DIY: The complete guide to making your own e-liquid!
The complete guide to DIY
The Do It Yourself trend has continued to grow over time. A social phenomenon, the “do it yourself” trend is attracting more and more consumers, especially in the vaping sector. Would you like to use your own e-cigarette liquid? For taste or financial reasons? Find all our tips to help you do it!
I. Personalising your vaping experience: one benefit among many others
DIY is an alternative to conventional vaping, as it involves creating your own e-liquid, mixed exactly as you like it. However, making your own e-cigarette liquid requires following several steps and paying particular attention to the task you undertake. Ultimately, the idea is to tailor e-liquid to your preferences, in order to personalise your vaping experience as much as possible, and not only that…
1 - A more economical option
Indeed, getting into Do It Yourself by making your own e-cigarette liquid not only allows you to meet your needs exactly, but also to adopt a more economical way of consuming. While vaping already helps reduce your budget, your wallet benefits even more when your e-cigarette is filled with liquids you have made yourself. For example, the price of an e-liquid base in a container of around 100 millilitres, together with a flavour concentrate, is the same as that of a pre-made 10-millilitre bottle of e-liquid.
2 - An eco-friendly trend
DIY is not only more affordable, but also eco-friendly. Remember that traditional cigarettes do not offer as many flavours or as much versatility as e-cigarettes. Yet the non-recyclable butts from conventional cigarettes are also extremely polluting, as well as harmful to health. The e-cigarette, on the other hand, is reusable, which limits its negative environmental impact and promotes eco-responsibility. In addition, its components can be recycled when they are returned to a specialist shop once they are no longer of use to the consumer. Furthermore, by choosing Do It Yourself e-liquids, you are choosing customisable solutions available in various versions, without increasing the number of bottles used.
3 - A reimagined experience
If you decide to create the blend for your next e-liquid yourself, you will be all the prouder of it; moreover, the liquid will prove far more exceptional and flavoursome than a liquid traditionally found on the shelves of specialist vape shops. With DIY, you get not only a quality e-liquid, but above all a personalised and intense e-liquid!
4 - An activity open to everyone
While the Do It Yourself trend for e-liquid for e-cigarettes was long reserved for experienced and highly skilled vapers, making your own e-cigarette liquid is now open to everyone. Today, everything is explained clearly and sufficiently for it to be done at home, except by children and young people, of course. Like a recipe from the culinary world, an e-liquid blend is created using different ingredients that must be combined by following certain steps and, above all, using the required quantities.
5 - Unlimited customisation
This is one of the great advantages of DIY e-liquids: the customisation and range of choices available to vapers! The ranges of flavour concentrates and bases currently available to consumers make it possible to imagine many different combinations.
II. How do you choose the composition of your e-liquid?
1 - DIY e-liquid: the final composition
DIY Pack 100 ML - Le Vapoteur Discount
First of all, to choose your e-liquid wisely, you need to understand what an e-liquid is made of. In every blend you create, you will find:
Also known as a “neutral base” or “nicotine base”, a base may, as these names suggest, contain nicotine or not, depending on your tastes and needs. However, it remains absolutely essential in an e-liquid blend, as it accounts for around 80% or even 90% of the final solution. By nature, the base is neutral and therefore has no flavour. It is this base (and its PG/VG ratio) that determines the throat sensation, or “hit”. Depending on the balance of this base's ratios, the chosen flavour will also be affected, as will the texture and intensity of the vapour.
The concentrate is simply the flavouring that gives your vape its taste. Mint, strawberry, bourbon vanilla… there is something for every taste! Flavour concentrate categories are generally divided into five different groups: “drinks”, “menthol”, “classic”, “gourmet” and “fruit”.
The booster allows you to add a certain nicotine strength to your e-liquid. The nicotine booster is added directly to the base before it is subsequently mixed with the flavour concentrate. The difference from a neutral base? Virtually none, since a nicotine booster is simply a neutral base solution to which a nicotine solution has been added.
Optional, an additive can be added to the preparation when certain flavour concentrates need a little enhancement, in particular. In addition, an additive can sweeten the final solution or add a certain “freshness” to the product.
2 - The base
50/50 Base 500 ml - Le Vapoteur Discount
Several factors need to be considered to create the perfect base for your e-liquid.
The importance of the PG/VG ratio
When you need to choose a base for your DIY e-liquid for an e-cigarette, the question of the PG/VG ratio will inevitably arise in order to determine what type of vape you want. To understand this better, PG indicates the level of Propylene Glycol, while VG indicates the level of Vegetable Glycerine. Mixing the two solutions allows you to adjust the hit – that is, the sensation felt in the throat when inhaling vapour – and the desired amount of vapour. For example, with a base containing a much higher PG ratio (80%) than VG ratio (20%), the vaper will enjoy an experience with very light vapour and a very strong throat hit.
