Mixing your own e-juice may seem tricky at first, but the feeling of creating something yourself is fantastic. I have mixed e-juice myself, and there were many failures in the beginning, which may also be because I am something of a perfectionist.
How to mix your own e-juice
What you need to mix your own e-juice is base liquid VG and PG. It is possible to buy premixed base liquid without nicotine, such as 70/30 VG/PG and 50/50 VG/PG. Personally, I find it easier to mix with pure VG and PG. You also need empty bottles. If you have bottles that you have not thrown away, you can rinse them with warm water and then cold water, and let them dry overnight. A mixing cup, dosing syringes and flavorings are also needed; you can also mix using a scale if you want.
Mixing your own e-juice with nicotine shots is fairly easy. We will calculate for a 60 ml bottle, as this works best with nicotine shots. For 3 mg, take 1 nicotine shot and 1 empty 60 ml bottle and pour in the nicotine shot; for 6 mg, 2 nicotine shots; for 9 mg, 3 nicotine shots; and for 12 mg, 4 nicotine shots. Calculating how much flavoring to use can be tricky, which is where the website linked above can help.
We will start with an example: an e-juice with 6 mg nicotine and watermelon flavor. Experimenting with the flavorings is important, but usually, when using only one flavoring, you want a little more of that flavoring to make the flavor come through. You can also use a higher percentage of the flavoring you want to stand out most in the e-juice.
In the image below, you can see how it is written. Of course, you can change the amount you want to make or the desired nicotine strength, as it will be calculated for you. This example will be calculated using VG and PG separately.
If you do not want to waste nicotine, you can mix without nicotine so that you can first determine the flavor profile before adding the nicotine. It is worth mentioning that approximately 90% of all flavorings are PG-based; very few are VG-based.
Once you have entered this, it will look like this below what you filled in.
It shows how many ml, grams and percentages. If you mix with dosing syringes, use the ml measurements.
If you want to add more flavors, you can do so. You have complete freedom here and can experiment. Below, I have entered several flavors to make the e-juice a little more complex. I have not personally tried this recipe, as it is just an example, but of course you are welcome to try making it.
Here you can play around a little with the percentages. As you can see, the watermelon remains unchanged and should therefore be the flavor that stands out most in the e-juice. Some flavorings may be a little weaker in taste than others. This may depend on which brand you have or what flavor it is. Lemon may taste much stronger than watermelon, in which case you need to add a little more of the weaker flavor.
Below is the final recipe for 60 ml of the example.
The e-juice is 60 ml, 6 mg, and the VG/PG ratio is 70/30. As you can see, it does not use as much PG as VG.
Once you have mixed everything, shake the e-juice for a few minutes and store it in a dark, cool place for a few days. It will then be ready to vape.
There is something called “steeping,” which is done to allow the flavors to blend together. There are different types of steeping.
Old-school steeping is when you let the e-juice sit in a dark, cool place. If you want to speed up the process, you can open the bottle and push out the air. Do this a few times so that fresh air enters the bottle, then close the bottle and shake it for a few minutes. Do this approximately every other day.
Speed/Heat steeping is when you use warm water to speed up the steeping process. Take a bowl of warm tap water and place the bottles in it. Leave them there for approximately 15–25 minutes, making sure the bottles are closed. Then remove the bottles and shake them for a few minutes, and store them in a dark, cool place.
All e-juices taste better after steeping. Fruit, beverage and menthol e-juices can be vaped immediately or after a few days, while bakery, coffee and chocolate flavors need 1–4 weeks of steeping for the flavors to come through properly. Custard is said to benefit from steeping for a very long time, approximately 6 months or more, for it to become really delicious. You can try this if you want a six-month project or simply have a lot of time to spare.
