We go through a lot of bubble solution in our house. It frequently gets knocked over or spills, my toddler dumps it, and we just all enjoy being outside making bubbles, so it gets used quickly. There’s something magical about watching bubbles fly about in the air, and we all love to partake. Buying bubble solution gets rather expensive, so we’ve been experimenting over the years with making our own.

We’ve tried many recipes for homemade bubble solution during the last five or so years.  After a recent flop (it started out working fine, but then didn’t work so well once it had set), we decided to try a slight variation on this recipe. It contains all sorts of things we don’t normally use in our house, including non-natural dish soap and vegetable glycerin. Well, two out of three ingredients that we don’t normally use – we always have filtered water, but the bubbles turned out great. Next time, I’ll play around with the recipe and see if a greener dish soap still makes such great bubbles. In the meantime, here you go:

Homemade Bubble Solution Recipe

2/3 cup Dawn dish soap
3 tablespoons vegetable glycerin
1 gallon water (we used slightly less, as I was mixing in a 101oz container)

Gently mix until all three ingredients are completely combined. Leave the solution sitting open overnight, then use the next day. Sitting open for one night (perhaps it allows something in the dish soap to evaporate?) seems to make it a better solution.

To blow the bubbles, we have an assortment of wands like THESE and THESE.  We also have a large bubble maker similar to THIS.

Notes: We used Dawn original formula dish soap; I suggest avoiding the anti-bacterial stuff because of all of the toxins in it. We used organic vegetable glycerin, so I know it had no GMO ingredients. We used filtered water, as many of the recipes I saw called for distilled water (which we don’t have). Also, if your 6-year-old gives this a good shake to mix it, you’re going to end up with a lot of bubbly foam.