Whether you’re a seasoned vaper or a curious beginner, crafting your own e-liquid can be an exciting and rewarding experience. Creating your own vape juice allows you to explore endless flavor combinations, adjust nicotine levels according to your preference, and ultimately save money. Here’s everything you need to know about DIY e-liquid.
Disclaimer
Please note that DIY e-liquid mixing, if using high strength nicotine, may be dangerous if you do not have the correct knowledge and do not follow appropriate steps. Purchasing nicotine strengths above 2% is against e-cig TPD regulations, and we can not condone any illegal purchases.
The actions and opinions in this piece of those of the authors alone and at we strongly recommend you always purchase legally compliant e-liquid from a reputable source.
DIY e-liquid means “do-it-yourself” e-liquid. In other words, it’s e-liquid that you make yourself out of the base ingredients instead of purchasing ready-made from a vape shop.
In practice, this means mixing together propylene glycol (PG), vegetable glycerine (VG), nicotine (which is diluted in PG or VG) and one or more flavourings. The amounts of these ingredients are carefully chosen to ensure that the end result has the PG/VG ratio, nicotine strength and flavour profile you’re looking for.
However, there are many different ways to make DIY e-juice. Although purists may not agree, even mixing together two ready-made e-liquid classes as making your own DIY e-juice to some extent.
You can also buy “flavour shots” to add to the base mixture of PG, VG and nicotine. These are ready-made combinations of flavourings that turn your base mix into a ready-to-vape e-juice when you add a suitable amount.
This is largely the same as making your own juice from scratch, but takes care of the most challenging part – finding the right balance of flavour components to make a delicious juice – in a much simpler way.
But most DIY mixers choose to mix flavourings themselves instead of using pre-mixed flavour shots. This means buying several flavourings and finding the right quantities of each to produce the desired flavour.
Before diving into mixing, it’s crucial to understand the fundamental components of e-liquid:
Propylene Glycol (PG) and Vegetable Glycerin (VG): These are the base liquids. PG offers a stronger throat hit and better flavor clarity, while VG produces more vapor and a smoother inhale. A 50/50 PG/VG ratio is often a good starting point for balance.
Nicotine (Optional): If you choose to add nicotine, ensure you handle it with care and precision, as it’s a toxic substance in high concentrations.
Flavor Concentrates: These determine the taste of your vape juice. There is a vast array of flavors available, from traditional tobacco to exotic fruits and dessert-inspired options.
To safely mix DIY e-juice, it’s essential to make sure you have the right equipment and know exactly what you’re doing.
To start mixing your e-liquid, you’ll need some basic equipment:
Syringes and/or Pipettes: For accurately measuring liquid ingredients.
Empty Bottles: For storing your finished e-liquid.
Gloves: To protect your skin from nicotine and other chemicals.
Labels: Always label your mixtures with the date and contents for safety and consistency.
When making DIY e-liquid, safety should be your priority.
Nicotine Handling: Always wear gloves and goggles when handling nicotine, and keep it out of reach from children and pets.
Workspace: Ensure you have a clean and organized workspace to avoid contamination or accidents.
Storage: Store all ingredients safely, especially those containing nicotine.
Establish Your Ratios: Decide on the PG/VG ratio and nicotine strength. There are numerous online calculators that can help you determine precise measurements based on your desired specs.
Measure Your Ingredients: Using syringes or pipettes, measure out the nicotine, followed by flavor concentrates, and finally, the PG and VG. Precision is vital when dealing with nicotine.
Mix Thoroughly: Combine your ingredients in a bottle and shake the mixture to ensure it’s thoroughly mixed. Some vapers opt for a warm water bath to help the ingredients blend.
Steep Your E-Liquid: Steeping allows the flavors to mature, similar to letting a fine wine age. Store your e-liquid in a cool, dark place for a few days to weeks, shaking periodically. Taste tests can help you determine when it’s ready.
Why do people mix their own e-juice?
It’s often cheaper to mix your own e-liquid. This is especially the case if you buy e-liquid flavour concentrates in bulk.DIYOrDie believes this a large part of the reason is to save money.
It’s mainly due to cost. As wattages increase, tanks get bigger, vapor gets bigger. It’s hard for a lot of vapers, who thought they’d save money switching to vaping, to keep up with all the costs. You move to DIY, and immediately your budget opens up.
That tied in with our survey results, with over 70% selecting saving money as one reason for mixing e-liquid.
