Potions Bottles

I wrote pretty in-depth about the Potions Task that I have planned for my daughter’s Harry Potter escape room, but the decided that I had to add more.

I ended that post talking about how the originator of that potions task had a list of spells, and when the participants completed the potions task, they had to match the color of the potion they created to a the color of the spell on a poster to get a passcode that they needed. I wrote about how this was disturbing to me, because obviously in POTIONS class the students should be creating a POTION, not a SPELL. I decided to modify the poster to fit this more accurate story.

And then…I realized…”shouldn’t I just make POTIONS they they can match their brewed potion to?”

Yes.

Yes, I should.

What I really wanted to do was create fun potions that matched the descriptors of various potions in the Harry Potter books.

The problem?

Honestly, the descriptions of the potions in the books are quite difficult to create. Descriptors in the books include things like, “a mother of pearl sheen with spiraling, curling steam,” or “a thick sludgelike potion that bubbles slowly…”

Additionally, I needed my potions to be colors one could imagine coming from the liquids used in the task and I wanted to avoid any colors that could possibly be confused with the pink they were to match to (so no reds or oranges). All this meant that I couldn’t go too wild with color choices or additives.

I had to make my potions a bit different that what was described in the books or depicted in the movies.

Buuuuut…I do like how they turned out.

I created:

Skele-gro

Wolfsbane

Beguiling Potion

Exstimulo Potion

Polyjuice Potion

I tried to match the colors to the book descriptors when I could, but most of my potions do NOT match their descriptions in the book

The Skele-gro I created is closest to it’s book description (a bright yellow thick liquid), but I had to not paint the bottle opaque white as seen in the movie, because I needed my escape room participants to be able to see this bright yellow thick liquid. Therefore, I just painted the top of the bottle, and left the bottom transparent. The Skele-gro bottle was made with a used glass bottle painted white and topped with pieces of a plastic skeleton I bought. I am pleased with how it turned out!

The potions themselves were all made with hair gel or rubbing alcohol mixed with food coloring, paint, and/or glitter.

Three of the potion labels were found free online, and I created two on Canva.

I am pleased with how the potions turned out! I think these little bottles will really elevate the Potions task and make the experience that much more magical!