As a vaper you’re always going to need a steady supply of e-liquid to fill your vape device tank and over the long term this is where most of your costs to continue vaping come from. If you like top of the line e-liquids and the best manufacturers out there, it soon becomes a rather expensive affair. Then there’s also the issue of many retailers not having enough stock of the liquids and nicotine levels you prefer.
This is where making your very own e-liquids starts to make sense. Not only does it cost much less to produce your own than shop premium brands, you could soon become quite the expert with your new found hobby of making homemade e-liquids. And since you’re the only one in charge of what goes into your own e-liquid you get to choose the exact amounts of each of the key ingredients as per your personal requirements.
What goes into a bottle of E-liquid?
There are typically four main ingredients that constitute the making of an e-liquid. These are, and don’t ever forget this from here on: VG, PG, Flavouring and of course, Nicotine. Some e-liquids may have an extra ingredient or two aside from those mentioned here. But the main four are sufficient for producing a decent quality e-liquid all by yourself.
You may not even require the nicotine as you well know some folks are able to vape contently without it. Or if you’re seriously into sub ohm vaping you might like to try making your own maximum VG e-liquid.
If this is your first time making your own e-liquid you’re in luck. Never before has it been so easy to get into making DIY e-juice. There are tons of recipes to be found online and popular e-liquid manufacturers, some of whom specially cater to the DIY E-liquid market, even stock flavour concentrates.
This makes the process so easy anyone can play around and try new recipes. You can also borrow ideas from ordinary folks out there to make something really special and unique by combining different flavours.
How to get the right balance of e-liquid ingredients?
The percentages of each key ingredient in your e-liquid will be predetermined by the kind of vaping experience you’re looking to achieve. So if, for instance, you’re after massive clouds, you would want to use generous amounts of VG. Most manufacturers recommend a VG ratio of 70% for sub ohm vaping coupled with the remaining 30% in PG.
On the other hand if you are in the habit of mouth to lung vaping or your tank comes with a plus ohm coil, then you will do just fine with a 50/50 ratio of VG and PG. Some vapers also prefer to go higher with the PG rating in order to intensify the throat hit.
And finally most recipes are very clear about the amount of flavour concentrates which you should use, either as standalone or when combining two or more flavours. You should also check the recommendations of the flavouring manufacturer for best results.
Fortunately for your nicotine levels you’ve probably learnt much from ready-made e-liquids you have used in the past. So for example: in a 10ml bottle with a 70/30 ratio of VG and PG, 6mg per ml is a fairly good amount of nicotine for a strong sub ohm vape. There are many more variations and you can choose your nicotine according to your preference.
How to Mix your DIY e-liquid together
Before you get busy make sure the area where you are working is clean, and safe with no kids or pets nearby. For your personal safety always use rubber gloves and utensils which will reduce spilling.
There are typically two ways to mix the ingredients of an e-liquid – either you use weight as a reference for each ingredient or you work by taking the volume of each into account.
‘eLR’ is a useful online tool you can use to get accurate weights/ volume for each ingredient to suit your particular recipe.
When working according to weight you will need an accurate scale with readings in grams.
For a 10ml empty bottle you would place it on the scale first and then set the dial to zero grams. From this point on you add each ingredient and check to see the grams as they increase on the scales readout. You will do this with your flavouring, then your nicotine, and finally your PG and VG. Remember to use individual droppers or syringes for each ingredient.
If you would like to try using volume as a basis for mixing you’re going to have to rely exclusively on syringes which have markings for millilitres. This method is a bit harder than using weight to keep accurate. Here you will be dropping the decided amounts of each ingredient until the bottle is filled. Again be sure to use separate droppers otherwise you run the risk of messing up the ratios you’re aiming for.
Once you’re done with either filling method, close your bottle tightly and give it all a good shake up. You can try it immediately, or let it stand for a while, or learn more about steeping to make your homemade e-liquid even better.