Twitter

This post may contain affiliate links. These help support this website.

Today we are sharing with you how to make these easy homemade bouncing bubbles!

My sweet Amelia requested we do a blog post on this for the summer, so we worked on this together.

This is a fun and easy DIY to do with kids this summer.

Or anytime of year!

Homemade Bouncing Bubbles

Be sure to follow us on Instagram for fun ideas, tips and videos each day this summer. We will be sharing all the things we are doing and behind the scenes too.

After the recipe, make sure you scroll down and read more about why this actually works!

Also, head to our summer list on Amazon for some great kids items.

Ingredients needed for homemade bouncing bubbles:

1 tbsp dish soap
2 tbsp sugar
1/4 cup room temperature DISTILLED water
Bubble wands
Glove
Bowl

Directions:

In a bowl, add the water and sugar. Gently stir until the sugar is dissolved.
Next, pour the soap into the bowl the water and sugar.
Gently stir again until everything is combined.
Make sure you put a glove on your hand to catch the bubbles. The oils in our hands will make the bubbles pop quicker, so wearing a glove will help.
Now, dip a bubble wand into the solution and blow the bubbles. Catch them with your hands and watch them bounce.

How Do Bouncing Bubbles Work?

Adding sugar to your dish soap solution can create bubbles that are stronger and more resilient, allowing them to bounce!

Here’s the science behind it:

Dish soap reduces the surface tension of water. Surface tension is the attraction between water molecules at the surface, making it try to minimize its surface area. Soap disrupts this, allowing the water to stretch and form a thin film around air, creating the bubble.

When you add sugar to the soapy water, the sugar molecules get sandwiched between the water and soap molecules. This creates a thicker, more viscous solution.

Normally, bubbles pop because the water in the film evaporates, causing the bubble to shrink and eventually break. The sugar acts like a humectant, attracting and holding onto water molecules. This slows down the evaporation process, making the bubble last longer.

With a thicker film and slower water loss, the bubble solution with sugar can withstand gentle touches and bounces without bursting easily. It is important you wear a glove though since the oils in your hands will still pop the bubbles.

Is distilled water necessary for this?

Depending on what type of water you have, the minerals in the water can impact how the bubbles form. I think it works much better using distilled water.

Is a Glove Necessary?

Yes, a glove is necessary or the bubbles will pop right away from the oils in your hands. Even though this mixture contains the sugar, making the soap mixture stronger, it will still pop right away from hand oils.

Also, when the glove starts getting too wet, it will also pop!

Important Things We Learned Making These Homemade Bouncing Bubbles:

After doing this project together, we learned some important tips. I am sharing them with you so you can make this project work.

Mix the sugar and water together until dissolved before adding the soap.
Grab multiple gloves because the bubbles will pop when the glove gets too wet.
Don’t get gloves with a lot of texture (like we did lol).
The smaller bubble wands work better to “bounce” these bubbles.
The weather plays a big factor in this. If it is windy or too humid, the bubbles won’t be as strong.

I hope you have fun making these bouncing bubbles like we did!