propylene glycol PG

Vaping Tips18/03/202008/09/2020 by Captain Nicotine

Curious about how to vape nicotine salt liquid?

A lot of articles about this topic are too wordy, technical, and generally confusing so we will keep it short and understandable.

Let us dispel a common misconception: you can vape nicotine salt liquid in a sub-ohm tank. In other words, nicotine salt e liquid is not purely for pod vape kits. The only thing you need to do is make sure to vape a low nicotine liquid. Say a 6mg/ml nicotine salt eliquid. This will vape quite nicely in your sub-ohm tank. You’ll need to play around with the wattage to find your sweet spot, but that’s it.

The opposite is also true. You can vape e-liquid made with normal (freebase) nicotine in pod vape systems. You could, as many people do, vape, say, a 3mg/ml freebase eliquid in your pod kit. Or a 6mg/ml liquid, if you wanted a harder throat hit.

Since the late 2010s, eliquid made with nicotine salts has been mostly used in pod kits, but there has always been a considerable amount of vapers using nicotine salt e-liquid in sub-ohm tanks.

So what it comes down to is, you can vape either kind of juice in either kind of vaping system. You just need to keep in mind the different vaping systems and nicotine levels.

Hope that helps!

Vaping Tips05/02/202008/09/2020 by Captain Nicotine

The question on many minds: Can I make my own e liquid? Should I?

There are many vapers that want to make their own juice; this has especially been true since the vaping industry began being heavily regulated in 2016 and strict, sometimes crippling limitations were imposed on bottle sizes, flavors, and nicotine levels, among other things. It’s getting on to 2021 and the fight for our vaping rights continue. One of the theaters of war is DIY eliquid and it’s not just a political issue about rights, it’s also a great way to enjoy your vape even more.

Truth is, when the vaping rules and regulations started raining down, vapers were split into three main camps: one, vapers who used 0mg or less-than-20mg ejuice who were not affected by the new laws; two, vapers who swayed towards the shortfill (shake and vape, mix and vape) option; three, vapers who got into making DIY eliquid. Making DIY ejuice isn’t as hard as you might think (for some reason, the consensus is that making your own eliquid is somewhat difficult, but it really isn’t—they just want you to think it is). This is attested to by the fact that DIY juice-making has been on the rise continually every year. At the end of the day, you just to need to get your info and gear, put aside a little time, and you can mix eliquid easily. All calculations are done online, without the need to download anything, all ingredients are readily available, and there is a vast collection of information online. The only other thing you need to mix your own ejuice is…well…to start!

Granted, some vapers will always choose ready-to-vape eliquids or shortfills, but mixing juice yourself has quite a few advantages:

Much Better Value For Your Money, Serious Savings

Getting more bang for your buck. This is one of the main reasons why people start mixing their own e-juice. The savings can well be in excess of 50% compared to ready-to-vape eliquids—and this takes into consideration that since you are new to mixing DIY eliquid, there will be a learning period which involves some trial and error so you will have ingredients left over. However, the value of your savings is significant, both during and after mastering the mixing process. In the same vein, since you will have some ingredients left over when you mix your own ejuice, it is extra cost-effective to buy nicotine base, aromas, etc. as replacements, rather than buying new/whole eliquid mixing kits.

Create Any Flavor You Want, It’s A Blank Canvas

One of the best aspects of mixing DIY eliquid is that you can create pretty much any flavor/taste you want. With ready-to-vape e liquids and shortfill liquids (shake n vape), you are limited to flavors the producers offer. The chances are, if you can imagine a flavor in your mind, you can make it. Of course, some flavor combinations may appeal mentally but could turn out to be horrible mistakes in reality. But that is also a beautiful part of DIY eliquids, the whole “making something yourself and see how it is, good or bad” thing. And no, roast beef flavor does NOT vape good (then again, you might be in the ultra-minority and like it, who knows). Again, the unique subjectivity of taste is one of the awesome things about ~~DIY vaping~~. You can fully customize the vape to your exact specifications.

