DIY Juice For Newbs.

If you were once a heavy smoker, the most immediate benefit of vaping is the red
uced day to day cost, which is sadly often obfuscated by the innate desire of mo
st vapers to collect every mod, drip tip, and atty ever made. That aside, the co
st of eliquid is a fraction of the cost of tobacco, even if you're buying a dece
nt pre-mixed brand. The next inevitable step in any vaper's journey is to switch
to DIY juice, which is not only even cheaper than buying off the shelf juice, b
ut also allows you to tailor the strength, composition, and flavour to your prec
ise taste. However, there are three factors which often prevent people from maki
ng this rewarding step:
1/ It's expensive to get started.
That is a reasonable argument, but the cost of equipment is really not so bad as
one might think, and you will recoup your investment very quickly. You will als
o want to maximise your saving by buying fairly large quantities of nicotine bas
e, glycerine, and flavourings, but when you look at the costs, it's no more than
a couple of cartons of cigarettes or a few bottles of premium juice, and a litr
e of high strength nicotine base can last an average vaper a year - not bad when
you consider the investment of $100-150.
2/ It's dangerous
Let's not mince words here - nicotine is a very very VERY toxic substance in its
pure form - but in the maximum strengths commonly available (usually 7-10% - of
ten expressed as 70-100mg - depending on your country or state), it really isn't
anything to fret about. Sure, you need to keep it well out of reach of children
and pets, in secure and clearly labelled containers, and you do need to take so
me basic safety precautions when handling it; however, you don't need fume cabin
ets and level 2 NBC suits just to make eliquid.
3/ It's difficult
This really depends on what level you're working at; if you want a basic custard
flavour, then it's terribly easy. However, if you want to replicate some comple
x off the shelf juice, then there is a degree of alchemy involved. Like anything
, you need to gain proficiency in your endeavours, so start out with simple reci
pes like banana custard, move up to more complex ones such as apple pie, and the
n consider getting adventurous with complex multilayered flavours when you've go
t a feel for things. Don't forget that DIY is really cheap once you're set up, s
o if you mix up a 5ml test batch of a recipe and it doesn't work out, then ditch
ing it won't break the bank.

REQUIRED EQUIPMENT
There are only three categories of equipment you need to get started:
1/ Safety
If you're handling high concentrations of nicotine, I would suggest buying a box
of disposable latex gloves, much like the ones used by medics and tattooists. E
ven at 10%, a lot of people won't even experience skin irritation by direct cont
act, but it's better to be safe. Similarly, the chances of a 10% concentration p
resenting a risk through inhalation is incredibly small, but if you want to be t
otally safe (and prevent contaminating your juice), then buy some disposable mas
ks or even a half face respirator, though I personally have never felt the need.
One area that does need protection is your eyes - if you don't wear glasses, I
strongly advise buying some lab goggles (available on eBay for a few dollars), a
s getting even nicotine free juice in your eyes can hurt a lot, and splashes are
a potential hazard when mixing.
Equipment aside, the best way to protect yourself and those around you, is throu
gh safe practices. Don't mix using kitchen utensils or in a food prep area, don'
t eat or drink whilst mixing, seal and secure bottles as soon as you've finished
with them (even if you will be going back to them later), and keep children and
pets out of the room in which you're creating your masterpiece. Oh, and just be
cause it smells nommy, don't lick your damned fingers, m'kay?

2/ Measuring
To get a consistent juice, you need to ensure that your base, glycerine, juices,
flavours, enhancers, and thinners are all accurately dosed. To facilitate this,
I suggest a quick look on eBay or Fasttech for syringes, hypodermic needles, an
d lab glassware such as measuring cylinders and flasks. Syringes can be found in
a variety of sizes (I suggest buying a selection - 1, 5, 10, and 30ml should su
ffice), materials, and needle fitment. I prefer glass syringes, but plastic is p
erfectly acceptable, and a lot cheaper. Syringes come in two different fitments
- Luer Lock and Luer Slip - though both will fit any commonly found modern hypo
dermic needle. Be aware that needles come in different gauges (much like your wi
re), and 18g is about the smallest you can use reliably with high VG juice. I st
rongly advise looking for 'dispensing needles' which are blunt, and tend to be w
ider bore - 12g is about as big as you'll easily source, and that will handle ev
en 100% VG with some gritting of teeth when you plunge the syringe. Lab glasswar
e can be had on eBay, and you have a choice of cheap plastic or more expensive b
orosilicate glass. The former is easy on the wallet and is not going to smash, b
ut the latter is not going to be effected by the ingredients in your juice, and
is easier to clean.
