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So far, all of my testing has focused on various members of the Dawn family that are all related (Ultra Dawn, Non-concentrated Classic Dawn, Classic Dawn Non-Ultra, Dawn Pro Manual Pot & Pan). While these detergents behave somewhat differently from each other. Their response to additives like glycerine, surgilube, J-lube, etc. has been similar. For instance, while the number of bubbles created in my Small Wand tests by substituting these different dawns might differ between detergents, the relative change when changing the amounts of ingredients has been similar across types.


With those detergents, straight detergent has (by a wide margin) outperformed equal parts detergent and glycerine. Tonight, after coming across an old posting in the Soap Bubble Fanciers group about Dawn Direct Foam, I tried the experiment for the first time with Dawn Direct Foam. I used Starwest Botanicals glycerine. I used my mouth rather than my fan setup because I just wanted to do a quick test to get a feel for DDF which I hadn't tried till now. DDF was vastly improved by adding the glycerine. Without glycerine, I was getting one to three bubbles per wand dip. After adding the glycerine, I was getting 10 to 20 long-lasting bubbles. (The humidity was about 45%).


I need to repeat this test with my fan setup.


I wondered if maybe this was because I had used a different glycerine brand before. But I tried the experiment with the other types of Dawn mentioned above and in all cases, performance with glycerine was on the order fo 1 to 4 bubbles per dip whereas the results were on the order of 20 bubbles per dip with straight detergent.


Tonight's results (dipping plastic wand in detergent or equal parts detergent/glycerine mix). At least 5 dips per test.


Dawn Direct Foam - No Glycerine. Small wand results 1 to 4.

Dawn Direct Foam with Glycerine. Small wand results on the order of 10 to 20 per dip

Dawn Direct Foam with Glycerine + 1 part water. Smawll wand results 1 to 4.

Add 1/2 part sugilube. Small wand results on the order of 10 bubbles per dip with noticeably improved color.


Non-Concentrated Classic Dawn - No Glycerine. Small wand results on the order of 20 bubbles per dip.

Non-Concentrated Classic Dawn with Glycerine. Small wand results on the order of 1 to 2.


Classic Dawn Non-Ultra - No Glycerine. Small wand results on the order of 20 bubbles per dip.

Classic Dawn Non-Ultra with Glycerine. Small wand results on the order of 1 to 4.


Ultra Dawn Classic Scent - No Glycerine. Small wand results more than 20 bubbles per dip. I want to re-do this. This result seems higher than I would expect based on past experience.

Ultra Dawn Classic with Glycerine. Small wand results on the order of 5 to 10.


Dawn Pro Manual Pot and Pan - No Glycerine. On the order of 20 bubbles per wand dip.

Dawn Pro Manual Pot and Pan with Glycerine. On the order of 1 to 3 with the small wand.

Add 1/2 part Dawn Direct Foam to the Dawn Pro/Glycerine combo resulted in more than 20 bubbles per dip of long-lasting colorful bubbles.