Soap Solutions

There are three types of soap solution I use to make antibubbles:

Simple:

   Use just any liquid soap you can find ;-)  Hand dish washing detergent, shampoo, hand soap...  What ever you've got!  A pinch of salt helps too.

Advanced (Terry's Special Antibubble Solution):

   4 gallons clean room temperature water.

   2 oz of clear dish soap.  Dawn and Joy work well.  Avoid Ivory (cloudy) and Palmolive (lots of odd additives).

   1 oz of Glycerin.  The pharmacy has it in the skin care section.  You might have to ask where it is.  It is sort of expensive at $1/oz.  See the safety page about it's use.

   1 tablespoon of common table salt.

Just mix these up in a big bucket  (try not to make a foamy mess).  Best if it sits overnight before use.

Super Solution (Super SLS Solution):

Now were playing with power :-))  Nothing but the best and purest bubble making stuff here!!  The super solution is a bit hard to make and the 60% sodium laureth sulfate is nasty to work with.  Read the safety information about it.  Sodium laureth sulfate is "pure" soap.  No additives, perfumes, or other "stuff" that may hurt the bubbles (common detergents actually have chemicals in it to reduce the bubbling action (that's no fun!)).  In fact, SLS hardly even has much water in it!  A little drop has more lathering power than an ounce of dish detergent.  It can make conventional bubbles so strong that they 'dry out' intact!  Perfect for our antibubbles!!  Here is how to make up the solution.

    4 gallons of distilled water from the grocery store.  No reason to waste time with plain tap water here.  The super soft distilled water is perfect for bubbles.

    4 oz of Sodium Laureth Sulfate.  This can be obtained from "www.thechemistrystore.com" for $12 plus about $12 shipping.  When you add it to the water, it tends to clump up so it takes a lot of time and stirring to get it dissolved.  Just give it a few hours...  Wear gloves since it tends to wash the skin off your bones!  Be patient and be sure to clean up any of the SLS that spills really well.  Get this completely dissolved before adding the next ingredients.  It looks like Jello in there at first, but it dissolves just fine given time (hours).

   1/2 oz common salt.

It is best if left overnight.  Once the solution is all mixed up, it is pretty safe like dish water.

Special Note:  I have found the Glycerin reacts with either the soap or salt and it causes the water to turn cloudy after a day or so.  Therefore, I am no longer using it.  The antibubbles tend to gas more, but that is better than having the solution only last a day.