Science, Tech, Math › Science Glowing Bubbles It's Easy to Make Bubbles Glow Share Flipboard Email Print Science Activities for Every Subject Introduction Weather Make a Storm Glass to Predict the Weather Make a Simple Weather Barometer Make Real Snow Make a Cloud in a Bottle Determine Why the Sky Is Blue Food and Cooking Determine Vitamin C by Iodine Titration Make Biodiesel From Vegetable Oil Test for Protein in Food Experiment With Fruit Ripening and Ethylene See How Much Sugar Is in Soda Fire and Smoke Make Colored Fire Make a Smoke Bomb Make Chemical Fire Perform Magic Tricks With Fire Make a Sparkler Bubbles Make Bubbles That Don't Pop Make Glowing Bubbles Make a Giant Bubble Using Dry Ice Make a Bubble Rainbow Crystals Grow Bismuth Crystals Grow a Big Alum Crustal Grow a Borax Crystal Snowflake Grow Copper Sulfate Crystals Grow Table Salt or Sodium Chloride Crystals Chemical Reactions Build a Baking Soda Volcano Make Sulfuric Acid at Home Make Homemade Dry Ice Make Hydrogen Gas Make "Elephant Toothpaste" Glowing bubbles are easy to make. Either mix phosphorescent pigment with bubble solution to make them glow or add highlighter ink for fluorescent bubbles that glow in black light. Ricardo Cortes-Cameron/Getty Images By Anne Marie Helmenstine, Ph.D. Anne Marie Helmenstine, Ph.D. Facebook Twitter Chemistry Expert Ph.D., Biomedical Sciences, University of Tennessee at Knoxville B.A., Physics and Mathematics, Hastings College Dr. Helmenstine holds a Ph.D. in biomedical sciences and is a science writer, educator, and consultant. She has taught science courses at the high school, college, and graduate levels. Learn about our Editorial Process Updated on September 17, 2019 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 solutionGlow in the dark solution (can use washable glow paint or can make glow solution)Bubble wand Make Glowing Bubbles Mix bubble solution with the glow solution. 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. 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: Use a knife to (carefully) cut a highlighter pen in half. It's a pretty simple steak knife and cutting board procedure. Pull out the ink-soaked felt that is inside the pen. Soak the felt in a small quantity of water. 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. Cite this Article Format mla apa chicago Your Citation Helmenstine, Anne Marie, Ph.D. "Glowing Bubbles." ThoughtCo, Apr. 5, 2023, thoughtco.com/how-to-make-glowing-bubbles-607625. Helmenstine, Anne Marie, Ph.D. (2023, April 5). Glowing Bubbles. Retrieved from https://www.thoughtco.com/how-to-make-glowing-bubbles-607625 Helmenstine, Anne Marie, Ph.D. "Glowing Bubbles." ThoughtCo. https://www.thoughtco.com/how-to-make-glowing-bubbles-607625 (accessed June 4, 2023). copy citation