mixing my own juice

illicit007

Hi all

I just started vaping two weeks ago and I'm wanting to start mixing my own eliquid to save money and also control what I smoke. I like a mellow yet sweet tasting smoke with a very slight throat hit so am thinking of going down a mainly VG based mix and add PG until I get the right mix.

I'm thinking of ordering all the stuff I need from here
http://alba-vapours.co.uk/mixing-diy-flavours

Just wondering if anyone has tried their mixing flavours and could recommend them. Or if anyone could chime in with recommendations of good suppliers for mixing their own eliquids?

Thanks a lot

grindle

illicit007 wrote: »

Hi all

I just started vaping two weeks ago and I'm wanting to start mixing my own eliquid to save money and also control what I smoke. I like a mellow yet sweet tasting smoke with a very slight throat hit so am thinking of going down a mainly VG based mix and add PG until I get the right mix.

I'm thinking of ordering all the stuff I need from here
http://alba-vapours.co.uk/mixing-diy-flavours

Just wondering if anyone has tried their mixing flavours and could recommend them. Or if anyone could chime in with recommendations of good suppliers for mixing their own eliquids?

Thanks a lot

When I was buying my stuff, ECigShop had the cheapest PG & VG bases, Bargain Vapour had/has the cheapest nic base.

Alba Vapours flavours are great.
Am I going to utter these words again? Yeah.
Swedish Fish. Buy it. Buy all of it.
Piña Colada and Tropical Punch are delicious too.
And Guava.
And Blackberry.
Don't forget to buy too many spare bottles and pipettes/syringes, especially spare bottles.

It's best to end this with a non-sequitur.
Swedish Fish.

illicit007

grindle wrote: »

It's best to end this with a non-sequitur.
Swedish Fish.

Thanks man.

I'm wondering is the DIY Swedish Fish as good as the pre-made Swedish Fish juice?

Sir Digby Chicken Caesar

I could never figure out the diy swedish fish

tried to mix it about 5 times with different strengths.. none of them came close to the pre-mades

but then I was just terrible at diy anyway, which is why I gave up on it and sold all my diy gear

grindle

illicit007 wrote: »

I'm wondering is the DIY Swedish Fish as good as the pre-made Swedish Fish juice?

The taste is, but the fizz, while there, wasn't as pronounced, so I experimented up and down the ratio-scale, and found it worked better with some VG I'd thinned using vodka (VG 85/vodka 15).

After thinning the VG the mix only worked for me between 75/25 and 80/20 PG/VG, as the VG seems to smooth it out too much over 25.
Nic at 20mg.

Flavour was at 20% which is pretty high for a "super-concentrate", but VG really does dampen the flavouring. More vapour the DIY way though.

*Waits for E-Si to pop in and say their juice is 100% VG with alcohol*

Which could be true actually, I didn't try anything past 40% VG, but having tried them side-by-side in identical cartos, there's more plumage from the DIY than the store-bought.

I'm waiting for some TPA Champagne to arrive (if a juice has fizz, apparently this is where it comes from) to boost the fizz even more though.
I fupping love that tickle.

illicit007

Hi Grindle. So I followed your instructions for mixing the swedish fish. I cut my VG with some vodka and did 75/25 PG/VG mix and 20% flavouring. It was okay but kinda disappointing compared to all the rave I've heard about swedish fish. Now I wish I bought some pre-made swedish fish to compare. (I'll buy some my next order.)

Possibly where I may have gone wrong is I ordered the Nicotene liquid (54mg mist brand off alba vapours) in VG base. Perhaps I should have gone and gotta the PG base nicotene?

Anyway kinda disappointed but I think it's going to take a lot of playing around and charting my ratios and results.

