Recipes

Welcome to Recipe Central. You will find many bubble juice recipes here on the wiki. If you are curious to learn how bubble juice works and what the various ingredients do, take a look at Bubble Juice Basics.

About this page (please read)

This page provides recipes for people that want to make their own bubble juice. There are excellent commercial products available for those that prefer not to brew their own juices.

This recipe list is not in order of preference or quality. It is more-or-less in order that the recipes were added, although there are exceptions. The page is in the process of being re-organized (August 2013). You can see how most of these recipes perform by taking a look at the related videos and pictures. Your success with these recipes will depend quite a bit on the atmospheric conditions and your bubble wand.

If you want to learn what makes bubble juice work, read Bubble Juice Basics.

What is the best bubble juice? Read Edward's thoughts about the best bubble juice.

If you are looking for a recipe that uses easy-to-find ingredients and also creates world-class bubbles (of any size), I recommend trying this simple guar-based recipe.

All of the recipes on this page are capable of creating great bubbles. What recipe you like best will depend a lot on your own personal preference.

Popular recipes include: the guar-based recipe, Mike's Gooey Mix and Mike's Stir 'n Go mix. Many people are fond of eGoo super-concentrate, but it takes some experimentation to get the amount of PEO right as it seems to be sensitive to variations of PEO potency. If you are serious about bubbles, try an HEC-based mix, too.

If you spend much time browsing the internet, you will notice how radically recipes vary. For example, one finds water to detergent ratios of (by volume) anywhere from 1 to 1 to 20 to 1 -- usually, however, you don't get to see the solution in action or know how it compares to other solutions. At this Wiki, we are trying to engage (as much as possible) in fact-based postings. When adding recipes, provide as much information as you can about your water quality and how you use the solution -- and add pictures or link to movies.

It is quite possible that the radical variations that people recommend are because of variations in local atmospheric conditions (a solution that works well in a locale with high humidity may not work well in a locale with dry air) and water quality. While tap water seems to work as well as (or better than) distilled water in most recipes in most locales, some recipes may be more sensitive to the qualities of the water than others.

As time goes on, we hope to document (in other articles) the relative characteristics of different detergents and even different tap waters in the hope of determining whether there is a way to predict whether one should be using tap or distilled water for a particular recipe.

If you try a recipe, please add a comment to indicate its success or failure or any adjustments that you found beneficial.

Recipe Submission Guidelines

Please follow these guidelines:

• Only submit a recipe that you have actually used
• Recipes should be actual recipes rather than an advertisement for a commercial bubble product.
• If you have a commercial interest in any of the ingredients used in your recipe, please make note of this interest in your entry.
• Add your recipe at the bottom of the page.
• If possible, please provide pictures or video of the bubble solution in action and make a note of what sort of bubbles you make with the solution.
• All recipes, photos and videos provided with the creator's consent.

If your submission does not follow these guidelines, we may remove it from the wiki.

Recipes

Recipes for Getting Started

When the wiki started, there were only a few recipes. The number of recipes has grown a lot and continues to grow. We get a lot of questions asking for the best recipe.

Which one should you start with? There is no best recipe. Our own extensive testing plus reports from countless enthusiasts (amateur and pro), leads us to say that people have diverse preferences. So, we recommend that you experiment with a few recipes and see what works for you.

While there is no single best recipe for beginners (for the reasons why, see the page Best Bubble Juice), we can offer some advice. The guar-based bubble juice has become very popular since it was published as it is easy to mix, uses ingredients that are generally available locally and makes world-class bubbles. There may be recipes that you will eventually find even better, but many people are so thrilled with the bubbles that they stick with it. Brian Lawrence's simple mix uses easy-to-find ingredients and many love it. Glowby has provided his version of Brian's mix here.

If you have J-Lube or PolyOx WSR301 (see PEO and Ingredients) you might find Mike's Gooey Mix or Mike's Stir 'n Go mix or eGoo a great place to start. Or, you might try mixing up some Bubble Power Powder. Brian Lawrence's recipes are also popular with some.

If you have HEC, one of our favorites is Edward's HEC recipe.

All the recipes here have been used to create great bubbles.

Detergent. The detergent you use is critical. See the Detergent article for our current recommendations.

Starting Out. We can't emphasize enough that if you are getting started, it is worth following the recipe slavishly. A great many requests that we get for help are the result of making ingredient substitutions or amounts from the get-go. Resist the temptation to second guess the authors until you have some experience. We encourage experimentation, but we recommend that you get something working before improvising.

Bubble Juice Basics. Want to know more about what makes bubble juice tick? See Bubble Juice Basics.

Equipment and Environment. One last thought for those getting started. Your equipment and the environment (heat, humidity, wind, pollen, pollution, etc.) have a huge impact on the bubbles you make (or the ability to make a bubble at all). If a recipe isn't working for you, it is worth giving thought to whether the equipment or conditions might be part of the problem.

Commercial Products

For commercial bubble juice and mixes, see the Readymade category. These products include concentrates and powders to which you add water or water and detergents. For the casual bubbler, commercial mixes are often the way to go.

Guar-based bubble mix

A free-floating (though short-lived) giant from this session. 1.5 grams guar/liter water.

