Magic Moon Dough - It changes colour as you play! Easy DIY recipe. (2024)

Ready to infuse your sensory science with a little magic? Check out this Magic Moon Dough recipe! It uses our incredible Moon Dough recipe that has been so popular, but has a fun twist that causes it to change colour as you touch and play with the playdough. The more you play the more dramatic the colour change!

Colour Changing Moon Dough Recipe

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Woo Wee! This was such a fun project! You know when you have an idea. One of those ideas that sticks in your brain, begging for you to try it? This was one of those ideas.

After making Colour Changing Oobleck and Colour Changing Playdough I had a bit of thermochromatic pigment left in my jars just begging to be used in a new creation.

I thought about doing a colour changing slime, but honestly, we have done slime a LOT and the kids are done with slime. They have other sensory things they enjoy more at the moment. So, we decided to give our newest obsession a magical make over. Introducing Magic Moon Dough!

We had so much fun with this Moon Dough making it change colour over and over again as we played with it over many days.

Magical Moon Dough Ingredients & Supplies

1/2 cup Potato Starch
1/2 cup Flour
2 tablespoons Coconut Oil
Thermochromatic Pigment (non-toxic)
Large bowl
Microwave safe cup
Spoon
Measuring Cups

Making Magic Moon Dough

This recipe is so easy. You can make it and be playing in just a few minutes. Start by adding 1/2 cup of potato starch and 1/2 cup of flour to a large bowl. Mix.

Note: If you don’t have potato starch, simply use all flour. The Potato Starch simply provides a much silkier, more luxurious texture to the moon dough.

Now melt 2 tablespoons of coconut oil in the microwave. Heat just until it turns liquid. In my microwave this is about 20 seconds.

Now add your thermochromatic pigment to the coconut oil. I used about 2 teaspoons worth. Adjust to suit your preference. Mix.

Add the liquid solution to the bowl of dry mix. Work it all together with your hands until they are completely mixed. You now have Moon Dough!

Store it in an airtight container. It should last about 2 weeks.

When you play the moon dough will change colour. The heat from your hands causes the colour change. Stop playing and the moon dough starts to cool and change back to the original colour. Start playing with the moon dough and watch the color changes happen all over again.

Place the warm moon dough in the fridge for a minute to speed up the colour change.

Play Tip! Try using warmed or cooled items to play with your moon dough and watch how they cause those colours to change.

Science Talk

Emulsifiers

First, let’s talk about a big difference between our regular Moon Dough and this Magic Moon Dough recipe. Did you notice that we don’t need to use the Polysorbate 80? That’s because the thermochromatic pigment is an oil based pigment. So it mixes with our coconut oil quickly and easily.

In fact, this pigment will not mix with water. So if you wanted to use it in water you would need to use Polysorbate 80 emulsifier in that project. Pretty cool how the roles are reversed this time!

You may have even noticed this issue when making your Colour Changing Play Dough. The colours only combine once you start kneading.

Thermochromatic (Colour Changing) Pigment

When a substance changes colour due to temperature changes we say it isThermochromic. This comes from the Greek words thermos (heat) and chroma (color).

Thermochromic pigments use liquid crystals or leucodye technology. Leucodyes are organic (carbon-based) chemicals that change color when heat energy makes their molecules shift back and forth between two subtly differently molecular structures. These different structures cause the pigment to absorb and reflect light at different wavelengths. This results in the pigment being one of two different colours depending on the temperature.

The best part is that it is completely reversible. So play with your moon dough, warming it with your hands and watch it change colour. Then stop playing and watch as it changes back to the original colour. Want to speed up the process? After playing place it in the fridge for a couple of minutes and watch the magic unfold!

Pro Tip! Pick your thermochromatic pigment carefully. Some of them have VERY high change values. This is the point where the colour changes. For this experiment I used three pigments that had change values of either 22 C (72 F) or 25C (77 F). We have Black – Yellow, Red – Yellow and Blue – Violet. You should also pick pigments that have a fairly dramatic colour change for the best effect. Our blue-violet pigment was barely visible. However our red-yellow was dramatic and so much fun!

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