Most of the ingredients you’ll need are widely-available from online vape shops. PG and VG are always easy to find, but since the implementation of the TPD, you can only buy small “nicotine shots” in a maximum of 20 mg/ml. These have to be contained in tiny 10 ml bottles, though, so you’ll need to pick up quite a few of them to get started with DIY mixing.
Flavourings are easy to find, but getting ones you like isn’t always easy.Many e-liquid companies also sell their own e-juice flavourings as flavour shots, so you may be able to source your ingredients from your usual supplier, or a company whose liquids you’ve tried before.
What’s involved in mixing DIY e-liquid?
Once you’ve got everything you need together, the actual mixing process is pretty straightforward. In a nutshell, all you have to do is mix the various components together in appropriate amounts to get the result you’re looking for.
The most important stage of the whole process is preparation. There are tons of apps and calculators you can use for this purpose, but one simple, effective tool is Steam-Engine’s DIY e-juice calculator.
All you have to do is enter the size of the batch you want to create (at the left of the page), the strength of your nicotine base and whether it’s diluted in PG or VG (to the middle-left of the page) and the desired nicotine strength and PG/VG ratio of your finished juice (middle-right). For flavourings, you use the field in the bottom left to add each flavouring you’ll be using and specify the percentage you want it to be in your final mix. In general, shooting for around 10% to 15% flavouring in total will make a tasty mix, but you can adjust this to suit your preferences.
The readout on the right now tells you exactly what you need to add, both in volume (in millilitres) and by weight (in grams). The remainder of the process is just adding the individual components in the quantities listed.
Make sure you’re wearing your safety gear before you start mixing, and you have a clear, clean workspace. Ideally, you can use one syringe per component to prevent any cross-contamination, but using the same one for the PG and VG or for similar flavourings isn’t a big deal. Now all you have to do is suck up the required amounts of each ingredient with a syringe and put them into the bottle. If you’re mixing by weight, you can use pipettes for this, but syringes are fine for both methods.
Once all of the components are in the bottle, your e-liquid is basically ready – just screw on the cap and give it a vigorous shake to mix the components together. Most freshly-mixed e-liquids benefit from a steep, so it’s best to do this before vaping the juice (although I usually have a taste just after mixing too). We have a detailed guide to steeping here if you need more information!
Most DIY mixers recommend keeping a record of what you’ve added to each bottle so you can recreate any successful recipes easily. If you have some sticky labels, you can put the key bits of information (i.e. the percentages of flavourings used, the nicotine strength and the PG/VG ratio) on the label, but you can also just write it down in a notebook or save your recipes on your computer.
The time it takes to mix a batch of e-liquid can vary, but the actual mixing process is generally quite quick. Most of the time you spend will be planning your mix, from choosing which flavours to combine (or finding a suitable recipe online) to using a DIY mixing calculator to find out how much of each component you need to add.If you’re just doing one flavour, you’ll probably have it finished within half an hour, even if you’re new to mixing. It’s slightly quicker to mix by weight, but once you get used to being precise with your syringes, you can be pretty quick mixing by volume too. When you have some experience with mixing, you’ll be able to put together an e-juice in as little as five or ten minutes.
After your e-liquid has steeped for an appropriate amount of time (generally, fruits need less time and desserts need a bit more), it’s time to test it out. When you test the flavour, pay special attention to how the flavour components come through, and note down any components that are too subtle, too strong or don’t work well with the overall flavour profile.
If you’re serious about improving your recipes, this is where having a spreadsheet on your computer or a notebook can be really useful. You can make detailed notes on each mix, and over time it will be a big help in honing and improving your recipes. But even if you don’t want to go into detail, even something as simple as rating each flavour out of five will give you an idea of which mixes to repeat.
In an ideal world, you’d send off your e-liquids to a lab to be tested. But in reality, that’s just too expensive for most vapers. Unfortunately, that’s one count against DIY e-liquid.
summarize
It’s definitely fun to strike out on your own and make up your own recipes from scratch, but there are huge advantages to using tried and tested DIY e-juice recipes. At first, it can be difficult to make delicious e-juice, so using recipes is a big help with your first mixes. It can also be a good way to choose some e-liquid flavour concentrates to buy – you can pick up whatever you need for a particular recipe and build up your collection that way.
As with all things e-liquid, individual preferences play a big role in which recipes you’ll enjoy. That said, there are many great sources for e-juice recipes that have been rated by communities of DIY mixing vapers.
Embark on your DIY journey today, and experiment with the limitless possibilities of e-liquid crafting. Remember, practice makes perfect, and the vaping community is always here to help with tips and tricks. Happy mixing!
