Make some wonderfully creamy coconut play dough with this easy, 2-ingredient recipe! It smells wonderful and is so soft and bright! It makes a perfect invitation to play with coconut play dough and natural loose materials. It is scented sensory fun and fine motor development all rolled into one for little ones!
Recently I posted about the silky soft play dough recipe for sensitive skin. It was so wonderfully soft and gorgeous to manipulate that I was keen to make more for the girls to enjoy.
This time we used the exact same method but changed one of the ingredients, back to the original idea that we had found at Play Create Explore.
How to make creamy coconut play dough:
Ingredients needed:
1 cup cornflour (cornstarch)
5 tbsps coconut hair conditioner
Method:
Simply tip 1 cup of cornflour into a bowl then add 5 tablespoons of hair conditioner.
Make sure to mix each spoonful in one at a time until the final one, and then put your hands in to knead it into a ball. It shouldn’t be sticky but if it is for some reason, then take it out and continue to roll and knead it on a surface with cornflour sprinkled onto it, until it is right.
If it is too dry then dip your fingertips into some conditioner and knead again.
When it is ready it will be wonderfully smooth, soft and squishy, like a ball of the softest play dough ever! 
It is bright white and smells just wonderful, like a fresh coconut, and makes for really fantastic sensory play time!
I then set it out as an Invitation to Play for the girls to discover and explore with added extras, with an emphasis on exploring texture and pattern.
Included in this invitation to play:
a dish of desiccated coconut shavings
some pine cones
a jar of wooden beads in various tones, shapes and patterns
a rolling pin
They sprinkled on the coconut shavings to become ice cream with sprinkles, then we kneaded it into the dough to add texture.
By rolling the pine cones in the dough sideways and pushing them down from the top, different patterns could be created in the dough’s surface.
The beads were lovely for counting, making patterns and pushing in and pulling out of the dough. 
As with the sensitive skin play dough, this play dough does not last long due to the cornflour ingredient, which has a tendency to dry out and crumble. It could probably last a few days if sealed tight and kept in the fridge, but we chose to use it as a one-time only recipe.
However, if you are looking for a very long lasting, no-cook play dough that takes just a few minutes to make then our Best Ever Play Dough Recipe is for you! Tried, tested and recommend by hundreds of readers over the past few years, it really is fabulous!
See hundreds of ways to play with play dough here in our archives (we are addicted!)
And a quick reference guide to a complete A-Z of play dough recipes and activities, all from this site!
Looking for natural play ideas? Here are 10 Natural Play Dough recipes to try!
Here’s a fun way to use play dough to make Easter egg surprises!
What they are learning as they play:
physical: fine motor strengthening and development
creative: using one item to represent another in role play and imaginative play, combining materials
Cakie: 5.5
Pop: 3.11
Bean: 2.0
This is wonderful! Thank you for the great idea – pinecones for texture! How had I missed that?
I am always looking for new sensory and play dough recipes since my kids LOVE them! Thanks so much for sharing 🙂
I bet it smells wonderfully beautiful. And what a gorgeous bright white colour. Mmmm I love coconut
We’ve literally just made this and it is fabulous! My 3 year old loves it and has so far spent half an hour just watching it stretch and fall from his hands. Even the 11 month old has given it a few pokes and pinches! Wonderful idea, thank you 🙂
Ok, you are the queen of playdough recipes!!! This is perfect! I remember purchasing the coconut flakes ages ago with a playdough idea in mind but, nothing like this!! AWESOME! Thank you SOO much for all of the time and energy you put into sharing these recipes and fun with alll of your many world wide readers 😀 You’re Wonderful!!
Jeanine from Canada 😉
I’m unsure how well this will work with the coconut playdough, but I use it with marshmallow fondant for cakes and in my childrens regular playdough when it gets a bit dry and crumbly. Just add in small amounts glycerine. For a batch the size of the recipe above just a few drops should be fine. Knead it in and voila! Glycerine is great for making bubbles too.
I have made this today at the pre school I work, it was lovely at first but then crumbled & went everywhere. Not sure if I would make again.
The problem could be the ingredients listed as cornflour is not the same as corn starch. If you used cornflour that might be the issue.
Have you tried using coconut oil instead of conditioner? Conditioner has so many different odd ingredients in it.
Can you use regular conditioner??
I have regular and I don’t feel like going out and buying some.
You can just use regular conditioner 😀 I tried it at pre school where I work and the kids loved it!
Great idea!!!
The creamy coconut play dough is great! We let it dry for 2/3 days and it became tough and very good to paint. We don´t want any other play dough recipe thanks!!
New art and craft and sensory/investigative adeas
Amazing – just made it, can’t wait to play with it, I mean my little girl to play with! 😉
Another fab recipe for playdough!
I just followed your recipe for the coconut dough. Was wondering why you used 5 tbs. of conditioner and the blog Play, Create used 3/4 cup? Mine seems a little crumbly. Just curious about the amounts you used.
Also, I did buy conditioner at Dollar store, but the smell is starting to get to me. I am going to regular store and find a different brand and try again! Thanks!
My girls and I have been planning to make this for a while and I’m glad we finally did! I couldn’t find cream of tartar at either of the grocery stores in my small town, so I used baking powder instead. I also used coconut oil (it’s summertime, so it was a liquid consistency) since I didn’t have any vegetable oil. Both substitutions worked beautifully. We made yellow, blue, and green dough and decided to scent each color with lemon, lavender, and peppermint essential oils. We’re out of red food coloring, but I probably will buy some since the girls are having so much fun mixing the colors to make new ones.
Oops! Just realized that I posted this under the wrong recipe. It was in response to the “Best Ever No-Cook” recipe.
I find that it leaves pieces in my hand. Have I done something wrong? Thanks.
This turned out ok. It wasn’t amazing playdough but for only two ingredients it was a fast craft. I thnk the type of conditioner you use will probably yield different results.