[Added June 2012] This simple guar gum-based recipe is quite effective -- especially if you don't have J-Lube or PolyOx WSR301. It may actually outperform PEO-based mixes (i.e., those with J-Lube or PolyOx) when conditions are dry (30%-45% humidity).

This is a great recipe with which to get started as it uses ingredients that can usually be sourced locally. The recipe is so forgiving that a four-year-old can mix it up. A video showing how to make this bubble juice is available on its recipe page.

2012 07 15 guar giants

Watch in HD on YouTube! Some highlights of an epic session. This was a slight variation of this recipe that used table salt as a dispersant when hydrating the guar gum.

2012 07 12 guar juice bubbles-in-bubbles

Bubble-in-bubble is easy with guar-based mixes with the correct amount of guar gum.

Brian's Lube Mix aka BLM [an additive for making giant bubbles]

This is not a bubble juice recipe per se. BLM is a polymer mix that turns water and dishwashing liquid into great bubble juice. See the full recipe here .

Jumbo Juice (giant bubbles and smaller)

Read the Jumbo Juice article for the recipe of one of the premier giant bubble recipes -- which is also great for small bubbles and bubble sculpture.

Bubble Power Powder

This is a convenient J-Lube based powder mix that you can make from J-Lube and citric acid. I make pre-measured packets that I can give to friends that want to make giant bubbles but don't have the precision measuring equipment needed to work with PEO or citric acid. -- Edward Spiegel.

See the recipe here.

Mike's "Gooey Mix"

Mike making great bubbles with this mix.

Mike Miller is the founder of SBF, the Soap Bubble Fanciers Yahoo Group (RIP) whose beautiful videos speak for themselves. Mike recommends mixing this up as a concentrate and mixing on site with distilled water. Mike has a lot of great video of his bubbles at his Bubble Project site.

This concentrate is diluted 8-to-1 (water-to-concentrate) which yields a 17:1 water:detergent ratio.

Ingredients (for concentrate to be mixed with two gallons of water):

• 2 cups warm/hot tap water
• 2 cups Dawn Pro (Dawn Manual Pot & Pan)
• 7 grams baking powder (not baking soda)
• 4 grams J-Lube powder (see J-Lube note below)

Preparation

Pre-measure your powders.
Into a 4-cup (1 liter) or larger container (Mike uses a 4-cup measuring cup):

Pour in 2 cups of warm/hot tap water.
Add the 2 cups of Dawn Pro
Add 7 grams of baking powder

VERY QUICKLY add 4 grams J-Lube powder and immediately stir briskly with a large fork creating a convection-shaped motion within the mix while trying not to froth/foam the surface. Continue beating until there are very few clumps left. This will take a minute or two with a healthy wrist.

Making one gallon of concentrate. When Mike mixes this up, he pours the concentrate into a gallon jug and repeats the steps 3 more times to create one gallon of concentrate.

Diluting the Concentrate

To make the bubble juice, add two cups of concentrate to one gallon of distilled water. (Edward notes: unless you have really bad water, you should be able to use tap water without ill effect.)

Mike's notes. Mike notes that the concentrate seems to improve with age for at least a few weeks. He typically mixes it up the night before a bubbling session and will turn the jug end-over-end, jiggle and shake the jug of concentrate too, before going to bed and before making bubbles the next day to make sure that it is well mixed. He uses cotton piping cord for his tri-string loops and fabulous garland wands. He prefers Wright's 6/32 inch Cotton Piping Cord which can be found at Joanne's Fabrics among other places. Note: this cord is also available as Wright's 6/32-inch Cotton Filler cord. As such, it is often available in the sewing needs section of Walmart.

J-Lube Note (March 2015). The amount of J-Lube used is quite a bit compared to many other recipes. We suspect that this amount may need to be adjusted down somewhat if you are using fresh, full-potency J-Lube. If the diluted mix is TOO stringy (see PEO), try using half the amount of J-Lube.

NOTE: Do not worry about the white sediment that appears at the bottom of your container. It is totally normal in any mix that includes baking powder. Baking powder has a lot of corn starch in it. Corn starch is insoluble in room temperature water. The corn starch in baking powder (at least in the 3 brands that I have tried) is not even soluble in warm and hot water unlike "normal" corn starch. The sediment does no harm, and there is no benefit in trying to get it to incorporate into the mix.

An anonymous user posted this comment: "(June 2015) Dawn Ultra (2X on label) is easiest to find in most U.S. Supermarkets and I found that mixing the J-Lube and baking powder with the Dawn first (I used a cleaned emptied Gatorade plastic bottle) was an easy way of dissolving the powders It is a real gooey mix but then I added to the water at 18:1 ratio and got nice bubbles and mix was good for 1 week plus Still trying to get longer lasting than 5-10 seconds".

Edward Spiegel replies to the anonymous commenter: "I would recommend seeing if you can track down Dawn Pro, you may see an improvement in the performance. What size are the bubbles you are making and what are the temperature and humidity? If these are giant bubbles in dry weather 5-10 seconds would be great. If these are giant bubbles in decent conditions, the results are not what one would expect."

Bubbling Mount Davidson

All bubbles made in this video made with this recipe

 

Bubbling Sutro Heights Park

A fabulous video made with the solution described here (some shots in the video make use of Sterling's recipe).

