I haven’t tried making them with baby oil, Helen, but I imagine it would work!

Would baby oil work?

SO strange, Diane. I hope it works for you with the distilled water. Please let me know how it goes!

Diane

Hi Diana, I wonder if there was some residue in the bottle that caused bacteria to form, or somehow, while making it, bacteria entered the bottle. We made our bottle about 6 years ago, and only recently did ours start going cloudy.

Please advise! Thanks!

Hmm… Is it possible your bottle wasn’t completely clean? I’m thinking if there was any bacteria in it, it could cause the contents to go cloudy and eventually develop mold.

“Fill approximately 1/3 of your bottle with water.
Add several drops of food colouring. Now, simply top up the bottle with oil. I filled ours right to the top and then popped the lid on.”

Hi Sam. Nothing really to worry about. Just make sure the lid is on tight of course. We’ve only used blue because we wanted it to look like an ocean, but I imagine any colour would work. Red or purple would be pretty cool. It might look like a lava lamp!

Wonderful! I’m so glad you love it. How nice to know that it’s not just preschoolers enjoying our activities!

Yay! You’re so welcome, Cyndi!

It might, but I’m not sure if the oil would interfere with the behaviour of the jellyfish. I’d give it a shot if I were you. Worst case, you can remove the jelly fish and still have an awesome sensory bottle for the kids to play with and observe.

Should be have used toy plastic fish

Hmm. I haven’t a clue, Kayaqua. I haven’t heard of that happening before. I’m sorry I can’t offer you a solution!

You could use a smaller bottle, and probably get away with a half cup of cooking oil. If you think about it this way: you would use a cup of oil to bake a cake, and the cake would be gone in a couple of days. This will last forever. 🙂

If you fill 2 litre bottle with oil, very expensive project?.???

How strange. What kind of oil did you use, Asia? Was it fairly fresh? I know old oil can go cloudy when you shake it up. As for solidifying, that is really odd. I’ve never known an oil to solidify.

Watercolour paint would work because it’s water soluble. I don’t think acrylics would work as well, but I’m just guessing there.

It might, Jayne. It’s up to you weather or not you want to risk the bag popping. That’s a lot of oil in there, which would ruin carpets/furniture etc if it did leak.

I love it just as much as the kids do, Cheri. It’s very relaxing!

We used a VOSS water bottle for a similar project at our school and it was dropped on the floor and the lid cracked open. I’ve used soda bottles and not had this problem. I have saved some bottles from dry roasted peanuts to use.

they have those small water bottles, that would be great for a kids party thing. Perfect size too. I’m going to try this with sand and sea shells and make a beach in the bottle with my daughter. Hopefully it works…

Yay! So glad you loved it!

My younger brother (age 12) and I just did this experiment with an empty Poland Spring bottle. Still worked great!

How odd. It’s simple science. I can’t imagine what would go wrong unless perhaps there was residue in your bottle. That could prevent the oil and water from behaving properly.

Oh, that is a very helpful response, Megan. Thank you! I was wondering how the oil and water could become completely emulsified, as mine always separate after resting. Brilliant. Thank you!

That’s actually, totally, not possible. Chances are there was something else in your bottle to begin with. If it was an old lotion or soap bottle there could have been some residue left in the bottle from what was in it before that emulsified it. Water and oil cannot permanently emulsify from vigorous shaking alone. It needs the addition of an emulsifier.

Hey Ally! So glad you loved the ocean in a bottle. I think it’s great that you and your sister made them. An assortment of colours would be awesome! I need to do that too. Cool blog you’ve got there, girl!

We made this craft and absolutely love it! We used smaller bottles, so we could display them on our window sills. I love to look at it, and I’m definitely going to make it again, and use green, pink orange, purple, any color really.

I wrote a review about it on my website if you want to check it out!

That might be the reason, Mae. I can’t think of any other reason it wouldn’t have worked for you.

I mean olive oil?

The easiest place for me to find VOSS water locally is at Walgreen’s drugstores. They are often on sale, too, for $3 for two bottles.

I’ve similar bottles with shells added, Heidi. As for how to display them, there’s a brand of bottled water called Voss. I’m not sure where you are, but if you have it there (in your grocery stores), you could use those bottles. It’s pricier than regular bottled water though, so you may need some pals splurge on it once in a while, and give you the bottle when they’re done. You could also check Michael’s or Hobby Lobby for interesting looking containers with lids that seal tight.

Thanks so much for the warning! That would have been something we’d try.

You could give one a try and see how it turns out, April.

I think thats what happen to mine! right off! boo boo! Wish I had read this before I shook it like a crazy person! 🙁 now I have to go to the store and buy more oil

Very interesting, Nancy. Never?

Yes, simply top up the bottle with oil. That’s right, Dan.

After the food coloring and water are shaken, the instructions say “Now, simply top up the bottle with oil.”

Thank you for the response, I will have to test out a few ideas .

I haven’t in the oil and water bottle, Michelle, but I’ve added odds and ends to bottles that I’ve filled with water or hair gel or coloured rice! I think it’s a great idea!

Yes, or baby oil would have the same look too. I must pick some up at the dollar store!

1/3 water, and then fill up with oil, Dorothy.