Also I tried mixing Guava.
VG 54 Nic - @ 12mg
PG @ 65 %
VG @ 35 % (not thinned with vodka)
Guava Flavour @ 10 %

It was awefully harsh on the back of the throat compared to the swedish fish mix that I tried to copy your recipe. Is it possible that some flavourings are more harsh than others? Or perhaps if I thinned it out with vodka it wouldn't be so harsh? I noticed the swedish fish mix I made with thinned VG (and less VG) was a lot lot thinner and smoother.

Anyway I'm just starting my experiments and I look forward to trading information with you in the future.

EDIT: I found that the harshness definitely went away after a while. I think I wait long enough after filling the Boge Cartomiser before trying to vape it. I got over eager and the brand new (didn't soak for long enough) carto was a big cause of the harshness.

wingnut32

You might try and mix the swedish fish at 30%, i find it to be a weak flavouring.

grindle

Sorry it didn't work out for you, illicit007!
There could be all sorts of minute variables involved.
One is that I mix on my RDA, vape on my Vivi, so the flavouring would mute on a carto.
One thing I've found about the nose-fizz is it seems more apparent to me when I'm using a carto.
RDA=loads of flavour, less apparent nose-fizz.
I've gotten closer with TPA's Champagne added in tiny doses (threw some Swedish Fish into a tank after some Mountain Dew, that worked too).
I think I'm reaching the flavour-rut with Swedish Fish now though. I've over-indulged and feel like I'm chasing a Swedish unicorn.

wingnut32 wrote: »

You might try and mix the swedish fish at 30%, i find it to be a weak flavouring.

30% flavour, 60/40 PG/VG?

Do you treat your VG? Mine is almost as thick as honey, so it needs a good watering-down.

Any Ethyl Maltol? I've thrown a couple of drops in and it brightens it up, but it always seems to bring out a certain sweetly (weird taste description incoming!) damp-tasting flavour from the VG.
I vaped (vope?) straight PG, then VG with EM just to make sure that was it.
Tastes are strange. What are your seeecretsssssss?

I've got enough El Toro juice to last me over a month now, so my tastebuds'll have plenty of time to get over the sweet juice abuse I've been pounding them with.
Must regain perspective.

DirtyBollox

think i'm going to give this a go and see what happens. worst comes to worst i'll sell the materials on to someone else who will get some use out of them.

Can anyone recommend any recipes i should start with and try straight away?

illicit007

I haven't had enough experience yet in mixing my own juice. I would say one thing though I'd do differently next time. I ordered the nicotene in VG base. Next time I'd order the nicotene in PG base. I think the flavour of the VG you get from alba vapours isn't really that nice. Anyone else think the same?

newmark

DirtyBollox wrote: »

think i'm going to give this a go and see what happens. worst comes to worst i'll sell the materials on to someone else who will get some use out of them.

Can anyone recommend any recipes i should start with and try straight away?

I have a few flavour concentrates left from when I used to mix my own. I'll bring them on Saturday and you can have them, they will get you started.
You may even get to mix some with Stefan in the workshop if you wanted to.:)

Stefan_Cork

Aye i will bring a selection with me and anyone can have a go at it and make there own sample

DirtyBollox

just bought some PG and VG base so i can start mixing asap. the sister works in a science lab so i've asked her to pilfer a few syringes and graduated cylinders and the like for me. Expect to see some amazing or disastrous results soon

DirtyBollox

anyone know anything about steeping?

for instance can i throw some rose leaves into a vat of PG and VG and leave it for a few days?(pretty much how i imagine DKS doing it) if so how long should i leave the steeping material in for?

or should i just stick to mixing juices first and see how that works out for me?

grindle

DirtyBollox wrote: »

anyone know anything about steeping?

for instance can i throw some rose leaves into a vat of PG and VG and leave it for a few days?(pretty much how i imagine DKS doing it) if so how long should i leave the steeping material in for?

or should i just stick to mixing juices first and see how that works out for me?

You'll learn a lot more on UKVaper's Mixology section than you can here, but steeping natural materials can be quite dangerous, I gather.
Usually the brains behind the flavour concentrates are chemists who analyse what exact chemicals make a rose smell like a rose, and synthetically recreate those flavours.
If you just steep any only untreated plant material, you risk poisoning yourself with everything else that make up a rose/whatever.
Or so I've heard.
If we don't hear back from you, you'll have died for a good cause.