 

Mike's "Stir-&-Go"

Mike Ashe writes: This recipe which I call "Stir & Go" is a variation of Mike Miller's "Mike's Gooey Mix" found at Soap Bubble Wiki. I did a LOT of experimenting to get these amounts just right.

Recipe:

• 1 gallon of HOT tap water

• .5 gallon of COLD tap water

• 1.25 cups of Dawn Professional Manual Pot and Pan detergent

• 2 level teaspoons of Clabber Girl double acting baking powder (Other baking powder should work too)

• .5 level teaspoon (1.5g) of J-Lube (see note)

Instructions:

1. Fill bucket with 1 gallon of the hottest tap water possible. (Mark your bucket at this level for future mixes so you can fill directly from the sink.)
2. Sprinkle in the J-Lube as slowly as possible to avoid clumping while quickly stirring the water with a chopstick. (I use a coated/lacquered chopstick to keep the J-Lube from sticking and accumulating on it, you can probably use a knife or fork.)
3. Continue stirring for a minute.
4. Add .5 gallon of cold tap water.
5. (Mark the bucket at this level for future mixes.)
6. Pour in the Dawn and let it settle on the bottom of the bucket without stirring.
7. Now, sprinkle in the baking powder while quickly stirring the entire solution. You may feel the solution thicken after a few stirs!
8. Once all the baking powder on top has been mixed in, you're ready to make some awesome bubbles.
9. Don't forget to pray for gentle and steady wind, high humidity, and no bugs!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fAUhX0UDlvc

IMPORTANT NOTE: The amount of J-Lube you use may have to be adjusted. This recipe is based on full-potency J-Lube. The result will be a slightly stringy mix. The amount of J-Lube is about 8 times what we call the nominal minimum effective concentration (NMEC) of fresh J-Lube (see PEO). If your mix is not "stringy" (see the PEO article) at all you may need to increase the amount by 2-4 times.

Wayne Schmidt's Recipe

How To Blow Giant Bubbles Part 3

Wayne Schmidt performed extensive testing of a number of recipes and recipe variants and came up with a J-Lube and Surgilube based recipe that you will find here. On his recipe page, you will also find a link to the excellent page where he details his search for the ideal bubble recipe. Don't miss it!

 

HEC-Based Giant Bubble Recipe

2013 01 05 Session. HEC from 3:1 concentrate

HEC-based recipes can compete with any bubble juice for any sized bubbles. Edward's favorite recipe for ideal conditions is one of the HEC recipes. Check out Edward's HEC-based bubble juice recipes. Another recipe to check out is Edward's HEC-PEO mix that he calls HECP.

 

Sterling's Mix (giant bubbles and smaller)

In the Soap Bubble Fancier's Yahoo group, Sterling Johnson -- who creates amazing bubbles with just his hands and bubble juice -- has published his preferred recipe which is reproduced with the author's permission. It is very good at different dilutions for anything from small to large bubbles. It can be used with your hands as the wands, or with traditional bubbling equipment.

Concentrate Ingredients:

• 1 part (by volume) - Dawn Hand Renewal Diswashing Liquid
• 1/8 part (by volume) - Dawn Pro Manual Pot & Pan Diswashing Liquid
• 1 part (by volume) - Mr. Bubbles commercial bubble mix or other (see notes) if you can't find Mr. Bubbles
• 1/8 to 1/4 part (by volume) - Glycerine

Other Ingredients:

• Tap Water
• BLM (Brian's Lube Mix -- see above)

Combine the concentrate ingredients. If you can leave it uncovered overnight, it may improve the mix. Combine 1 part of concentrate with 6 parts water. Add BLM at the rate of 1 to 4 ounces per gallon. Sterling notes that he uses a little less than 6 parts water for indoor work.

If you cannot find Mr. Bubbles, Gazillion Bubbles (the one in the green bottles) is a nice substitute. Edward believes that Amazing Bubbles or other solutions from Placo would work well, too. Miracle Bubbles and Super Miracle Bubbles probably don't work so well.

Glowby's Flexible Mix

Glowby has posted a recipe and tips for a mix inspired by Sterling's mix (see above). This is a nice all-around mix. Glowby's Flexible Mix

Todd K's "Walmart Mix"

Todd Kamisugi has gotten very good results with a mix he developed from ingredients available at Walmart. The results which you can see in this video speak for themselves.

Todd K's Big Bubbles

Todd Kamisugi using his Walmart Mix

• 4 parts super miracle bubbles
• 1 part dawn classic
• 3 parts filtered water
• 1/4 part equate lube
• around 1/8 part glycerin

He mentions that he is in Hawaii and should probably list high humidity as an ingredient, too.

In the video, he is using 20 foot fishing poles (Kwik Stix Bream Poles purchased from WalMart) which are shown below. The loop is made from a single strand of Acrylic knitting yarn (also shown below). Todd mentions that the two end sections of the fishing poles needed to be removed because the wet loop was too heavy for the thin end sections.

Equipment used in the video

Walmart Mix Ingredients

The wand's poles

The yarn

The wand's business end

There is a thread about this recipe on SBF.

