Skip to content
The Beginners Guide to DIY E-Liquid Mixing

The Beginners Guide to DIY E-Liquid Mixing

If you have never used concentrates to mix your own flavours, the thought can be pretty daunting. We’re here to tell you that it isn’t as difficult as it may seem. Read on to learn more about the DIY E-Liquid mixing process.

 

What You Will Need 

E-Liquid is made up of 4 main ingredients. A ‘base’ of PG and VG (which will make up around 70% of your e-liquid), Flavour Concentrates and Nicotine, but there are a few other tools that will help you in mixing your new favourite flavour.

Check out our full range of mixing accessories here

 

Choose Your Recipe

If you are just starting out, you might find it easier to stick to pre-made recipes before creating your own. There are thousands of recipes to be found online, some of which you may find to be a good starting point for a recipe of your own. Another great tool for the beginner mixologist is an online e-liquid mixing calculator (which can be found with a quick google search). This will help you determine exactly how much of each ingredient you need to add to create a complete e-liquid. At DarkStar we sell a number of ‘open recipe’ products, where the ingredients and ratios have been made available to the public. These include; Kanzi, Lemon Tart and Twister Lolly. Scroll down on the product pages to view these great recipes! 

 

Flavour Concentrates

Now for the fun part. Once you have all your equipment ready to use and a recipe to follow, it’s time to start adding ingredients to your mixing receptacle. Here at DarkStar, we have hundreds of flavour concentrates to choose from to help you create practically any flavour you can think of. Concentrates usually make up 10 – 20% of a final e-liquid mix, although this can depend on the particular concentrates that you are using. This stage can often be trial and error if you are using concentrates you haven’t used before.

 

VG/PG 

Use a syringe to add your required amounts of VG & PG. This is where you can customise the VG/PG ratio of your e-liquid. To find out more about the difference between PG and VG click here. Remember that Flavour Concentrates are usually PG based, and Nicotine Shots also have a VG/PG ratio that can effect your overall ratio. Use an e-liquid calculator to make sure you are using the correct ratios.

 

Nicotine Strength

You will now need to determine exactly what nicotine strength you want your final e-liquid to be. The best and simplest way to do this is with 10ml 18mg nicotine shots. For example, if you are creating 60ml of final e-liquid and you would like your nicotine strength to be 3mg, then 10ml of the final recipe should be made up of one of these 18mg nicotine shots (similar to how Short Fills work). Remember that these nicotine shots have a PG/VG ratio, so make sure to take this into account in your calculations. 

 

Steeping 

Once you have a complete mix, it can be tempting to crack it open to taste your creation, but Flavour Concentrates, VG and PG have to steep before they are ready to vape. These products have different densities and they need time to mix at a molecular level. Steeping is the process used in e-liquid production of aging your juice so that all the individual flavours come out and it ultimately tastes better. E-Liquid recipes, especially those of a complex nature, will continue to steep over time. Some people, for example, like to steep their custard recipes for up to 6 months! As a guideline the recommended steep times are as follows:

  • Simple Fruit Flavours: 1-3 days
  • Tobacco Flavours: 2-4 weeks
  • Custard/Cream Flavours: 3-6 weeks
  • Bakery Flavours: 2-4 weeks

We hope this short blog helps shed some light on the DIY e-liquid mixing process. To learn more about some of the steps mentioned, check out the rest of our blog or join our online community.

Previous article Thank You! - HEROES Help Them Help Us Donation
Next article How To Get The Most Out Of Your E-Liquid

Leave a comment

Comments must be approved before appearing

* Required fields