Some people measure by weight, but personally I find using measuring cylinders a
nd syringes easier. If you wish to use scales, you will need some of the micro s
cales beloved of bullion buyers and drug dealers, learn how to ensure their cali
bration, and how to ascertain how much your chosen amount of each ingredient wei
ghs.
3/ Storage
You can buy a wide variety of suitable bottles in which to store your juice, ran
ging from needle tipped 5ml squeeze bottles, to glass chemical bottles up to one
litre. Plastic bottles are cheap, but a lot of vapers prefer something a little
more classy for their home brew, and 30ml glass dropper bottles are popular. Yo
u'd be wise to source some small 5-10ml bottles for test batches, some larger ch
emical bottles of 100-250ml for when you've got your recipe dialed, and then som
e nice 30ml bottles that you can decant your juice into once it's steeped and re
ady to vape. When making larger batches, always use a bigger bottle than you nee
d, as 100ml in a 250ml bottle allows you to shake it vigorously to help combine
your ingredients whilst steeping. You might also want to consider the type of ca
ps you use if you have children in the house, as tamper proof caps are available
. There are also plenty of funky alternatives - I use 30ml glass skull bottles w
ith a glass pipette in the cap, but there are plenty of different designs out th
ere for the style conscious vaper. Search eBay for listings aimed at aromatherap
ists and the like, and you'll find all sorts of colours and designs. if you do b
uy coloured glass, be sure that it isn't simply clear glass that has been painte
d. The best way to check is to look at the mouth of the bottle, as that often re
mains unpainted.

The next factor is obviously your raw materials, which fall into four categories
:
1/ Nicotine base
This can be purchased in anything from 6-100mg depending on where you live (I'm
in the UK, and 75mg is the maximum allowable here), and I reccomend buying the s
trongest base you can. Nicotine is the expensive ingredient here, which makes me
 wonder how juice manufacturers can charge the same for zero nic juice, as they
do for 18mg, so buy the most potent you can UP TO 100MG. I can't stress this eno
ugh - at over 100mg, nicotine starts to present a genuine threat to health, and
I know of vapers who have somehow got hold of 100% pure nicotine - it's just not
worth the risk (both to health and your liberty - possession of such a powerful
toxin without certain licences can be illegal in some countries) associated wit
h handling a substance as toxic as that without access to a full lab, as some pe
ople who have a low tolerance to nicotine can die from skin contact or even just
inhalation of the fumes. Admittedly that's very rare, but accidental ingestion
of pure nicotine is often fatal. However, if you follow sensible safety precauti
ons, 100mg presents no immediate risk if handled correctly. I'd also suggest buy
ing nicotine base in 1 litre sizes, as it offers the best value. There are a num
ber of specialist around the world who sell excellent nicotine diluted with your
choice of glycerine, and who can ship to most countries. Please check the legal
ity of importing nicotine in your country before placing an order, as at best yo
u may have it confiscated, at worst you may face criminal charges if the strengt
h is above that limitted by law.
2/ Glycerine
Here you have a choice of two options: PG (propolyne glycol) or VG (vegetable gl
ycerine). PG is derived from fossil fuels, is quite thin, and carries flavour we
ll; it also provides 'throat hit', which ex smokers often crave. VG is derived f
rom plant matter, is much thicker than PG, isn't such an effective medium for fl
avour, but creates more vapor - hence why 'max VG' is favoured by clowdy skumbag
s (cloud chasers). Whatever you buy, you MUST ensure that the bottle is marked U
SP in the states, BP in the UK, or EP in the rest of Europe; this is a standard
of purity considered 'safe to vape'. Other grades exist for industrial uses, and
those are often derived from jatropha, which is extremely toxic.