Lionel's UK Recipe

Lionel putting the solution to good use

Lionel's Early morning Tubes

Some nice tubes made with a variant of this recipe

Lionel Stanhope provides this recipe from London with ingredients easily found in the UK with the aid of Ebay. The recipe makes 9 litres.

{C}Ingredients

• Tap water
• 200 ml Fairy washing up liquid [Lionel likes the yellow version]
• 40 ml Glycerin
• 20 grams KY Jelly
• 4 ml (just under 1 teaspoon) J-Lube powder

Preparation

Pour 1 liter of tap water into a saucepan with a capacity of at least 2 liters and bring to a boil. While the water is coming to a boil:

• Add 7 liters of hot tap water to a 10 liter bucket.
• Squeeze in 200 ml of Fairy washing up liquid.
• Add 40 ml of glycerin and stir gently with a long-handled wooden spoon.

Now, the saucepan should have come to a boil. Turn off the heat. Gently stir 20 grams of KY Jelly into the water until it has completely dissolved. Your water will be slightly cloudy. Start stirring again and add the JLube powder (while stirring with the other hand). Continue stirring until the J-Lube has dissolved and the solution is smooth. Add 1 liter cold water to the water/KY Jelly/J-Lube mix and stir. The addition of the cold water will cool and thicken the mix.

Pour the contents of the saucepan into the bucket that contains the water/Fairy/glycerin mix. Stir to mix. Be careful to avoid creating too much foam (i.e. create as little as possible. This mix is ready to go as soon as it is cool enough to handle. The solution may thicken or get a little stringy over time. If this happens, add a little water to balance it out.

Early Morning Bubbles. Hilly Fields. London SE4

Lionel demonstrates his bubble juice

{C}

 

Big Bubbler's "2005 Homebrew" Formula

Comments in this formula originally by Big Bubbler (This is a wiki so who knows who wrote it last :-))

This is a complicated mix that makes very large and somewhat light weight bubbles. This mix uses pretty easy to find ingredients. This mix does not keep well once fully mixed up, esp. if used (dirty)(maybe a couple weeks if stored cool but not too cold). This was the best mix I knew of in 2005. I think better mixes are being figured out by the folks on this Wiki :-). {C}

{C}

It is good to remember, when you have a good mix, you still need special air qualities for the really big bubbles. If your formula is one that is supposed to be good for big bubbling and does not seem to be working, it is usually an air quality issue. The answer to "What's the best formula?" depends on Wand Size and Material, the conditions of the bubbling site and your bubbling goals. If I say I think something works better, that means I think it makes bigger bubbles. Any big bubbling mix should also work great for small bubbles as they are easy to make.

When Procter and Gamble (maker of Dawn and Joy) messed up the dishsoap formulas again (so our regular, simple formulas quit working), we began to look for a new one. In 2005 "Ehud the Bubbleman" joined in the fun here in Oregon. He became somewhat obsessed with bubbling and with very open-minded bubble formula experiments. After hundreds of hours of testing my ideas and his ideas and those discussed on the Soapbubblefanciers Yahoo group, we came up with this formula that works well (even in light to medium rain)! This batch makes a pretty full 5 gallon bucketful: sorry, I don't have the metric conversions handy.

 

Faerieworlds2011pt.A w Faun

10 minutes of general bubbling w nice music

Bubbles OCF style

Doing Donuts When low wind (camera phone Quality)

 

{C}

{C}

The kind of beer may not be important?

{C}The Base Mix:

• 1 and 1/2 Gallons of steam distilled (only) or good quality very clean water
• 60 ounces Miracle Bubbles
• 40 ounces Super Miracle Bubbles
• 20 to 25 ounces Dawn Complete (Dishsoap), green or blue (Can be replaced with another P&G Dishsoap)
• 25 ounces Dawn Lift-Action, red (wildflower Medley) or Yellow (Can be replaced with another P&G Dishsoap)

{C}This, I call the base mix. This seems to store pretty well and so I wait to add other stuff until I'm within a few days of bubble time (where I will use it up).

The "lubes": {C}In advance, I mix up the "lubes" with another 2 gallons of water. {C}Some of the "lubes" need to be premixed a day or more ahead.

• 4 ounces Astroglide (personal Lubricant), purple box into one gallon of water. (Found in the unmentionables department)
• 2 and 1/2 ounces of Equate (personal Lubricant)(a walmart brand) into 1/2 Gallon of water. wallmart sucks and you may be able to substitute a pharmacy product called Surgilube.
• 6 to 8 ounces Light Karo Corn Syrup into 1/2 Gallon of water.

{C}Shake the lubes occasionally and before adding to the base mix. I often store a gallon or so of most of these premixed lubes for months without any noticible problems. The Karo Syrup is an exception as it does start to grow black stuff in the jug after a month or more.

The Beer: {C}Lastly, one beer. We use an 11 ounce "Full Sail Session" Lager (5.1% alch.) {C}The beer is not crucial, if it is not an option. Try your mix without it and then add it to see what you think. We think it helps.

