There's something about giant bubbles that feels like pure summer fun. We tried making our own giant bubble recipe at home and it worked so well we had to share.
These bubbles and our DIY giant bubble wands are such a fun outdoor activity for kids. It's such an easy go-to activity when everyone just needs to get outside.
Quick Look: Giant Bubble Recipe
- 🫧 Activity Time: 10 minutes
- ⏳ Total Time: 10-20 minutes (or as long as the bubbles keep floating!)
- 🎨 Supplies Needed: Water, Dawn dish soap, baking powder, glycine powder (or glycerine), J-Lube, bucket or tub, and a DIY giant bubble wand made from dowels and cotton rope.
- 🎯 Ages: Preschool through elementary (and honestly, adults love this one too!)
- 👌 Difficulty: Easy, perfect for backyard play, camping trips, summer parties, or a simple afternoon outdoors.
- 💡 Why This Works: Dish soap lowers the surface tension of water so bubbles can form, while ingredients like glycerine and J-Lube help strengthen the bubble film and slow evaporation. This creates larger, longer lasting bubbles that can stretch into giant floating shapes before popping.
SUMMARIZE & SAVE THIS CONTENT ON
This post contains affiliate links, which means I will make a small commission at no extra cost to you. See my full disclosure here.
These giant bubbles are a staple in our outdoor bin. It is such a fun activity for kids of all ages, simple to make and a great way to get outdoors, have some fun sensory play and get some wiggles out!
Whether you are looking for an outdoor activity to pass time with your kids, a fun birthday party activity or summer camp craft (with a little science added in) this bubble solution is a no fail recipe that your kids will love!
Here are some other great bubble play ideas too if you are looking to fill an entire afternoon with bubble play!
There are plenty of bubble mixture recipes out there, some with ingredients like baking powder or vegetable oil. But this is our tried and true giant bubble recipe, and our secret ingredient is J-Lube! We stick with this mixture because it's simple to make and, most importantly, it makes huge bubbles. Why mess with something that works so well? 🙂
Jump to:
Key Ingredients
Baking powder- Baking powder helps improve the overall strength and stability of the bubble solution, leading to more durable giant bubbles.
Glycine powder- This ingredient helps strengthen the bubble walls and slows evaporation, making the bubbles last longer before popping. You can use liquid or powder form of glycine and it will work the same in this recipe.
J-Lube- J-Lube creates a stretchy, flexible bubble film that allows the bubbles to grow much larger than traditional bubbles.
Dawn dishwashing liquid soap- The soap helps lower the surface tension of the water, allowing giant bubbles to form. (If you have extra dish soap I highly recommend trying this bubble painting activity too!)
How To Make This Giant Bubble Solution
- In a small mixing bowl combine the dry ingredients including 2 tablespoon baking powder, 2 tablespoon dry glycine and ½ teaspoon of J-Lube (if using liquid glycerine add it in step 5 with the dish soap)
- Mix together
- Take 1 gallon of water and add it to your bubble bucket (We use tap water but if you are struggling to get your bubbles to form it may be due to your tap water's composition and we would recommend trying distilled water to see if it helps form your bubbles)
- Add the dry mix from step one to the tap water in the bubble bucket
- Add 1 cup of Dawn dishwashing liquid soap to the bubble bucket and mix all ingredients together
- Enjoy!
Tips for Making the Homemade Bubbles Solution
- We often will keep these ingredients on hand in the summer so we can easily make bubbles whenever my kids request them
- This is a great camping activity for kids (If you are looking for other awesome camping activities this post is for you!)
- Put the dry ingredients, pre measured, into a small baggie and all you need is a small container of Dawn for on-the-go fun
- J-lube. This stuff is magic. When you add the J-lube you get colossal bubbles
- You want your final solution to be like thin soup
- It is easiest to put this solution into a small tub, you want to be sure that your bubble wand can easily fit in and out of it without the rope touching the sides
Giant Bubble FAQs
This solution will keep for multiple days. We sometimes find that our best results are when we use day old solution. The bubble solution seems to become stickier as the days go on, making great bubbles!
If you keep the solution over a few days you may notice a soap film on top, just brush off that film so that your cotton rope can get to the solution.
We have tried so many recipe variations and the J Lube is honestly the secret ingredient when making huge bubbles. It acts as a thickening agent and creates strong bubbles that float and don't pop easily.
More Fun Bubble Activities For Kids
If your kids enjoyed making these giant bubbles, be sure to check out some of our other favorite bubble play activities:
If you tried this giant bubble recipe or any other activity on our blog please leave a 🌟 star rating and let us know how it went in the 📝 comments below. Thanks for visiting!
Homemade Giant Bubble Solution
Equipment
Supplies Needed
- 2 tablespoon baking powder
- 2 tablespoon glycine powder or liquid glycerine
- ½ teaspoon of J-Lube
- 1 gallon water
- 1 cup Dawn dishwashing liquid soap
Instructions
- Combine 2 tbsp baking powder, 2 tbsp dry glycine and ½ teaspoon of J-Lube, mix together in a small mixing bowl (if using liquid glycerine add it in step 5)
- Take 1 gallon of tap water and add it to your bubble bucket. Fun fact, the minerals in tap water help sturdy soap films so it is preferred over distilled water or filtered water.
- Add the dry mix from step one to the tap water in the bubble bucket
- Add 1 cup of Dawn dishwashing liquid soap and mix all ingredients together
- Enjoy!
Notes
This recipe does not compute. Glycerine is not a dry powder and you show the bottle with a liquid dispenser.
You show glycine which is a dry powder but is not included in the recipe. I think you may have mixed them up in the recipe. ? I see baking powder included in other recipes but do not what it is supposed to do in the mix. ?? Have you tested the effect of added minerals to the mix to verify the comment regarding tap water being better than distilled or de-ionized water. Other sites say the opposite. Just asking. Blow those bubbles!
Hi Bill- Thanks so much for your comments- Since our original post we have trialed using liquid glycerin and it worked just was well as the powder glycine! I updated our post to reflect this option as well as addressing the question of tap water versus distilled water. Baking powder is added to bubble solution (especially when you want giant bubbles), to adjust the pH of the mixture. This adjustment helps create stronger, longer-lasting bubbles. It's not essential, but it enhances the bubble's durability and size. I appreciate your thoughtful review of this post!