Home-made Bubble Mix Recipe for Long-Lasting, Super-Strong Bubbles
Our home-made giant bubble mix recipe comes in two flavours – quick and easy for bubbles ‘now, now, now!’, or (with just a few extra ingredients) frankly brilliant for the biggest, strongest, longest-lasting bubbles you’ve ever seen!
Together with our diy giant bubble wands, this bubble solution will help the kids make enormous bubbles all day long for some unforgettable summer fun. Read on to get the recipe!
Not got much time or just want the bullet points on how to make these?Click here for the Quick Read Bubble Mix Recipe or download an A4 instruction sheet from my printables page.
We have been having the best summer fun with our diy giant bubble wands. Quick and easy to make with just some string and a few sticks, they are possibly the greatest summer activity for kids ever.
However, even the best giant bubble wands in the world are no good without our bubble mix recipe.
There are a ton of bubble solution recipes around, some simple, some bizarre. But we’ve found that our very basic bubble mix recipe works fine, and is quick and easy if the kids are raring to go.
For really HUGE bubbles, it helps to add a couple of more ‘exotic’ ingredients that seem to not only make the bubbles stronger, but also easier to produce.
So our bubble mix recipe below is the basic, everyday, one that works for us, with optional extras to help you max out those bubbles.
Any home-made bubble mixture tends to get better with age, so if you can, make it at least a few days in advance.
You’ll still get bubbles if you make it on the day, just don’t tip it away when you’re done ’cause you can reuse that stuff aaaaall summer…
Bubble Mixture Ingredients (Basic Recipe)
Quantities based on 1 litre of water, but can easily be scaled up as required!
• 1 litre of tap water
Ideally, the water should be warm/room temperature rather than ice cold.
• 3 tbsp of Washing up liquid (Dish soap).
Fairy in the UK / Dawn in the US are supposed to be the best for this. Be sure to use the concentrated versions.
That’s it! Add the washing up liquid to your water and stir SLOWLY with a stick or long spoon. Avoid making the mix frothy – scoop off any that forms on the surface.
If you are finding your bubbles pop too soon, try stirring in more of the washing up liquid. Three tablespoons is great when used with the optional extra ingredients but may not be quite enough if used on its own.
Still popping too soon? Try a tablespoon of cooking oil – it’s what we did as kids and does seem to work!
You’ll get a perfectly fine and fun mixture with these classic ingredients, though make sure you use a really good quality and strong washing up liquid. All the online pundits swear by Fairy/Dawn as the best for bubble making.
HOWEVER, for really big and long lasting bubbles, it’s worth going the extra mile and adding just three more ingredients…
Bubble Mixture Ingredients (Optional Extras)
The three extra ingredients for this enhanced bubble mix recipe might sound more exotic, but don’t worry – the list below has Amazon affiliate links so you can get hold of them easily online if you are struggling to find them locally.
• 1/2 level tsp Guar Gum powder. Easy to order online, this stuff has a miraculous effect on your bubbles… It makes for self-healing, super-strong, and easily twice as many! So trust me, if you’re planning on doing a lot of bubbles over the summer, then it’s worth the effort of a few clicks to order this stuff.
• Roughly 1 or 2 tsp of Glycerine (you may need more). Some people use this in the basic bubble mix recipe, but to be honest I find it makes for slimy bubbles that aren’t much stronger or better than with just good old soap and water. What it IS good for, though, is mixing with the Guar Gum to make a very thin, watery, paste that you then further dilute with water until it’s all mixed in. This helps distribute the Guar Gum into the mix without it going all lumpy. If you can’t find glycerine, you can use some of your washing up liquid to make the paste instead.
• 1/2 level tsp Baking Powder. Not to be confused with baking soda or bicarbonate of soda. This helps adjust the ph balance of the mix, making for more, bigger, and stronger bubbles. Who knew?!
Method
1. Measure out your guar gum powder into a small dish or cup.
2. Add just enough glycerine to cover your guar gum powder (around a teaspoon or two). Mix these together and add more glycerine until you’ve got a very liquid consistency. Be warned that if this mix is too thick when you add the water in the next stage, your mix will go lumpy and won’t work quite as well.
3. Pour the guar gum and glycerine mixture into a large container I use a sealable bucket like this one so that I can keep any leftover bubble mix in it for another day.
4. Gradually add the water, mixing it into the guar gum/glycerine solution to dilute it it down. I find using a whisk is the best way to do this – it’s a lot like making gravy or a roux!
5. Once the guar gum and water are fully combined, add the washing up liquid. At this stage you want to stir gently with a spoon or stick, to avoid frothing the mixture.
6. Finally, add the baking powder and give it another VERY gentle stir. You’ll find that the baking powder probably does’t dissolve completely and will leave a layer of sediment at the bottom of the mixture. That’s perfectly fine and normal – the baking powder is still doing its job.
That’s it – all ready for bubble blowing! As I said above, the longer you leave this mixture to sit, the better your bubbles will be, but don’t worry, there’ll be great bubbles right from the start.
Want to know more about why and how these ingredients work together to make such great bubbles?
We got our bubble mix recipe from this bubbletastic site, full of amazingly detailed bubble science for the serious bubble-head. If you have a question about bubbles, this site can answer it!
Looking for more bubble fun? If you’ve made this bubble mix recipe, then you’ll need our diy giant bubble wands to make the most of it! Click on the images below to check out our easy-peasy tutorial.
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Quick Read Instructions
For when you just want to get right to the point…
Best Ever Giant Bubble Mix Recipe
INGREDIENTS:
(Per litre of bubble mix)
1/2 level teaspoon of Guar gum powder
Glycerine – roughly 1 – 2 teaspoons
1 litre of water
3-5 tablespoons of concentrated washing-up liquid/dish soap
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
METHOD:
1. Measure out the guar gum powder into a small dish or cup.
2. Add just enough glycerine to cover the guar gum powder (around a teaspoon or two). Add more glycerine and mix these together until you’ve got a very liquid consistency.
3. Pour the guar gum and glycerine mixture into a large container.
4. Gradually add the water, using a whisk to mix it into the guar gum/glycerine solution.
5. Once the guar gum and water are fully combined, add the washing up liquid. At this stage you want to stir gently with a large spoon or stick, to avoid frothing the mixture.
6. Finally, add the baking powder and give it another VERY gentle stir. You’ll find that the baking powder probably does’t dissolve completely and will leave a layer of sediment at the bottom of the mixture. That’s perfectly fine and normal – the baking powder is still doing its job.
HINTS & TIPS:
Try adding more washing up liquid to the mix if your bubbles are popping too soon.
