Easy DIY E-Liquids
Most vapers invest in commercially made e-liquids that are mixed in a factory and arrive ready to use. The flavours are convenient options and enable you to choose from thousands of blends.
But it is possible to mix your own vape juices.
All the ingredients you need are easy to source and so you could indulge in what the vaping community has dubbed DIY e-liquid.
Advantages & Drawbacks
What are the Benefits of DIY E-Liquids?
You might be wondering if there are any advantages to mixing your own juice. After all, you wouldn’t want to spend time on something that doesn’t enhance your vaping experience. Happily, there are several benefits to DIY e-liquids that are worth considering:
- Mixing vape juice is a creative undertaking that can be enjoyed for its own sake.
- When you mix your own juice, you know exactly what is in it.
- DIY e-liquids enable you to evolve flavours that perfectly suit your taste.
- You can create large volumes of e-liquid, thus escaping the need for all those little 10ml bottles.
- You could save money by mixing your own e-liquids but not if you usually vape £1 e-liquid!
What are the Drawbacks of DIY E-Liquids?
As with most things in life, there are downsides to mixing juice that you should also think about:
- It can be tricky to perfect complex flavours and so you may produce a few poor results.
- Producing your desired base liquid ratio and nicotine strength can involve complex calculations.
- DIY e-liquids take time to make.
- Your juice will require steeping and so won't be ready to vape for a few days.
Mixing Your Juice
Ingredients and Equipment
All e-liquids contain just four ingredients – propylene glycol (PG), vegetable glycerine (VG), flavouring and nicotine. DIY e-liquids are no exceptions. Base liquids (mixtures of PG and VG) are freely available. You should choose a base that boasts a suitable PG/VG ratio for your vape kit.
You will discover a wide variety of flavourings to use. Better still, you can decide whether to mix flavourings to create the taste you are looking for or to take advantage of flavour concentrates from leading brands such as Vampire Vape that reflect their most popular blends.
DIY e-liquids also require an investment in bottles to hold your juice and funnels to make filling them easier. You should also equip yourself with something that enables you to accurately measure your ingredients. This could be an eyedropper or a syringe. In addition, you will need gloves to wear while mixing and some kitchen roll to clear up any spills.
It’s best to keep a diary, notepad or tablet to hand so that you can record your recipes. This will help you to avoid making the same mistakes twice and to replicate any successful flavours.
How to Mix Your E-Liquids
Here’s how to improve your chances of great results when you indulge in DIY e-liquids:
- Decide which base liquid ratio you wish your e-liquids to have, for instance 70VG/30PG and then purchase base liquid with that ratio.
- Purchase flavour concentrates and read their instructions to discover the recommended concentration of flavouring to use in your juice. It is always worth treating yourself to a menthol flavouring as adding menthol to your blends could transform them. You should also consider buying ethyl maltol. This tastes like cotton candy and will lend sweetness to your flavours. Note that your concentrate could change the base liquid ratio of your completed e-liquid. For instance, a concentrate with a PG base will increase the PG ratio of your base.
- Establish the right nicotine strength for your juice and then invest in the appropriate nicotine shots. The base of your shot could also alter the base liquid ratio of your juice.
- Use an e-liquid calculator to discover the correct proportions of base liquid, flavouring and nicotine shot to use in your recipe. Bear in mind that your flavour concentrates and/or nicotine shots may have different base liquid ratios to your chosen base.
- Start by mixing a small amount of juice to test the flavour. Don’t move on to mixing larger quantities until you have nailed your recipes, otherwise you will waste your ingredients.
- Add your ingredients to a bottle in the proportions suggested by your recipe.
- Screw on the lid of your bottle and shake it to thoroughly to mix your ingredients.
- Leave your e-liquid to steep for up to two weeks before vaping it.
- Vape a little of your juice to see if you enjoy the flavour.
- If you like the flavour you have created, keep a record of the recipe.
- If you dislike the flavour, try tweaking it by altering the balance of flavourings or by adding menthol or ethyl maltol.
Even Easier DIY E-Liquids
If the principal attraction of DIY e-liquids is the ability to invest in larger quantities of juice, you should take a look at shortfills. These are underfilled bottles of nicotine-free e-liquid to which you can add nicotine shots. Shortfills keep things simple while enabling you to avoid all those little 10ml bottles.
Alternatively, you could simply experiment with blending branded e-liquid flavours. For instance, try adding a menthol flavour to a candy blend or a banana flavour to a dessert juice. Mixing flavours can teach you what works for you and what doesn't. But be warned! Refining flavours in an art and so you could find that your efforts yield unpleasant results!