You’ve given up smoking and been vaping a while, moved on from your starter kit to a lovely new vape and want to progress mixing your own e-liquid. But to be honest, you’re a bit confused about where to start; let’s see if we can simplify the basics and give you the information to give it go.
The Basics
Your e-liquid contains four main ingredients: Vegetable Glycerin or VG, Propylene Glycol (PG), food-grade flavouring, and the fourth element, nicotine. The e-liquid your probably using at the moment is pre-mixed with the VG/PG level at 50/50, which gives a good even vape; the nicotine content can range from the highest level of 20mg per 10ml bottle down to 3mg. There are different mix ratios of e-liquid available as VG is a thick substance which allows the production of more vapour while PG is a thinner component but produces a better flavour; more on this later.
Shortfills & Shots
If you have been reading about e-liquid, you may have heard of both terms but don’t really know what they mean. It’s relatively simple; e-liquid without the nicotine added is referred to as shortfill e-liquid; it’s then combined with the separate nicotine element, which is called the shot or nic shot. The shot contains a solution of traditional freebase nicotine or what is referred to as salt nicotine in the e-liquid world, a newer type of nicotine that gives a smoother vape when inhaled.
Mixing Your Own Juice
It is possible to buy your own shortfill e-liquid with space left in the bottle for the nicotine shot; for example, a 60ml bottle will have 50ml of shortfill liquid with enough capacity for your 10ml nic shot to go straight in, a quick shake, and you’re ready to go. If you want to mix your e-liquid in larger quantities, it is entirely possible, but as your amount of shortfill increases, so must the number of shots you complete the mix with must too. A good rule of thumb is 2 x 10ml shots for 100ml shortfill, which will give you 120ml e-liquid at 3mg nicotine strength. Using a minimum number of suitable utensils, it is possible to mix your e-liquid in any quantities, the sky’s your limit.
Thicker Liquids for Bigger Clouds
It might well be that you dream of those tremendous vast clouds of vapour; if that’s the case, you’ll be needing an e-liquid with a higher VG content. The thicker liquid combined with a vape device using a sub-ohm coil allows the production of those nice big clouds; the high VG E-liquid is available in a 70/30 ratio. At the other end of the scale, for those wanting a more flavoursome vape, a high PG liquid mixed at an 80/20 combination gives less vapour but more taste.
At the end of the day, it all comes down to what you want from your e-liquid and where you are heading on your vaping journey; wherever that is, I hope this short article has given you some information to go forward, happy vaping.
Comments are closed.