Honestly? Making pink bubbles sounded easier in my head. Watched some Instagram reel with perfect frothy pink clouds, figured how hard could it be? Grabbed stuff from under the kitchen sink, ready to play scientist. Spoiler: it got messy.
The First Try Disaster
Dumped dish soap into a bowl – the cheap blue kind I had. Poured in some water. Looked sad and watery, zero bubbles. Remembered some blog saying corn syrup makes bubbles stronger. Found the sticky bottle stuck to the shelf, glooped a bunch in. Stirred it with a fork because why walk to the drawer for a spoon? Instant regret. Gooey threads flew everywhere, hit the counter, stuck to my shirt. Blue dish soap + clear corn syrup = weird grey slime. Pink? Not even close. Felt like a fail already.
Operation Color Fix
Okay, ditch the blue soap. Raided the bathroom cupboard. Found some clear liquid hand soap someone gave me ages ago. Smelled like fake flowers, but clear! Pour that into a big plastic cup this time – learned my bowl lesson. Added warm water, maybe half the soap amount. Eyeballed it, obviously. Color time. Where do you even get pink dye for bubbles? Food coloring? My box had like, yellow and green. Nope. Remembered my kid’s old bath stuff. Found a half-bottle of “Bubblegum Blast” kid’s bath colorant. Squeezed it hard – bright pink shot into the cup like neon paint. Way too much. Suddenly had radioactive pink soup. Looked scary, not fun.
Diluted it with more water and soap. Better. Now for bubbles. Grabbed some pipe cleaners – meant for my kid’s craft box, not science. Bent one into a wonky circle for a wand. Dipped, blew… got like three bubbles. Weak and tiny. Remembered that corn syrup fail earlier, thought maybe sweetness mattered? Didn’t have syrup left. Scraped around the pantry. Desperate measure: poured in leftover granulated sugar. Two big tablespoons. Stirred like crazy, almost tipped the cup. Sugar mostly sank. Tried blowing again. Slightly bigger bubbles! Still popped fast. Added one more squirt of soap. There! Okay bubbles. Pink-ish? Sorta? More like faded rose.
Party Test Run
Filled a big plastic tub in the backyard. Poured my whole glowing pink mixture in. Called the neighbors’ kids over – instant lab rats. Handed them the weird pipe cleaner wands.
The Verdict:
- Good: They blew bubbles! Tons! Floated pretty well. Pink tint definitely showed in sunlight. Kids yelled “COOL!”
- Bad: The pink bath dye stained everything. Little fingers? Pink. My concrete patio? Light pink splotches. Neighbor kid’s white socks? Ruined (so sorry, Susan!).
- Ugly: After ten minutes, the bubble solution looked thin. Bubbles got smaller again.
So… Did It Work?
Kinda? Made bubbles. Made pink-ish bubbles. Also made a mess, stained some stuff, and almost lost my good fork to sticky soap sludge. The real steps that worked, painfully learned:
- Use CLEAR soap (dish or liquid hand). Not blue. Learned that the hard way.
- Don’t dump corn syrup unless you like cleaning goo webs.
- SUGAR WORKS. Big bubbles? Thank the sugar rush.
- Kids bath colorant dyes the world pink. Outside only. Seriously.
- Pipe cleaners suck as wands. Dollar store bubble wands next time.
- Always have way more solution than you think you’ll need. Kids blow through it.
Was it magazine perfect? Nope. Was it messy, slightly weird-colored, and resulted in stained socks? Absolutely. But the kids loved it, and honestly? Watching pink splotches float around screaming kids was worth the cleanup headache. Simple ain’t always easy, but it sure can be fun.