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.
Hi, thanks for this beautiful and detailed tutorial! One question, about how long is the bubble mixture (with glycerine and guar gum) good for? We plan to make ahead and put in mason jars as gifts but I don’t want it to not work by the time they’re used. Thanks again!
Thanks Haley, I’m so pleased you’ve found it useful! And absolutely you can make it ahead of time – I find that it actually tends to get better with age. I’ve only ever made it about a week ahead, but then kept it for a further week until it was all used up, so I’d say two weeks shelf life is a pretty safe bet, and I don’t see why it wouldn’t last even longer. Have fun!
EDIT: I’ve just tested out a batch I made over six months ago, and it’s still as good as ever! After sitting for a while, you’ll find that some of the ingredients separate from the liquid and lump together at the bottom of your container, but a gentle stir is all it needs.
Hi! Just made it but mixed baking powder with guar gum instead of out end. Will it still work? Why does baking powder go in at the end? Thanks!
Hi Julia, I would imagine that your mix would still work (have you tried it yet?), but might not be quite as effective.
I got this recipe from an amazing site called Soap Bubble Wiki, and according to the serious bubble experts there, it DOES make a difference when you add the baking powder.
Their explanation can be found in this article, but basically the baking powder reacts with water by giving off carbon dioxide, some of which dissolves and forms carbonic acid. This in turn lowers the PH of the whole mixture, counteracting the alkalinity of the detergent.
So adding the baking powder before the water (all of the water) means your mix won’t have the benefit of this chemical reaction – the reason for adding it to the mix in the first place!
So anxious to make this but what kind of container do you put the soap in so you can dip your blower sticks in ?
Hi Sandra, I use a big flexi tub like this one as I use it in Forest School sessions for lots of kids to use at the same time, but anything big enough to dip the whole length of the string in works fine. You could use a bucket, a washing-up bowl, or even a serving dish or saucepan – no special container required!
Loving this! We bought a giant bubble sword from a shop and noticed that the mixture it came with was very different from normal mix – it only came with a tiny pot so we needed to know how to make more!
This site was so helpful especially as you explain why certain elements work and how they work 🙂
Thanks, Gareth! I’m one of those annoying people who always ask “why” when I’m told how to do something, so I do tend towards information overload in my own instructions 😉
Hope your new bubble mix was even better than the original!
This is the best recipe I’ve tried for homemade giant bubbles – actually better than the (brand name starting with G) mix I’ve been buying. I agree that it is better after sitting overnight but it’s also worked quite well after only sitting for an hour or so. Also, I didn’t have guar gum and found xanthan gum worked well as a substitute. Thanks for the bubble fun!
I’m so pleased it works well for you – I’ve yet to have a bad batch so we never bother with shop-bought mix anymore. And great tip about xanthan gum, too, thank you!
I mean wow! This worked so well there were bubbles as big as my 3 year old that then went onto split up in the air! I added all the optional extras but didn’t even leave it as my son was impatient to ‘test’ it out! Another batch is already waiting for him…thank you! Was looking at Dr Z refills but 5 litres for £60 … um no! X
That’s lovely to hear, Tulna – I’m glad it worked so well for you!
Great blog post, really looking forward to trying this out. Question – how far does 1l of mix go? ie for 4 kids, say, using the tri string giant bubble wands from your other post – how much play time is this? Thinking of making and playing with these as a 5th birthday party activity but don’t want to run out of mix!
Hey Luke, Thank you so much! It’s a really fun birthday activity so I hope your kids enjoy.
I would suggest making more than a litre for four kids – if there’s any left over, it will keep for AGES (my record is six months, but I bet it would have kept longer).
Try 4 litres – that should be enough to keep them going through the party, and if it starts to run low, you can cheat and add a little more more water and washing up liquid to top it up. I’ve done that myself at times, and the bubbles are still amazing!