DIY mixes and ready-to-use solutions
You can certainly opt for DIY mixes and even for bottles at the maximum ratio, i.e. 100%, without mixing.
However, you should know that 100% Propylene Glycol (PG) offers a base that delivers flavours intensely and provides a suitably pronounced throat hit, without being excessive. On the other hand, the vapour produced will be low in both volume and quantity. Furthermore, an overly concentrated PG ratio can cause leaks and other issues with certain types of atomiser. Opting for vaping with 100% mg of PG can lead to dehydration due to the product’s concentration. So remember to drink plenty!
With 100% Vegetable Glycerine bottles, you get a base that produces a large amount of vapour, which is sure to appeal to cloud chasers. In return, flavours are somewhat altered and the throat sensation (the hit) is reduced and less pronounced. The drawback of 100% VG is that, due to its natural viscosity, it tends to clog electronic cigarette coils. Furthermore, when pure and heated above 150 degrees, vegetable glycerine may produce acrolein, a toxic substance with carcinogenic risks.
Beginners can also opt for pre-defined blends that are ready to use, such as 80/20 (the PG ratio is always shown before the VG ratio), or 50/50.
3 - Nicotine
50/50 Nicotine Booster - Le Vapoteur Discount
The right nicotine strength
The nicotine strength you choose will depend directly on your consumption habits. Generally speaking:
0 mg corresponds to someone who is not dependent on the effects of nicotine
6 mg corresponds to a vaper with a low dependence on the effects of nicotine
12 mg corresponds to a vaper with a moderate dependence on the effects of nicotine
16 to 18 mg corresponds to a vaper with a high dependence on the effects of nicotine
DIY nicotine base
To go with your flavour concentrate, you can make your own DIY nicotine base. To do this, you will once again need to use online calculators and enter:
The desired quantity of final base.
The desired nicotine strength.
Using this information, you can determine the strength in milligrams of nicotine booster you need, as well as the quantity of neutral base. You will then need to pour the nicotine booster into an empty bottle, mix in the correctly measured base, then shake everything!
III. How do you make your own e-liquid?
1 - Do It Yourself: a simple principle open to everyone
The principle of Do It Yourself is extremely simple to understand and remember. To create the perfect DIY e-liquid, simply follow the same steps each time:
Choose the PG/VG ratio and nicotine strength of your base
Add a few drops of the flavour concentrate of your choice
Leave it for around 48 hours to allow the flavours to develop
Vape with even greater enjoyment!
2 - Online calculators
The DIY Calculator will help you measure your solutions and make the best possible e-liquid, while following the doses recommended by manufacturers. To do this, the online calculator will ask you to enter:
The brand and type of concentrate required.
The desired quantity of e-liquid.
The PG/VG ratio you would like.
Your chosen nicotine strength (from 0 mg/ml to 16 mg/ml).
Using this information, the calculator will indicate—based on calculations established beforehand by the manufacturers of the listed brands—the quantity of base (in millilitres) and the quantity of nicotine booster (in millilitres) to mix to obtain the final base. The calculator will then provide the quantity (again in millilitres) of final base and the quantity of flavouring (in ML) to combine, as well as the steeping time required before enjoying your e-liquid. To better understand, let’s take a more concrete example:
I choose the “Milkshake Man” brand and the “Banana Milkshake Man” concentrate in 30 millilitres.
I want to obtain 100 millilitres of e-liquid.
I opt for a 40/60 PG/VG ratio (meaning that the PG ratio will be 40% and the VG ratio 60%).
I set my nicotine strength to 6 mg/ml.
The calculator then tells me that, to obtain my final base, I need to mix:
54.2 ml of 40/60 base at 0 mg
23.3 ml of 40/60 nicotine booster at 20 mg
This gives me a final base of 77.5 ml at 40/60 with 6 mg of nicotine, to be mixed with 22.5 ml of the flavouring I selected beforehand. The solution’s steeping time is estimated at around 15 to 20 days before first use.
3 - Accessories
DIY Bottle Labels - Le Vapoteur Discount
A very important element that should never be overlooked: accessories. Indeed, if you do not have the equipment needed to make your e-liquid using Do It Yourself, you are unlikely to achieve any result at all. To carry out your project successfully, you will need:
Empty bottles: to store your e-liquid
Protective equipment: to mix safely
Syringes: to draw up and combine solutions
4 - Precautions to take
Remember that nicotine and other chemical solutions are products that must be handled with great care, while wearing protective gloves and goggles.
Please note:
Bottles containing nicotine solution must be stored away from all sources of light and in a locked place to prevent any danger to children.
Flavourings must always be mixed with a base; never consume them on their own.
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Feel free to read our article about the location of the electronic cigarette and e-liquid shop Le Vapoteur Discount!
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