Glowing Bubbles

Bubbles are already awesome, but glowing bubbles are even better. It is easy and safe to make bubbles glow, plus it doesn't require any hard-to-find materials. Here is what you do.

Materials

• Bubble solution
• Glow in the dark solution (can use washable glow paint or can make glow solution)
• Bubble wand

Make Glowing Bubbles

1. Mix bubble solution with ​​the glow solution.
2. The only 'trick' is making sure you have enough bubble solution to make strong bubbles and enough glowing solution to get a good glow. Try a 50:50 mix to start. You can add more glow liquid or more bubble solution, depending on your results.

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How to Make Glowing Water

By Anne Marie Helmenstine, Ph.D.

How to Make Glow Solution

If you use washable glowing paint and add that to the bubble solution, your bubbles will glow in the dark after the solution has been exposed to bright light.

Sometimes it can be difficult to find washable glowing paint, so you may wish to make glowing water using a highlighter pen. This solution mixes about 50:50 with bubble solution to make glowing bubbles.

The color of the glow depends on the highlighter that you use. Highlighter pens fluoresce, which means you will need to shine a black light on the bubbles to get them to glow.

Check your pen with a black light before you cut it open. Yellow almost always glows. Green and orange are good too, but a lot of blue and red pens don't glow.

Here is how you make the glow solution:

1. Use a knife to (carefully) cut a highlighter pen in half. It's a pretty simple steak knife and cutting board procedure.
2. Pull out the ink-soaked felt that is inside the pen.
3. Soak the felt in a small quantity of water. 
4. Use the dyed water to make bubble solution or for other glowing projects.

Safety and Clean-Up

The glowing bubble solution is very safe, providing you used either non-toxic washing glow paint or a non-toxic highlighter pen.

If you blow the bubbles outdoors you don't have to wash glowing liquid off of walls or furniture. Bubble solution is already pretty soapy, so clean up any spills with lots of water.

One nice thing about cleaning up glowing bubble solution is you can see the spots made by the bubble solution very easily.