Half as much Glycerine is often substituted for the corn syrup. "Mr Bubbles" bubble mix is often given higher reviews when compared to "Miracle Bubbles". My feeling is that the Mr. is a better product, however, it was not really available here in large amounts . I do not know if the 2005 mix would be better with the Mr.. Increasing the Dawn complete (while decreasing the Lift action) will make the mix more self-healing and better for bubble tricks. Useing a pure "powerful cleaning" type Joy or Dawn (no "Complete") is less forgiving but is best for making the biggest bubbles.

Adam's UK Recipe

Bubble in the snow

{C}

More bubbles in the snow

Double bubble

INGREDIENTS

• 1800ml = Tap Water
• 150ml = Fairy Liquid (Green, Blue or Yellow)
• 100ml = Glycerin
• 10gr = Baking Powder
• 1gr = Xanthan Gum
• 1gr = Tylo Powder (sodium carboxymethyl cellulose, CMC)
• 0.4gr = Polyox (PEO)

{C}PREPARATION

Add the water and Fairy into a bucket. Sprinkle the baking powder while stirring the mix. Add 50ml Glycerin into a measuring jug or small bowl. Add all of the Xanthan and Tylo powders into the Glycerin while mixing with a spoon. Pour Glycerin and Xanthan/Tylo mix into the bucket while stirring the mixture. Add another 50ml Glycerin into a measuring jug or small bowl. Add the Polyox into the Glycerin while mixing with a spoon. Pour Glycerin and Polyox mix into the bucket while stirring the mixture and continue to stir for 3-4mins.

The string that I use with the above mixture is 7mm white 100% Cotton Piping Cord.

[EDWARD NOTES: Adam remarks that the Tylo powder is optional as his friend gets great results when omitting it. If you try this recipe, try with and without the Tylo powder and let us know what you think.]

 

Bubble in the snow

{C}

More bubbles in the snow

Edward's Basic Recipe Sept. 2011

A monster bubble made with homemade bubble "juice" and wand.

[Notes revised May 2014]. This recipe makes a concentrate that you can dilute at anywhere from 3-to-1 to 5-to-1 depending on your preferences and conditions. Edward writes: This is a reliable juice whose concentrate is stable for years. In 2011, this was my preferred PEO mix though eGoo is my current favorite PEO mix. It is versatile and easy to mix up. It is a concentrate that you mix 1 to 3 with tap water. I measure out the ingredients for the concentrate by weight but often dilute by volume as the proportions are such that it makes no noticeable difference unless you are very sloppy when measuring out the ingredients. You can use as little as half as much or as much as twice as much PEO. Try it with a range of amounts and see what you prefer.

CONCENTRATE: The proportions I give here make about 8 fluid ounces of concentrate which is convenient for me when making up concentrate to give to friends. Simply multiply to make larger batches.

2011 11 Beach Bubbles

Beach Giants made on a windy day with this recipe.

 

This concentrate is apparently quite stable. In May 2014, a friend found a bottle that I mixed up in Autumn 2011 and it worked perfectly. A question has been raised on SBF as to whether baking soda/citric acid may negatively influence shelf-life. This seems not to be the case as I have had mix that was left over after a session that worked fine more than one month later and concentrates that were fine after two months.

When diluted, this yields a solution that is 12.2 parts water to 1 part detergent and is .010% high molecular weight PEO. It also contains 1 gram baking soda per quart (liter) of water and .5 to .77 grams citric acid per quart of water. You will notice that I don't add any glycerine as I am finding that the amount of glycerine needed to benefit a dilute solution is so high as to be prohibitively expensive and the difference is pretty subtle when making giant bubbles outdoors.

• 13 grams BLM OR 10 grams 1% WSR301 solution OR 0.1 gram WSR301 OR 0.4 grams J-Lube
• 162 grams water (I used tap water)
• 69 grams Dawn Pro dishwashing detergent
• 1 gram baking soda
• 0.5 to 0.77 grams citric acid.

I sometimes add the baking soda to the water then add the PEO-containing stuff (BLM, WSR301, J-Lube, or whatever) then add the detergent and then add the citric acid. Sometimes I add the baking soda and citric acid together to the water and then add the other ingredients.

NOTE MAY 2014: This juice will work even better if you had 1/2 tsp baking powder per liter (or quart) of bubble juice) AFTER diluting it. Try diluting this at 4 to 1 (water to concentrate) or even 5 to 1) and compare to the recommended 3 to 1. PEO NOTE: As with all PEO-based solutions (that is that use PolyOx WSR301 or J-Lube), you may need to experiment with the amount of PEO as its potency changes over time.

Brian Lawrence Recipes

Brian's "competition mix". Brian's go-to recipe for professional bubble-making.

Brian's Simple Mix. Brian's recommendation for people looking for a recipe that can be mixed from easy-to-find ingredients.

HAKA Recipe

I have made ~1000 liters of this solution over the last 3 years. I found it on HAKA's website (they make the neutral soap) to which I added more details on mixing, which ingredients can be found in Austria/Germany, technical details about the ingredients and translated into German which can be found here.

