a strong immune and respiratory irritant. Repeated exposure can cause liver and kidney damage.It is the 3rd ingredient, which means there is quite a lot of it.
Isobutane, the 4th ingredient (which means there is also a lot of it) is a strong toxicant. It can cause organ toxicity, and it is frequently contaminated with butadien, which is a carcinogen. Laureth-23 is usually contaminated with Ethylene oxide, which is also a carcinogen.
The first 5 ingredients are the highest volume. And these are 3 of the top 5. Additionally, sodium lauryl sulfate is a skin irritant, fragrance is made up of hundreds of chemicals, often including parabens which are hormone disruptors and linked to cancer. Hormone disruptors can interfere with the development of children and teens. And, shaving cream actually contains propane! This is used as a propellant, but the kids are exposed to it as well.
Wow. If being exposed to these ingredients in shaving foam would cause liver and kidney damage, there most be millions of people out there not knowingly walking around with these issues, right?! This is outrageous!
Now, I learn this. I am nearly 74 and have been using the stuff for decades to clean the bathroom mirrors so they won’t fog up plus my 77 yo husband uses it on his face every day when he shaves. I guess we are beyond hope by now.
Thanks for the info though.
This dough can be made with dollar store hair conditioner instead of with shaving cream with the same silky product but not the chemicals or stinky shaving cream smell. Equal part conditioner and corn starch. It does take a bit to get it all worked in together. Might be able to mix it in a ziplock but haven’t tried that.
Thank you for the great recipe for fun. Can’t wait to try it with the grand girls. Pinned.
Thank you for this! Love it! My nieces and nephews are going to love this!
what Is the white powder for the shaving cam playdough
it’s cornstarch the author explains it in the tutorial 🙂
Wow , that is really creative way to make home made play dough. We are going to try this!
That is the best ever
I appreciate that there was a warning given about the mess involved with this. Despite that, I decided to give it a try with my 2 year old & 5 year old, and let me just say, I don’t think I have regretted anything more in recent memory. It’s a creative idea and lots of fun for the kids certainly, but not remotely worth it for the mess it makes, in my opinion. If you want to do something fun with shaving cream and food colouring I would recommend doing “puffy paint” over this. Far far less of a mess involved.
Oh no! Thanks for sharing your experience, Alyssa.
Agreed that puffy paint is a lot of fun and less messy.