Whilst the glycerine bought from the baking aisle is usually marked USP/BP/EP, i
t's an expensive way to buy it. You would get a better deal if you buy larger qu
antities from a catering company, chemical supplier, or a vaping specialist. Per
sonally I buy all mine via a reputable seller on eBay, in 5 litre bottles. when
buying in quantities of 5 litres and up, be 100% sure that it's of the purity st
andard I mentioned, as whilst you can buy it in twenty five gallon drums, that t
ends to suggest an industrial purpose (not always, but often), and vaping jatrop
ha derived VG could make you seriously ill, if not actually kill you. I suggest
you read the following document (also in this drop box) which covers which glyce
rine is safe to vape: https://www.dropbox.com/s/my5d9xp8kssx7ta/%232%20IS%20THIS
%20GLYCERINE%20SAFE.txt?dl=0
3/ Flavourings
Simple rule - DO NOT VAPE FOOD FLAVOURINGS BOUGHT FROM A GROCERY STORE! Whilst a
lot of them are most likely quite safe, why risk it when other vapers have been
guinea pigs for cheap and widely available brands? Search the net for a local v
aping specialist, and look for names like The Flavour Apprentice (TFA or TPA - T
he Perfumers Apprentice), Capella, Flavours West, Inawara, or Lorean. Personally
I won't use Lorean due to the presence of oils in a lot of their flavours. That
said, vapers are obsessed with doom porn, and no week would be complete without
someone screaming that the sky is falling, because SGOR (some guy on Reddit) sa
id a certain flavour contains diacetyl. You will hear things like 'popcorn lung'
shouted by people who have not a clue what their talking about, but are sure th
ey need to be heard. If you were previously a smoker, then just vape the damned
stuff - unless it has polonium, asbestos, and the Ebola virus in it, it can't be
any worse that what you were previously doing. That said, be aware that no prem
ade juice or DIY ingredient has been designated safe - we're all voluntary lab r
ats here, but as none of us who have been vaping for several years have grown ta
ils, I think we can assume that we're not in immediate danger. In about six year
s of vaping, I can assure you that I feel a lot healthier than when I was smokin
g 20 a day, and haven't had so much as a cold in that period.
4/ Additives
These are separate from flavourings, and include sweetener, pyrazine (which give
s a baked goods flavour), sour, smooth, etc. - you can even buy formulated vape
specific flavour enhancers such as 'Flavour Wizard'. You may also want to includ
e a thinning agent to you juice. That can be as simple as distilled water, but a
lot of people include thinners than also enhance flavour such as wine vinegar (
don't knock it until you've tried it), sterile saline, or alcohol. A lot of SGOR
s rail against flavours that include alcohol, on the basis that they're idiots w
ho don't know what the Hell they're talking about. I ALWAYS use alcohol in my DI
Y, and select which variety based on the flavour. If I'm making a pudding juice,
I tend to use rum or Spanish brandy, whilst I find that gin or angustura bitter
s goes well with fruits. If you want to try using alcohol, make sure you use a h
igh proof spirit, and not a liqueur loaded with sugar, colourings, and artificia
l flavourings. The botanicals in things like gin and angustura are a calculated
risk on my part, so only use those if you feel comfortable with it. NO REGRATS!!
!
One thing you want to keep out of your juice is sugar. If you need to sweeten yo
ur juice, then either buy a vape specific sweetener like ethyl maltose, or purch
ase 100% pure stevia powder with which to make your own. All you need is a 30ml
dropper bottle, to which you add a pinch of stevia and a dash of sipping alcohol
to start it dissolving; then add a dash of PG and shake well. keep doing that u
ntil the bottle is full, and allow it to steep for a week somewhere warm. You ca
n then add a few drops to your mix to taste, but be aware that stevia is stupidl
y sweet, so you don't need much - a 100g bag of pure stevia will last you a life
time, and costs not much more than a 30ml bottle of EM, which will last you a fe
w months.

OK, so we have all the safety, equipment, and ingredients covered - what about t
he recipes? Well, this is where you get to be a bit creative, as I can't start l
isting a whole bunch of recipes that I think you might like. However, I can give
you some guidelines.
1/ PG/VG ratios
This is totally down to taste. As discussed earlier, PG gives you 'throat hit' a
nd more flavour, but VG is more mellow and produces more vapor. Max VG juice is
popular thanks to cloud chasers *sigh*, but I feel that unless you have an intol
erance to PG, excluding it from the mix is a mistake. personally I mix with a 30
-40% PG component, because I get better flavour, a thinner juice that wicks more
easily, and more throat hit replicating the act of smoking more accurately. The
best way to ascertain your ideal ratio is to look at the juice you're currently
using, and start with a similar mix. One thing I wouldn't suggest is 100% PG, a
s it tends to be overly harsh and slightly 'chemical' in my personal opinion - b
ut you may think otherwise. Try some 5ml test batches, and see what works for yo
u. There is no 'wrong' ratio - decide what you like and stick with it.
