# Bubbles! **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [July 25, 2014, 6:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bubbles/694041 "2014-07-25T18:01:51Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Rhythmdvl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/85f322/32.png) [@Rhythmdvl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rhythmdvl)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2014, 6:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bubbles/694041/1 "2014-07-25T18:01:51Z")
Has anyone here made their own super-bubbles? The kind that adds things like glycerine, sugars or cornstarch to the recipe? Do they make a noticeable difference over the store-bought large-jug-o-bubbles? We’d be using these primarily at music festivals and the like where they’d float over all sorts of people–any issues with staining or other effects that one wouldn’t expect from bubbles? The money/time difference seems to be pretty minimal (what, ten bucks and twenty minutes?), but even at that minimal level I’d want there to be a noticeable improvement. ---
**Author:** ![PurpleClogs](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/f04885/32.png) [@PurpleClogs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PurpleClogs)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2014, 6:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bubbles/694041/2 "2014-07-25T18:52:55Z")
Make the ones that don’t pop so easy! I haven’t done it but I saw it demonstrated on TV this week. That would be great at an event. And I hope nobody goes to a music festival in their Sunday best, expecting to come home unsoiled and stain free. ---
**Author:** ![August\_West](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/august_west/32/18069_2.png) [@August\_West](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/August_West)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2014, 7:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bubbles/694041/3 "2014-07-25T19:03:17Z")
For a music festival, break a glow-stick into the mix for magical glowing night bubbles. On second thought, I don’t know if that would stain. Still pretty trippy, though. ---
**Author:** ![MrsTime](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d26b3c/32.png) [@MrsTime](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrsTime)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2014, 9:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bubbles/694041/4 "2014-07-25T21:00:42Z")
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KFMQcQtzmsk](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KFMQcQtzmsk) ---
**Author:** ![Rhythmdvl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/85f322/32.png) [@Rhythmdvl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rhythmdvl)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2014, 9:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bubbles/694041/5 "2014-07-25T21:07:27Z")
Heh, it’s a music festival, but I’d be right pissed if I came home with weird spots on my favourite t-shirt. Plus, people are there for a few days so while a bit of dirt and grime are expected (or lots of mud, depending on the weather), I’d hate to add a little stickiness or other mess to people’s day. We also get a _lot_ of kids around our cart (always have a ton of glowsticks, balloons and assorted geegaws on hand for the Devilling and his friends), so it would be kind of rude to send them back to their folks with spots of colour or incorrigibly sticky hands. ---
**Author:** ![araminty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b5e925/32.png) [@araminty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/araminty)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2014, 9:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bubbles/694041/6 "2014-07-25T21:27:44Z")
I used to work in science museums, so I know a thing or two about bubbles. Glycerine is sooooo 10 years ago. Nowadays for extra strong, extra large bubbles, the preferred additive is… powdered veterinary lubricant. Not joking. J-lube, as it’s known, is readily bought online, mixes easily into Dawn (Pro or Pots and Pans for best results, or the new contender is 7th Generation Natural, which I haven’t tried - don’t bother with most other brands) and sometimes has a little baking soda mixed in too, to adjust pH… Here. This is everything you need to know about [big bubbles](http://soapbubble.wikia.com/wiki/Soap_Bubble_Wiki). ---
**Author:** ![Rhythmdvl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/85f322/32.png) [@Rhythmdvl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rhythmdvl)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2014, 9:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bubbles/694041/7 "2014-07-25T21:51:31Z")
> [@araminty](#): > > Glycerine is sooooo 10 years ago. Nowadays for extra strong, extra large bubbles, the preferred additive is… powdered veterinary lubricant. Not joking. Not joking! Top review from the first [Amazon hit](http://www.amazon.com/Jorvet-J0109-J-Lube-Obstetrics-10-Ounce/dp/B006G2S17A/ref=cm_rdp_product): > [@](#): > > **This is it!** > And by \*\*this \*\*of course I mean the point in the universe where veterinary medicine, soap bubble making, and butt sex cross paths. See people who bought J-lube also bought Dawn manual pot & pan. Why? Because these are the soap bubble enthusiasts. Other people bought J-lube and the Extra Large SensaFirm Balled Cock 11 Inch Mocha. That’s a whole nother segment of the market that comes together in this tiny speck of the Venn diagram with the soap bubblers AND the veterinarians who need to do obstetrical work and artificial inseminations in large animals. We are all just 6 purchases away from each other in the Amazon universe! Looking through the “Customers Who Bought This Item Also Bought” section is pretty funny. I’m not necessarily looking for giant bubbles per se. Great if they happen, but I’m turning a lot of bubble-duty over to the 4 year old, so it’s mostly standard wands and bubblers, not the loops or larger hoops I see in most pictures. It’s really my hope that in the somewhat windy, slightly pell-mell and chaotic fest environment, or with the mildly technique- and patience-challenged tyke-set, that the larger-bubble formulas will make more consistent (and granted, larger) bubbles. True? ---
**Author:** ![araminty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/b5e925/32.png) [@araminty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/araminty)\ **Post date:** [July 25, 2014, 9:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/bubbles/694041/8 "2014-07-25T21:59:08Z")
True. Another factor will be humidity; a dry day will make even your j-lubed bubbles pop quickly. I do suggest you make/buy an extender loop giant bubble wand, as even if your little ones can’t manage it, someone will always want to attempt a big mamma.