It's a unique aroma. I guess you'll have to ask if any of your grandkids have any around so you can take a whiff....
Hasbro wants to patent the smell and describes it like this:
“a unique scent formed through the combination of a sweet, slightly musky, vanilla-like fragrance, with slight overtones of cherry, and the natural smell of a salted, wheat-based dough.”
http://www.insidecounsel.com/2017/03...play-doh-smell
So in other words it doesn't have the sweaty socks smell Ballistol has even though it is very good stuff. I only use Ballistol to wipe down my wood stocks.