How To Make a Homemade Bubbles Mixture

Homemade bubble mixture creating bubbles from blue bubble wand

The Spruce / Anastasiia Tretiak

Project Overview
  • Total Time: 15 mins
  • Skill Level: Kid-friendly

Blowing bubbles is a fantastic game for young children. They love to play with bubbles and can often go through a whole tube in one game, which can get a little costly. But, there's no reason for you to pay for what is essentially soapy water. With this easy recipe, you can make your own DIY bubble mixture whenever you want.

You can even give the kids a bit of a science lesson by teaching them how to weigh out the solutions themselves. Then they can create homemade bubbles whenever they want and while you relax!

The Best Way to Make DIY Bubbles

What You'll Need

Equipment / Tools

  • 1 Large cup
  • 1 Spoon
  • Bubble wands
  • 1 Container with lid (optional)

Materials

  • 1/2 cup dish soap
  • 1 1/2 cups water
  • 2 teaspoons sugar

Instructions

Materials and tools to create homemade bubble mixture

The Spruce / Anastasiia Tretiak

  1. Pour 1/2 cup of dish soap into a large cup.

    Blue dish soap poured into glass measuring cup next to bubble wands

    The Spruce / Anastasiia Tretiak

  2. Add 1 1/2 cups of water to the dish soap in the cup.

    Water poured into measuring cup with dish soap

    The Spruce / Anastasiia Tretiak

  3. Measure 2 teaspoons of sugar and add it to the water/soap mixture.

    Teaspoons of sugar added to dish soap and water mixture in measuring cup

    The Spruce / Anastasiia Tretiak

  4. Gently stir your mixture.

    Dish soap, water and sugar mixed in measuring cup

    The Spruce / Anastasiia Tretiak

  5. Go outside and have fun blowing bubbles. If you don't use it all, you can pour it into a tightly sealed container.

    Purple bubble wand placed in blue container with bubble solution

    The Spruce / Anastasiia Tretiak

Tips

  • Don't shake or stir your bubbles too much.
  • Experiment with blowing bubbles using different items!
  • You can recycle an old bubble jar by refilling it with your homemade bubble mix.

Playing With Bubbles

The simple act of blowing bubbles is enough fun on its own for most children. You can vary the experience—and make it educational—by switching up what is used for bubble wands. Have kids compare the bubbles' shapes, sizes, and longevities by the bubble wand used. Anything that forms a plastic hole, like the top of a soda bottle or a plastic six-pack ring, can be used to blow bubbles, as long as it can get wet. Paper and cardboard products don't usually make for good bubble wands.

Looking for a fun bubble game to play? Here are two popular options:

  • The most popular game with bubbles has to be the old bubble blowing competition. Seeing who can blow the largest bubble is always fun. You can also see who can blow the most bubbles at once or see whose bubble lasts the longest before popping. 
  • A simple, more active bubble game is to have a bubble race. First, have the children stand in a race line. Choose a finishing point. Have each child blow a bubble and then try to blow that bubble over the finish line. The first child whose bubble goes over the line wins. Try not to make the finishing line too far away as bubbles are pretty unstable and you don't want an unbeatable game. Take the children's ages into account when deciding the distance of the finishing line.