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At Gourmet E-Liquid, we’ve learned a lot about DIY E-Liquid over the years. Mixing your own shortfill e-liquid is a fun way to experiment with different flavour combinations — it’s also much cheaper, per-millilitre, than buying smaller pre-mixed bottles.
In this post, we’ll walk you through the basics of mixing your own e-liquid. We’ll explain what components you’ll need to make your own DIY vape juice, talk you through the actual method of mixing e-liquid and give you a few do’s and don’ts that will save you time and money.
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What is DIY E-Liquid?
DIY E-Liquid is perfect for vapers who have tried a lot of different e-liquids and already know what kind of flavours they like to vape. With DIY E-Liquid, you mix three different liquids to create your own e-liquid: a VG/PG base mix, a flavour concentrate and — if you’re quitting tobacco — a nicotine booster shot. The flavour profile you end up with is either identical to the e-liquid brand (if you follow the instructions), or it’s a unique flavour tailored to your personal taste (if you like to experiment).
DIY E-Liquid Ingredients:
DIY shortfill is typically made up of three different ingredients:
Base Mix
Flavour Concentrate
Nicotine Booster
How do I make DIY E-Liquid?
1. Prepare your mixing area
Start by placing a sheet of paper towel on a smooth, level, wipe-clean surface. You can stand all of your bottles on this sheet — if a few drips go astray it won’t matter — the kitchen roll will absorb them. If I’m mixing my own I will just use my kitchen table, but a desk or countertop will be fine too. If you accidentally spill your flavour concentrate, you need to be able to wipe it up fast, so don’t mix DIY vape juice on an uneven surface like the arm of your sofa or the car dashboard.
2. Get your bottles ready
You’ll start with three bottles in front of you: your base, your flavour concentrate and your nicotine shot. You’ll also need a fourth bottle that you can mix everything into. If you don’t already have a large empty unicorn bottle (ideally 60ml capacity or larger) you can buy these on our site - just search for unicorn bottles to see our current range. Open up the empty unicorn bottle so that it’s ready to fill, and make sure it’s completely clean — there should be no dust or lint in there.
3. Write down and check your fluid measurements
When mixing DIY E-Liquid, you have to be careful to make sure that your ratios are right. A few minutes of double-checking your measurements, just by writing them down on paper, will save you from adding the wrong amount of PG, VG, flavour or nicotine. It’s also really helpful if you’re experimenting with different flavour profiles, because you can keep a log of what tasted good and what didn’t. Most flavour concentrates will specify the percentage of flavour to base mix … they may also tell you what VG/PG base mix you should be mixing into.
4. Mix together your base, flavour and nicotine
Using the measurements you’ve just written down, you are now ready to start mixing your e-liquid ingredients. The first thing that should go into the bottle is your base mix. If there are graduations on the side of your base mix bottle, you can use these to get your millilitre measurements spot-on. Alternatively, you can buy an e-liquid syringe. E-Liquid syringes aren’t expensive and they help you mix your DIY shortfill e-liquid accurately. You can buy e-liquid syringes on our site - just search for the word ‘syringe’ and you’ll see what's available. As soon as you’ve added all of your ingredients, put the cap back on your bottle, check the seal and then shake the bottle vigorously for a good sixty seconds.
5. Let the DIY vape juice steep
Mixing your own e-liquid flavour: dos and don’ts
You’ll soon learn that mixing your own e-liquid is really good fun. If you want to start making your own bespoke flavours, we’ve got a few tips for you.
I hope this guide has given you a good overview of DIY e-liquids and how to mix them. Mixing your own flavours is a really enjoyable hobby, but you don’t have to do it if you don’t want to -- we have more than 2,000 unique flavour blends for sale on our site.
If you need help picking a flavour and you don’t want to get into DIY mixing, it’s not a problem. Just give us a ring or get in touch through our contact form — we’ll be happy to help.
Stay safe and happy vaping!
- John Boughey