DirtyBollox

got some of the bottles that i've been ordering over the past few days. if all things go well i'll have the PG and VG today or tomorrow and i can start mixing

DirtyBollox

Picked up a package this morning in the post office that i havent opened yet. i believe it contains 2 bottles 1 PG the other VG

cant mix though until after the vapemeet though. at least i have them

DirtyBollox

Anyone have any recepies they've tried and succeeded with themselves? mind sharing the exact details? i would like some sort of fallback if i cock this up completly.

grindle

What flavours did you get? What brand/s?

What mg Nic base did you get?

DirtyBollox

grindle wrote: »

What flavours did you get? What brand/s?

What mg Nic base did you get?

whats with the hard questions!!!!!:p

i'll check and get back to you

DirtyBollox

So in my mixing bucket i have:

Nic 50mg dont know if its pg or vg
PG 100ml
VG 100ml

flavourings are mocca, chocholate, cherry, caramel, almonds and caramel.

newmark

DirtyBollox wrote: »

So in my mixing bucket i have:

Nic 50mg dont know if its pg or vg
PG 100ml
VG 100ml

flavourings are mocca, chocholate, cherry, caramel, almonds and caramel.

The nicotine base you have is PG so Ill give you a breakdown on how to make 10ml of 12.5%nicotine chocolate caramel flavour in a 50%pg/50%vg ratio to start you off.

If you want it stronger in nicotine you will have to use a calculator but I strongly suggest you research the whole mixing thing as much as possible going forward and get comfortable with mixing calculations. Until your sure you like a flavour its best to make just 10ml at a time so that if it goes wrong you don't waste too much.

Recipe for 10ml of Chocolate Caramel at 12.5mg nicotine strength with 50PG/50%VG Ratio

0.5ml chocolate flavouring
0.5ml caramel flavouring
2.5ml of 50mg nicotine base
1.5ml of PG
5ml of VG (or you can do 4.5ml of vg and.5ml of distilled water to thin it out a bit)

DirtyBollox

newmark wrote: »

Until your sure you like a flavour its best to make just 10ml at a time so that if it goes wrong you don't waste too much.

aye, i bought a shed load of 10ml bottles as i know i'm going to screw up somewhere and i dont want to waste the ingredients

Thanks

newmark

Use separate syringes for each thing as well so you don't cross contaminate stuff and shake well. Let us know how it goes anyway and take it from someone who has made mistakes mixing, take your time and don't try do too much at the one time.

I haven't time at the moment to find one as I have to dash but there's some good mixing calculators linked in this thread http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2056546461 There's also some good info in that thread which should help you.

Sir Digby Chicken Caesar

ignore *everything* I say in that thread

Bubba9

Download this:

http://ejuice.breaktru.com/

There's lots of info on how to use it, mix juices, loads of recipes and more in the app itself. Loads of recipes here, too, which you can add to the app.

Start off with say 5ml and if you don't like the result you can dump it...if you like it you can make a bigger batch. Label your mixes with percentages, dates, etc. so you'll know what they are later or if you're inclined keep a mixing book. I never use gloves but be careful and wash your hands regularly and try not to get any base in your eyes. When you're finished your mixes leave them to steep (bottle with caps off) in a cool dark place for at least 24 hours...longer if you can be patient.

Stefan_Cork

aye go for ejiucemeup and use percentages here is a good overview of most flavours %
https://spreadsheets.google.com/spreadsheet/pub?key=0AkX4_hQ6Fu8HdEwwR2dLRUJlVjlabEN1NG1ucktuUVE&gid=0

depends what flavours you got, but make small amounts, baccy flavours will/can change taste for up to 5/6weeks steeping (waiting)
fruity ones are ready usually in 1h-24h