Moon sand is fun, but it’s much cheaper to make your own, especially if you want a lot. This is a fun sensory play material that you can put together with just cornstarch, shaving cream, and food coloring. We had so much fun with our homemade moon sand! It feels really soft and squishy, and you can mold it and then crush it back into sand again.
To make homemade moon sand, you want to mix approximately equal amounts of shaving cream and cornstarch, but it doesn’t matter if it’s all that exact.
To make the amount that you see here, we mixed two and a half 16 oz. boxes of cornstarch, one can of shaving cream, and about 1/3 of a bottle of food coloring. We used Gilette Sensitive shaving cream (it was on sale) and it made our hands nice and soft!
Squish everything together. We used a plastic under-the-bed box for mixing and playing. Next time, I will stir the food coloring into the shaving cream before mixing as it took a lot of mixing to get it evenly distributed.
This stuff holds its shape like sand. It is softer and wetter than the snow dough we made back in January. If you want yours to be more moist and less crumbly, just add more shaving cream.
The boys had fun making castles out of the moon sand by packing it into containers. We’ve never been to the beach, so it was fun to make a “sand” castle!
This stuff does get a little messy, of course, but it swept up easily off the tile. When the weather is warmer, we may just play with it outside.
To see what a wetter version (more shaving cream) looks like, check out this post on foam dough from Fun at Home with Kids. We may make it that way next time!
I’m not sure how long this will keep. I put the lid on our container, and the dough is still fine after 5 days. I am guessing that because of the shaving cream it won’t last as long as our snow dough did (cornstarch and oil). That stuff lasts forever!
6 Comments
SW Mar 25, 2014
Hello- do you think potato starch would work as well as cornstarch? I live overseas and corn starch is only sold in small quantities, but potato starch is readily available.
Sarah Mar 26, 2014
I really don't know - we don't have potato starch here that I know of, so I'm not sure what it's like!
Frida Jan 7, 2015
It works the same when you make non-Newtonian fluids which are usually made with corn starch so I suggest you give it a try, it will most likely work just fine.
Frida Jan 7, 2015
It works the same when you make non-Newtonian fluids which are usually made with corn starch so I suggest you give it a try, it will most likely work just fine. Good luck
Emma Jun 28, 2014
If you're in Australia- that's 500grams of corn flour. You can get it at Woolies.
Amelia Jul 19, 2014
I am wanting to do this in large quantities - do you remember how much, in cups this recipe made? THANKS!!
Steph Aug 10, 2014
Do you happen to know if this works with cornflour? If so, will it be similar quantities?
Thanks :)
Sarah Aug 11, 2014
I believe that cornflour is the same thing as cornstarch. So I think it should be the same quantities?
Jamie Aug 20, 2014
So, how long did it end up lasting? I'm about to make this, but am wondering about shelf life.
manda Nov 27, 2015
I usually throw mine out right after ends up everywhere and dirty guess depends how your child plays with it
Shelly Smith Dec 10, 2015
We have had some packed away for over a year and just got it out to play with. It is a bit crumbly, so I am thinking we may add more shaving cream and mix it up to see if it will get softer and less crumbly. Has anyone else tried this?!?!
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