Here are the instructions to make 10 liters of liquid for about 5€:

• 500g (fine or regular) granulated sugar, although powdered seems to also work (but is slightly more expensive).
• 25g wallpaper paste which contains Methyl cellulose. Avoid any special ones e.g. extra strength, etc. containing extra ingredients, just get the regular boring stuff. I prefer Henkel brand which is ~5€ for 125g. “Swing Decor” seems to also work fine and may be purchased at most hardware stores (e.g. Obi). It may also be possible to make your own, there are lots of recipes online, but I have not tried yet. Do NOT use OBI “Classic”!
• 750g HAKA "neutralseife" (neutral soap?). 5 kg costs ~19 Euro + shipping.
• 9L of regular tap water. Some bubble “purists” will say distilled water is important for bubble recipes, but from my testing there is zero noticeable difference, except that it’s not free, is difficult to transport and it’s not safe for human consumption (not that I recommend drinking bubble liquid, but when children play with this liquid, it’s naturally better to have safe ingredients).

1. 1L luke-warm water and sugar. DO NOT HEAT AND MIX. Mix until no more sugar particles. It should take about 5 minutes before the sugar is completely dissolved.
2. Add 25g of wallpaper paste. Mix for about 5 minutes until liquid is very thick and slimy.
3. Add 750g of HAKA soap. Mix thoroughly until thick and creamy. I usually mix for about 5 minutes.
4. Add ~8 liters of “regular” cold tap water (or until your 10L bucket is full). Mix thoroughly (and gently) as you add the water. A lot of foam will appear during this process, so it may be necessary to add some water now, let it rest for a few hours until the foam goes away, then add the rest of the water later.
5. Let mixture sit for 24 hours.

 

Large bubbles adhesive wallpaper, fairy, sugar

Write the text of 5 grams per liter of glue Metylan Normal (certainly available in OBI) cost 15 zł per pack

Fairy 225 ml / liter

50 grams sugar / liter

Method of preparation

1 liter of hot tap water (approximately 60 degrees in the tank 6 liters)

how do 4 liters of solution is poured 20 grams of glue.

Spin the bottle 3-5 times strongly shaken bottle.

Topping 3litry cold water from the tap. 2x shaken bottle

Cools 1-2 days

Every morning and evening, pour the solution in the bottle

On the 2nd-3rd day

The solution was heated to 36-37 degrees

I add 50 grams of sugar per liter, mix 2-5 minutes

Fairy 225 ml per liter of solution

mix about 5 minutes, so you can mix to achieve better results

I leave with fluid on the balcony at night

The next day, you can no longer use our article here!

Wielkie bańki mydlane , przepis na www.baniek.pl

Przepis dla osób polskojęzycznych

5 gram na litr kleju do tapet Metylan Normal (na pewno dostępny w OBI) koszt 15 zł za opakowanie
Fairy 225 ml / litr
50 gram cukru / litr
Sposób przygotowania
Prościzna 1 litr gorącej wody z kranu (około 60 stopni w baniak 6 litrów)
jak robimy 4 litry roztworu to wsypuję 20 gram kleju .
Zakręcam butelkę , 3-5 razy b.silnie wstrząsam butelką.
Dolewam 3litry zimnej wody z kranu. 2x wstrzącham butlą
Stygnie i gryzie 1-2 dni
Codziennie rano i wieczorem , przelewam w butli roztwór
Na 2gi-3ci dzień
Roztwór podgrzewam do 36-37 stopni
dodaję cukier 50 gram na litr , mieszam 2-5 minut
Fairy 225 ml na litr roztworu
mieszam 5 min

Hisao Oono's Amazing Bubbles [Japan]

Mr. Hisao Oono of Japan creates some of the worlds most amazing bubbles. His recipe is here. You will find many images of his great bubbles on his blog which I highly recommend. Unfortunately, this recipe requires ingredients that seem to only be available in Japan.

EGoo. Super-concentrate for Giant Bubbles

Added April 2012. This is Edward's recipe for a super-concentrated goo that can be diluted with 12.5 to 22 parts water! It makes great colorful, giant bubbles. Ingredients: water, detergent, WSR301 (or J-Lube), baking soda and citric acid.

Click here to see the recipe and details.

Edward's HECP Recipe

HECP sometimes called HECWSR is a recipe that uses both HEC and PEO. It is great for all kinds of bubbles including endless tubes and supergiants. Works great for small bubbles, too.

Edward's PHC Recipes (2012)

These recipes are viscous bubble juices for those that like slow-flowing mixes. They are capable of creating long tubes and beautiful giants. PHC Recipes. They use PEO, HPMC and CMC.

 

Worker 11811's Big Bubble JUICE - Aug. 2014

Added August 2014, click here to visit this guar gum and J-Lube based recipe.

Legacy Recipes

The recipes below are include for completeness. They create great bubbles and were among the first recipes posted on the wiki. They no longer represent the state-of-the-art, but they are still solid recipes.

A Basic Big Bubble Recipe (Edward Spiegel, June 2010)

This is a reliable big bubble recipe that seems to perform as well as (if not better) than many commercial big bubble formulations. The video clip shows bubbles created with this solution on a day when the conditions were not particularly conducive to bubbling (humidity 50% or less and quite a bit of wind). This bubble juice seems easy to use for first time bubblers.

NOTE (Feb. 2012): My current preferred recipe is the Sept. 2011 version found further down the page.

May 17 Some Pretty Big Bubbles

Some pretty big bubbles created with this mixture on a day with sub-optimal conditions.

