Surfactant what exactly does it make the lava do

[Jon]

So i know its important but it was my understanding that it made it break into blobs..  But i redid my grande as i was unhappy with the color i made it with the food coloring.  I decided to add like 2 table spoons of soap in the lamp to see what would happen instead of the 1/2 table spoon i added before.. and it seems to snake more then it did prior alot more.   Before it would just be like 3 or 4 Huge blobs.  Now the blobs are snaking half way up the lamp, and then when they break they make a round blob but instead of going down as the blob they snake down and break apart as they go.

I kind like this better..  But i thought more surf keeps this from happening.. or did i have it backwords ?

[Brad]

a surfactant decreases surface tension, making it easier for the liquid wax to stretch. it looks like you added, in my opinion, the perfect amount of surfactant. too much and the wax will break into small globes, which is not desirable. nice work.

[Jon]

Cool.  Guess ill add more to my other grande 

[kero48]

Good work, I find with my grandes that more surf works better than less. I believe in all my redone grandes with lava lamp wax, I used 37 to 40 mils of surf. Seems to do the trick just right.

[Jon]

Well i dunno how many ML i used but it was like 2 table spoons of pure shampoo lol..  The green grande seems to take alot more.

I put 2 in as well and it dtill does large blobs..  I just added 1 more table spoon and its stating to snake but still forms s blob and breaks off 1.4 to half way up.. So i added more just now..  Gonna see if it imprives.. but its alot of soap in there right now lol