All involve water, dishsoap, and either glycerin, cornsyrup, or sugar. Glycerin is the more popular choice but I guess the others serve the same purpose of extending the life of the water layer. For more on the science of bubbles click here.

Dawn and Joy seem to be the leading brands.  Looks like you can’t go wrong with these recipes.

2/3 cup Joy dishwashing soap
1 gallon water
2 to 3 tablespoons of glycerin

1/2 cup of dishwashing liquid (Dawn or Joy)
2 cups of water
2 teaspoons of sugar

For hardcore bubbling, the kind you might do dressed in tie-dye at a festival or get paid to do, you should check out a link to Big Bubble Magic for variations and adjustments for climate variations. They have a recipe for one with beer.  If you do master this contact us and perhaps we will hire you for a party. I say perhaps because these people seem to also be the type who would have bumper stickers that say “Big Bubblers for those that have discovered that size does matter” and we just don’t have room in our garden for your unicycle too.

There is also a lot of advice on making your own bubble wands and bubble makers.

• use pipe cleaners bent into interesting shapes
• cookie cutters
• yogurt lids with the centers cut out
• tin cans with the top and bottom cut off and edges smoothed
  
• For giant bubbles a string and a dowel. Instructions here.