2/ Flavourings
As a rule of thumb, 20% is about the maximum flavourings component most people w
ork with, but that's heavily dependent on the specific flavour you're using. Som
e flavours such as certain tobacco absolutes can be mixed at 5-10% to give you a
perfectly full flavoured juice, whilst other more subtle ones need the full 20%
. What's more, you can buy the same flavour from five different manufacturers, a
nd find that each needs a different dose to come through. Have a look on the web
, as sites like ECF (electronic cigarette forum) have boards dedicated to recipe
s, and plenty of excellent general advice above and beyond the basics we have co
vered here.
One thing to avoid is getting too adventurous too soon. Some people launch into
their new hobby with insanely complex recipes, only to find they taste of nothin
g. The key here is if you aim for 20% and use 1% of twenty different flavours, y
our juice will taste of nothing; use 20% of one flavour, and it will be very str
ong. Therefore you need to hold back on the number of components, and layer your
flavours; think about it like Jelly Bean Factory jelly beans. Try breaking your
recipe into four levels, let's use an apple pie recipe as an example.
Primary note: If you're making apple pie, then you want sweet apples front and c
entre, so make this your largest percentage.
Secondary note: It's a pie, so we need pie crust to take the next biggest portio
n of the flavouring component
Tertiary note: We need to enhance the flavour with sweetness and maybe something
like cinnamon, so if you can find a cinnamon candy, throw some of that in. Mayb
e a mixture of cinnamon danish and caramel would work well.
Enhancers and thinners: Rum or brandy would make a nice thinner for apple pie, b
ut you may want to add sweetener and pyrazine to enhance the baked goods taste.
You may want to add one of the premixed enhancers like flavour wizard.
3/ Record keeping
You will want to make copious notes of everything you do, so when you hit your p
erfect recipe, you can replicate it. For some that means an old fashioned notebo
ok, but technology has some excellent alternatives. I use an Android app called
Liquix, which not only stores your recipes but also acts as stock control for al
l your ingredients, and even tells you how much each batch costs based on the da
ta you input when you buy new flavours or base mix. Better still, if you have yo
ur basic recipe, you can tell the app what size of batch you want to mix or chan
ge the strength of nicotine and it will tell you the precise amounts of each ing
redient, be it for 5ml or 5 litres. I think I've tried every single juice mixing
app available, and Liquix is head and shoulders above all of them.
4/ Steeping
Like a fine wine, your juice needs some time to develop to its best. Essentially
the process of steeping simply means a process whereby the ingredients get the
chance to fully combine throughout the mix, and to undergo any chemical changes
brought about by any additives. Ask ten vapers how to do this, and you'll get tw
enty answers - five of which will be that it's unnecessary. Personally I feel th
at juice does improve over time, and letting it sit somewhere warm for a couple
of weeks reaps rewards. Of course, if you're lazy and impatient like me, then th
e fastest route to steeping your juice is by using an ultrasonic cleaner. These
are normally employed in cleaning jewellery, watches, medical instruments, etc.
and come in various sizes and qualities, but for us we need a fairly beefy examp
le. Mine is a very industrial looking stainless steel cube with a capacity of ar
ound 1.2 litres, but the key things are that it's heated and has long cycles - 3
0 minutes in this case. You can buy an ultrasonic cleaner for twenty bucks, but
they won't have a heat bath function, and often have only 2-5 minute cycles - to
o short for steeping juice. For around sixty or seventy bucks, you can run your
juice through two thirty minute cycles at 40C, and that gives you the equivalent o
f two weeks steeping thanks to the combination of heat and the ultrasonic agitat
ion on a molecular level.
There are other methods that have a proven success rate, and which rely on more
mechanical means. I've seen people claim to have excellent results from those sm
all battery powered milk whisks, though my personal preference is via a French c
offee press style milk frother. You pour your juice into the glass jar, fit the
top, and then plunge the micro screen up and down a few times. Passing the juice
through such a fine mesh seems to mix it far more thoroughly than merely whiski
ng it, and you can buy one for $10 if you shop around.
So, gentle reader, that should be enough to get you started. For a few dollars i
nvestment (more if you get an ultrasonic, but that's a luxury and not a necessit
y), you can start saving huge amounts on your vape bill - money you can spend bu
ying shiny new toys ;-)