Mix Your Own E-Liquid – What Do You Need?
Mix Your Own E-Liquid – How Does It Work?
1.0 Introduction
2.0 Equipment
3.0 Base liquids
3.1 Flavour concentrates
3.2 Steeping
3.3 Nicotine
4.0 Mixing
1. Introduction
Anyone who’s been vaping for a while knows the problem: finding an e-liquid you really love and still enjoy over the long term can be surprisingly difficult. If that sounds familiar, mixing your own e-liquids with flavour concentrates and base is a great option. It comes with plenty of advantages. You can fine-tune your e-liquid afterwards, for example by adding more concentrate, blending in other flavours or diluting it. You can also give ready-made e-liquids a new twist with extra flavour notes. In short, making your own e-liquid has a lot going for it.
2. Equipment
To get started, we recommend the following:
- empty bottles for new recipes
- syringes with blunt-tip needles for measuring concentrates accurately
- VG and PG, either premixed or as separate components
- a small funnel for pouring the base into the bottle
- flavour concentrates
- nicotine, if needed
- pen and paper
3. Base liquids
Base liquid is essentially unflavoured e-liquid with no nicotine. It is made up of two components:
Vegetable glycerine (VG)
VG has a syrupy, oily consistency. It is mainly responsible for vapour production and is fairly thick.
Propylene glycol (PG)
Propylene glycol acts as a flavour carrier and preservative in e-liquids. Thanks to its water-like consistency, it is much thinner than VG.
Depending on your device, make sure your e-liquid does not end up too thin or too thick. Depending on the model, the liquid flow through the cotton can be too slow or too fast. As a general rule:
For MTL: up to 60% VG and 40% PG
For DL: up to 50% PG and 50% VG
Of course, there are exceptions, but sticking to these values should keep issues to a minimum with most devices.
TIP – the VG/PG ratio can also make a noticeable difference to the flavour. With a higher PG content, you can usually dose your concentrates a little lower than with a higher VG content.
3.1 Flavour concentrates
Flavour concentrates come in all kinds of flavours and strengths, so there is something for everyone. The catch is that, unlike ready-made e-liquids, you usually cannot try concentrates before buying. That means you more or less have to rely on the descriptions, buy them and test them for yourself. Let’s say you have a tutti-frutti concentrate but the apple note is too subtle for you. You can simply add a separate apple concentrate. This just goes to show that different concentrates can be combined without any trouble.
As a rule, concentrates are dissolved in PG, which also helps them keep for a long time. If you want your VG/PG ratio to be exact, make sure to factor in the concentrates too. The amount of concentrate you need can vary a lot. Some concentrates are already intense enough at 1–2% of the total amount, while others require 15–20%. The manufacturer will usually state the recommended dosage.
TIP – the manufacturer’s recommended dosage is often set fairly high. Our recommendation: when you mix an e-liquid with concentrates for the first time, use only 2/3 of the manufacturer’s recommended dosage. You can always add more flavour, but you cannot take concentrate back out of the liquid.
3.2 Steeping
You often hear that freshly mixed e-liquids with concentrates should be left to "steep". You can do that – but you do not have to. If you have just mixed something new, you can vape it straight away. Maybe you have had an e-liquid sitting untouched for a while and noticed that the flavour changed slightly. Some flavours benefit from this, while others do not necessarily improve. If a mix does not taste quite right, leave it in a cupboard for a few weeks; you might like it better afterwards.
Another thing that can happen with e-liquids containing nicotine and flavour concentrates is that they turn brownish over time. This is simply caused by oxidation of the nicotine – your liquid is still perfectly fine to vape.
3.3 Nicotine
There are two ways to add nicotine to your e-liquid. You can either use standard nicotine shots or import high-strength nicotine base. Since shots are limited to a maximum of 20 mg/ml, stronger nicotine base makes mixing much easier.
To illustrate, here are a couple of examples:
When mixing with 18 mg/ml base (shots), you need 33.3 ml, so three full shots and one third of a fourth shot, to reach 6 mg/ml in 100 ml of e-liquid.
When mixing with 100 mg/ml nicotine base, you only need 6 ml of nicotine base to reach 6 mg/ml in 100 ml.
As you can see, mixing is much more straightforward with higher-strength base. To work out exactly how much nicotine base you need, you can find calculators on various websites that tell you the precise amount.
4. Mixing
First, get all your supplies ready: base, concentrates and the tools you need. If you are handling nicotine base above 100 mg/ml, make sure you wear rubber gloves and protective goggles, as this concentration can already be toxic.
To make it easier to mix the same recipe again later, it is also a good idea to write down every concentrate you use and the exact amount. It is not uncommon to find a self-mixed e-liquid in the cupboard and have no idea which concentrates you used, or in what quantities.
When you start mixing, calculate the amount of concentrate you want to use first. You can often find the recommended dosage on the bottle or on the manufacturer’s website. Our recommendation is to always start with only 2/3 of the recommended amount.
Example for 100 ml of e-liquid:
- manufacturer’s recommended dosage for the concentrate: 15% (in our case 2/3 of 15% - so 10%)
- you want a 70VG / 30PG liquid
10% of 100 ml = 10 ml – this also means that the concentrates will already contribute 10% PG to the e-liquid.
So measure out 10 ml of concentrate and add it to the bottle. If you have, for example, an 80/20 base, add 90 ml of this base and shake everything thoroughly.
If you have 100% VG and 100% PG separately, measure out 70 ml VG and 20 ml PG and mix them together.
And that gives you 100 ml of 70VG / 30PG e-liquid.
If you want to combine several concentrates, the calculations naturally become a little more complicated. Because different concentrates can vary in intensity, there is no universal rule of thumb for the ratio in which you should combine them.
When it comes to making your own e-liquids, the motto is simple: nothing beats experimenting.
