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Add your recipes here. If possible, please provide pictures of the bubble solution in action and make a note of what sort of bubbles you make with the solution.

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 partciular recipe.

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

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 thumb|300px|right|Some pretty big bubbles created with this mixture on a day with sub-optimal conditions.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.

There are probably 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. 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 diamater) 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 expensize, too). But it is great with those small wands. You will get many many many very color 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.

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 knock-off (I have used the generic brands found at Safeway, CVS and Walmart with equally good results.

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 it fully dissolves/integrates. The concentrate is very viscous and 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. Being careful to not let it foam up.

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 supplie 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 [this is optional. the bubbles last longer with the glycerin but it doesn't change how easy it is to make the 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 cointaining the water. Put the top on the bottle and turn it gently end over end to mix the ingredients.

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 per gallon: $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)

Brian's Lube Mix

Brian Lawrence has posted a very useful J-Lube/Surgilube mix that is popular among members of SBF, the Soap Bubble Fanciers Yahoo Group (RIP). This creates a mixture that is very helpful in creating great bubble juice -- but this mixture is not a bubble juice itself.. The recipe is provided below with his permission. Click here to read his posting about the lube mix on SBF, the Soap Bubble Fanciers Yahoo Group (RIP)

Equipment & Ingredients

A kitchen scale (optional)
A large microwave-safe pitcher or large microwave safe measuring cup
A microwave oven
8 grams J-Lube powder
1 ounce (by weight) Surgilube (this is 28.3 grams)
8 ounces water (Brian uses distilled water but tap water will work well in most locales)

The vessel that you use for microwaving needs to be at least 4 times larger than the amount of liquid. So, if you are using 8 ounces of water, it needs to be able to hold at least 1 quart (or 1 liter). You should also watch carefully and not let it boil over -- as boilovers are VERY messy to clean up.

Instructions

Pour the water into the microwave-save pitcher/measuring cup
Add the J-Lube powder,
Place the vessel in the microwave and heat it to boiling.
Boil for 6 more minutes watching carefully to avoid boilovers.

The mix will boil up to 4 times the amount of liquid, so if you're
making a pint, you need a half-gallon-sized pitcher. If it looks
like it's going to boil over, halt the microwave for a few seconds
and then restart it. You do not want to let it boil over--trust me
on this one.

Once boiled, you should now have very hot, perfectly mixed
J-lube. Let cool to at least 150 degrees F. then mix in the Surgilube.

Brian stores the J-Lube in plastic squeeze bottles, labeled with the date
and formula.

NOTES: To make larger or smaller batches, scale the ingredient amounts

Usage & Notes

1 to 5 ounces (by weight although for most purposes you can use 2 tablespoons as a close approximation since this mix is mostly water) is usually used per gallon of bubble juice. When experimenting with this mix start with 1 ounce per gallon and add more as needed. When too much is added, the bubbles are so self-healing that the slightest air disturbance will break a large bubble into smaller bubbles. Also, the more of this mix that is used the less spherical that the bubbles will tend to be.

If you don't have an accurate scale, 1/4 teaspoon (1.25 ml) of J-Lube powder is about .6 grams. 1 tablespoon of SurgiLube is slightly less than 1/2 solid ounce. The formula is pretty forgiving. So you can use 2 tablespoons (not heaping tablespoons) or 30 ml of Surgilube if you can't weigh it.

This mix will turn almost any dish detergent/water combination (try dilutions from 8 to 12 parts water per 1 part dishwashing liquid) into a pretty good big bubble solution.

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, too.

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

Add a Recipe

Have a great recipe? Join our wiki and add it to this page. If possible, please include a picture of the bubble juice in use or a link to a video.