As a guide, when I do this at my Forest School sessions, I usually make about 5 or 6 litres, and it’ll be used by around 20 kids over the course of a couple of hours. Often, there’s just dregs left at the end, but I’ve never yet completely run out…
Thanks for the response, really looking forward to trying it out
Hi there. We’ve made the super buble mixture with your bubble making sure sticks and left it a day. We tried it today and the bubbles begin to form but don’t actually form properly. Should add any more if the ingredients? I used an eco washing up liquid rather than a very chemically one. Could this be it? Help as kids arrive tomorrow??!!
Hi Justin,
I think it is indeed most likely to be because you used the eco washing up liquid. The one I recommend is MUCH better for this (eco washing up liquid is great for the planet, but a bit rubbish for bubble mixes) so I suggest you either add that in to your existing mix, or add a LOT more of the eco washing up liquid you already have. You shouldn’t need to add any more of the other ingredients.
This does happen to me at times – sometimes it’s the mix, sometimes the weather (overly humid, too windy…) that causes problems, but I find adding extra washing up liquid always does the trick.
Hope that helps!
Hi. Any tips on how to stop children popping them too soon. I’ve tried everyone stand over here and parents often keep saying don’t pop them. Also I am short and so the bubbles are low to the ground is this to do with mixture?
I feel your pain, Sharon! I do this activity in my Forest School sessions a lot, and I can say from much experience that the joy of this for adults is in making really huge bubbles that drift away… but for kids (especially younger kids) their joy often comes from thwarting that experience for us!
From their point of view, popping the bubbles is a very active way of interacting with the adults doing the activity – it’s much more high energy, it gives them control over the experience, and is a fun way of teasing mum and dad. They often find it hilarious!
If the children are enjoying themselves, why not just go with it and let them have their fun? You could always keep a bit of bubble mix separate for later, once they’ve moved on to something else…
As for how high the bubbles go, this does depend on how big they are and whether there’s a bit of a breeze. I’ve had them fly over rooftops, and disappear into the distance, still going strong. The longer they get, though, the more likely gravity is going to pull them down.
One trick to start them off well is to keep your sticks together as you lift the string out of the mixture, and only separate them when you have them as high as possible. That way the bubble can’t start forming close to the ground.
Hello there
Can you make it just with the baking powder and not the other two extra ingredients?
Hi Carolyn,
Adding just the baking powder to the mix of soap and water will help a little, as the baking powder helps neutralise the alkalinity of the washing up liquid (dish soap). However you are going to miss out on the benefits of the guar gum powder, which makes the bubbles ‘self healing’ – in other words, they’re able to stretch to a larger size without popping. So the mix will work without it, but you probably won’t get such giant bubbles that are able to last long enough to float away.
Skipping the glycerine is less of a problem – it’s only real purpose is to help mix the guar gum powder into the water, and you can (and I have!) definitely substitute a bit more of the washing up liquid for this instead.
Hope that helps!
One tip I’ve heard is to use distilled water if you want to store for a super long time. Not sure if it’s important. We are volunteering at our 9 week Monmouth Music in the Park series this summer and everyone loves the bubbles!
That’s a really interesting tip, thank you, Ellen. I’ll have to experiment with that! Glad they are loving the bubbles – I think they are perfect for the summer 🙂
I’m trying to work out why mine hasn’t worked twice. We don’t have dawn so just been using a string cut through grease dishwashing liquid. The nine are turning and popping immediately. Tried the fixes you suggested too.
Hi Lisa,
The detergent/washing-up liquid you use for this mix is critical, and different brands can have vastly different results. I’ve had a lot of comments that eco-brands, for example, don’t work very well at all. In this instance, It sounds like whatever you are using isn’t strong enough, so I suggest you check that you are using a concentrated liquid (the most concentrated/strongest you can find), and try increasing the amount of this that you use. You may need to add a lot more! I doubt you need to play around with the other ingredients – it’s usually the detergent that’s the problem.
You can also check this site for a list of detergent brands that are known to work well – though I don’t know how recently this page has been updated.
Hope that helps – fingers crossed for nice, big, bubbles!