There are even better recipes out there, but this works great as you can see in the video.

• 8 to 12 cups tap water (I am on the SF Bay Peninsula which has pretty good water although the pH is about 9.1). I used 8 cups when brewing up the solution used in the videos. But I have found that you can use up to 12 cups of water. With the additional water, it can be a little trickier to get the bubbles to close. The colors may be somewhat better in the more dilute solution.
• 1 cup Dawn Ultra dish detergent
• 3.5 grams SurgiLube
• 1 gram J-Lube

NOTE: I have created -- per Brian Lawrence's recommendations on SBF, the Soap Bubble Fanciers Yahoo Group (RIP) -- a pre-mixed lube solution that is 16 ounces water + 16 grams J-Lube powder + 2 oz (by weight) of SurgiLube). So, I actually added 33 grams of this premix to the solution. {C}You can probably substitute a KY-style personal lubricant (generic knockoffs are fine) if you can't find SurgiLube (which can be found at medical supply stores). J-Lube can be found on the web and at veterinary supply stores that provide supplies for livestock care (it is used as an obstetric lubricant for birthing horses and cows and the like).

This can probably be diluted somewhat more. I have found that reducing the lube quantities results in a solution that is a bit more difficult to bubble with. If you can't find the J-Lube or Surgilube, try using KY personal lubricant (which you can find in just about any large grocery store or drugstore). You might need to increase the amount of KY.

I will try to experiment with more readily available ingredients and post back the results.

A Simple Recipe That Creates a Lot of Bubbles with Small Wands

This recipe uses only ingredients that should be easy to find locally. Glycerin can be found at WalMart or Whole Foods and in most health food stores. This bubble juice is good but not as good as recipes that make use of J-Lube. It is appropriate for small wands and medium-sized rigid wands (with loops up to about 5 or 6 inches in diameter) and small to medium-size tri-string wands (tri-strings with top strings up to about 30 inches or so).

The concentrated, undiluted version of the recipe is really only appropriate for using with small wands (it is great with the little plastic wands that come in small bottles of bubble juice) as it is very very viscous and too messy for using with larger wands (and too expensive, too). But it is great with those small wands. You will get many many many very colorful bubbles per dip.

For using it with other types of wands and larger plastic wands, you can dilute the concentrate. When used as concentrate, it still creates many colorful bubbles per wand dip (around 20 per dip) when 3 parts water are added to one part concentrate. It will work even more dilute, but the bubbling ease degrades when more than 3 or 4 parts water are added. When used for the Small Wand Test this bubble juice undiluted produces more than 100 bubbles per wand dip. By comparison, Gazillion bubbles, a high-quality commercial solution, averages 20 to 30 bubbles for the same test. For the , Longevity Test the bubbles can last several minutes (compared to less than a minute for most commercial solutions). See it in action in this short video of the Small Wand Test Setup

This is not the best mix possible but it is a very good mix that can be made with ingredients found in almost any well-stocked drug store or supermarket. It can be a little messy because it is so viscous. So, it is best suited for use outdoors. {C}

Bubbles created with a wand made from an old coathanger using a 1:1:1:1 concentrate made with Dawn Ultra and diluted with 3 parts tap water.

Bubble-in-a-bubble using a 1:1:1:1 concentrate made with Dawn Ultra and diluted with 3 parts tap water.

A few of the more than 100 bubbles created from a single dip of an undiluted 1:1:1:1 concentrate

Ingredients: equal parts (by volume) tap water, liquid dishwashing liquid (see notes below), glycerine, KY-Jelly personal lubricant (or a generic knock-off).

How you mix the ingredients is important. This recipe is very viscous and the personal lubricant needs to be well mixed for this recipe to work. It is easy to do -- just make sure to follow the direction.

• Measure the personal lubricant into your mixing container.
• Use very hot tap water and pour it into the mixing container that has the lubricant in it.
• Stir the mixture until all the lube is fully blended with the water. The solution should be uniform and fully integrated. If after a minute of stirring it isn't fully integrated, add 1/4 part hot water and stir. It is important that the lube fully integrated/dissolved. Add a little hot water and stir if it is still not integrated. The different brands of lubricant seem to require slightly different amounts of water.
• Mix in the glycerine and stir to fully integrate (without making the mix foamy).
• Mix in the dishwashing liquid.

About the ingredients

The dishwashing liquid. Dawn Ultra, Dawn Pro Manual Pot & Pan, and Non-Concentrated Classic Dawn have all been used successfully. This recipe will probably work with other dishwashing liquids, too, but I have not used any. If you use this recipe and find it successful, please let us know or add the information to this wiki.

The glycerine. As of June 2010, glycerine can be found at Whole Foods, Walmart, and at most health food stores. It is often much cheaper via online resellers than it is in stores.

The personal lubricant. KY-Jelly or almost any generic KY knock-off (I have used the generic brands found at Safeway, CVS and Walmart with equally good results. [NK DEC 2012 Edit: Make sure the lube has hydroxyethylcellulose as an ingredient.]

