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I spent a few minutes today continuing the Charmy/Dawn Pro evaluations. Today's conclusion is that Charmy (like Dawn Pro), is capable of making colorful bubbles at 50:1 water:detergent dilution with the longevity setup. Also, the ghostless pops of Mr. Oono's bubbles is related to the surfactants in Charmy. Bubble juice made with Dawn Pro substituted for Charmy in Mr. Oono's recipe had ghosts whereas the Charmy recipe results in total vaporization -- even at the bottom of the bubble. The Dawn Pro/PVA Starch/Glycerine/Water ghosts were possibly slightly less pronounced than with Dawn Pro and other polymers. The ghosts were not awful with Dawn but there were obvious clumps at the bottom of large bubbles when they broke that one does not see with Mr. Oono's mix.

Longevity[]

I spent a little time doing longevity tests with 50:1 Dawn Pro and Charmy dilutions to get a sense for how they compare. I plan to do 25:1 and 10:1 comparisons. The mixes were just water and detergent and I used a longevity setup where the bubble was made by a 1 quart gatorade bottle placed into a 1 liter measuring cup.

The Dawn Pro bubbles lasted a bit longer (average duration about 50 seconds compared to about 35 for the Charmy). Both solutions were quite color stable. Bubbles that lasted over a minute had only drained at the very top as you can see from these snap shots.

50to1 DP 1 longevity

Dawn Pro at 50:1 after 80 seconds. Just before the bubble broke.

50to1 Charmy 2 longevity

Charmy at 50:1 after 80 seconds. Just before the bubble broke.

 

SESSION []

I then spent a few minutes with a mix where Dawn Pro was substituted for Charmy in Mr. Oono's recipe.

400 ml tap water 100 ml laundry starch (PVA containing) 25 ml glycerine 25 ml DP (instead of 50 ml Charmy)

Temp 72; humidity 65%

32" top-string rayon, soda-washed BBB twine bottom (modular)

The juice worked well. The pops were not ghostless. But ghosting not heavy. Noticeable larger drops at bottom of bubble when bursting.

I added 25 ml DP and there wasn't much change.

I then tried the Charmy mix that I made the other day. It worked nicely with absolutely no ghosts. Not even at the bottom.

I then tried the eGoo juice (a few weeks old) that I used yesterday. The eGoo was certainly no worse than the Charmy mix.

Based on this morning's dilution tests which compared 50:1 dilutions of water:Dawn Pro and water:Charmy using the longevity test setup, I think that one could use less detergent in the Charmy mix without giving up anything. One might even be rewarded with richer colors.

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