Bubbling Notes

This concentrate can be used within a few minutes of being mixed. It may improve somewhat with age, but it works great right after it is mixed. When diluted with 3 parts of water, it is still a pretty robust bubbling solution -- at least with small and medium rigid wands. At 5 parts water and one part concentrate, it will still work but it is a bit more finicky. It has been suggested that if you dilute the concentrate that it will improve if left uncovered for 24 to 48 hours although this has not been tested. So, the improvement may be mythical. This mix is a little brittle. It doesn't form long tubes but it is easy to bubble with, and you can do bubbles in bubbles with it.

When diluting the concentrate, use very very warm to hot water to make sure that the concentrate fully dissolves/integrates. The concentrate is very viscous. If mixed with cold water, it does not dissolve well (although it will integrate if left for a day or two and turned end-over-end a few times to mix). Try to avoid foam during dilution since foam gets in the way of making bubbles. If the solution foams up, scoop off the foam or let the foam subside (which can take a long time).

A Basic Recipe With Easy-to-Find Ingredients (for medium-sized wands)

This is another recipe (really just a variant of the one above) that is made with ingredients that are generally easy to find locally. If you are just getting started and don't have any J-Lube but you are dying to start making some bubbles with your new homemade tri-string wand, this will get you going. This solution will work better than non-premium commercial bubble mix (most people find it better than Super Miracle Bubbles but not as good as Gazillion or Amazing Bubbles). This will also work well in cheap bubble machines and with small plastic wands.

• 24 to 36 oz water

• 3 oz Dawn Manual Pot & Pan. [This can be found at Smart & Final and janitorial supply shops]. If you can't find Dawn Manual Pot & Pan, you can use Ultra Dawn or Ultra Joy, or (even better) Dawn that is marked as 'Non-Ultra' on the back. Dawn 'Non-Ultra' was discontinued a few years ago (this article is being written in Sept. 2010) but still is available in some dollar stores. If using an 'Ultra' detergent, don't use less than this recipe calls for. The ultra detergents don't see to behave as if they are more concentrated when being used for bubble solution.

• 3 oz. KY-Jelly Type lube. Use a generic knock-off such as those from CVS, Safeway, Walmart or Target. They work just as well as KY-Jelly for this use and are much cheaper.

• 1 to 3 oz glycerin [Note Nov. 22, 2011. You can probably leave this out. After a fair amount of testing out in the real world, it seems that glycerine has much less impact on the life of medium to large bubbles outdoors than it does on small bubbles indoors. The bubbles may last somewhat longer in some condition with the glycerin but it doesn't change how easy it is to make the bubbles. And in most cases, there is very little practical effect on bubble longevity when the glycerine is used when making medium to large bubbles.]

The measures above are by weight. However, you can use liquid measure if you don't have a good scale as the weight of 1 liquid ounce of these ingredients is fairly close to 1 ounce.

Mixing instructions: Use 1/2 cup (4 ounces) of hot but not boiling water. (You can use either very hot tap water or heat the water in the microwave). Mix the hot 1/2 cup of water with the lube. Stir vigorously until the lube dissolves/incorporates into the water. Add the detergent and glycerin (if you are using it) and gently stir. You don't want to foam up the mix. Put the remaining water in the bottle or container that you will use for storing the bubble juice. Now, add the detergent/lube/glycerin mix to the bottle containing the water. Put the top on the bottle and turn it gently end over end to mix the ingredients. {C}The bubble juice can be used right away, but it will improve if you leave it for a day or two--occasionally turning the bottle end over end--as the KY-Jelly takes a few days to fully hydrate and mix. Some people find that leaving the top off of the container for a few days also makes a difference.

Approx cost: $11 - $20 per gallon. Detergent $0.72 (9 oz). Lube: about $4.5 to $10 depending on brand (9 oz). Glycerine: $6-$9 (9 ounces)

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Daddy Engineer's Guar Recipe Variant

Daddy' Engineer's Guar Recipe

Hello, love your site and have been learning about giant bubbles for a few years now. Started a blog and put up an easy to mix Guar recipe - nothing novel but also included a video on mixing. Hope it's value add to the site.

http://daddyengineer.com/bubble-recipe/

Andrew aka DaddyEngineer

Thank you.

 

Bubi Clown's Recipe

Hello everyone!

I have learned a LOT on this site,massive thanks for all the stuff! A good but not cheap recipe for big bubbles i would like to share with bubbler world:

• 1.5 to 2 liter bottled water (avoid tap water)

• 450 ml Fairy (not the one for sensitive skin or platinum)

• 0.5 liter good quality beer (heineken,staropramen,etc in EU) or experiment with your local beers which is the best for you

How to mix: Put the beer in to a bigger dish,stir it few times and let it breath out a while. This step is not necessary, just for clearity,other ways is cloudy. Put the Fairy in and stir it slowly to dissolve. Water should be at room temperature or a bit warmer, simple it works better!

Mix all together and that's it,enjoy! Not used up "soup" keep in the fridge, before use warm it up a little. Peace!

--Bubi clown

A NOTE FROM THE WIKI (EDWARD): We can't vouch or the recipe above. We don't doubt that you can make bubbles with it, but we are skeptical that it would compare favorably to the favored recipes on the site. We would love to hear from someone that compares the results of this recipe with polymer-containing recipes. I'd also note that this has a high soap concentration which leads to bubbles with thin films.