Total Control Over Clouds, Flavors & Throat Hit

The wonders you miss out in flavor and clouds…it’s a shame, considering the potential each has. You can make eliquid live up to its potential by mixing it yourself. You can tweak your eliquid recipe for a more flavor-oriented vapor performance by going with more PG. You can choose to make liquids that deliver huge and super dense clouds with more VG. You can go for nicotine salts for a smoother throat hit. By making your own DIY e liquid, you open up yourself to a world of wonderful possibilities where you control every aspect of the vape. When you go with ready-to-vape or shake and vape liquids, you are limited by what the producer decides. It doesn’t have to be that way.

Customize Nicotine Strength With Extreme Precision

When you buy premade e-liquid, you are limited to a set number of options when it comes to nicotine strengths. If the nicotine level you prefer isn’t on offer, then you have a problem, you might have to buy a product you don’t really want or need. But when you’re making your own e-juice, you have total control over the e juice recipe, and that includes the nicotine concentration. You get to choose exactly how much or how little nicotine you want in your DIY vape juice. This ability to customize nicotine strength is just another reason why some vapers choose to make their own eliquid and not settle for second best. Make your own eliquid, friend, make your own liquid.

Larger Bottles Offer Greater Freedom & Convenience

One of the lovely(!) outcomes of the whole vaping regulations brouhaha was the “it is not allowed to sell eliquid in bottles over 10ml” for liquids with nicotine. When you mix your own eliquid, you have the advantage of making/getting 30ml, 50ml, 100ml, or whatever-sized bottles you want. Making DIY eliquid offers convenience regardless; you could be a vaper who often goes through up to 30ml per day, or maybe you want more than just a measly 10ml bottle of juice. One of the advantages is the ability to mix a good amount of eliquid in one run, enough to create a new batch, say, every other month—which saves you time. You don’t need to go to the store, you don’t have to wait for premixed e-liquids to arrive, you don’t have to deal with anyone. Just mix and store and that’s it!

Possible Money Maker & Excellent Growth Potential

Yes. If it turns out your eliquid is good, you can start selling your eliquid creations on Amazon, eBay, and various other online marketplaces and platforms, including Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. As most DIY vapers do, you will most likely share your DIY eliquid creations with your vaping friends, and if their honest feedback is generally in the “your eliquid is sellable” neighborhood, then you have a great chance of monetizing. If your liquid is good enough, you could even transform yourself into a bona fide vaping business.

The above are just some of the benefits offered by choosing to mix your own e-liquid. We didn’t want to create headings just for the sake of it, but making your own eliquid really is a worthy pastime that offers a lot of fun, allows you to perfect your vape, saves you loads of money, and could even HELP you make money. What’s not to like, as they say. The take-away? Just enjoy making DIY eliquid as a fun hobby and see where it goes—it’s going to be great, that’s for sure!

Vaping Tips19/01/202008/09/2020 by Captain Nicotine

How to Make DIY Eliquid For Beginners

If you vape, you will eventually come across the idea of making your own DIY eliquid sooner or later. We don’t know if it’s soon or late for you, but if you want to learn how to make DIY ejuice, welcome! True, some vapers are apprehensive about mixing eliquid but it’s really not that complicated. As a matter of fact, making your own eliquid is a relatively easy process, it just requires a little patience. So…are you ready to take the next step in your vaping journey? Read on!

Eliquid has four main ingredients: vegetable glycerin (VG), propylene glycol (PG), aromas, and nicotine. These ingredients appear in all ready-to-vape eliquids. However, with DIY juice, vapers mix all of the ingredients themselves, like a chef. This allows for full personalization of taste, cloud density, and throat hit. Naturally, before you attempt to make your own DIY vape juice, you will also need some equipment, including measuring beakers, empty bottles for storage, large measuring syringes, etc. You will want your equipment completely clean; no dirt, no dust, nothing unclean. Sanitation is a very important part of mixing DIY vape juice.

DIY Eliquid Pointers:

PG means more deeply-felt flavor and a relatively harder throat hit. The more the PG percentage goes up in your juice, the more you can feel the flavors and the throat hit.

VG is perfect for producing very large and thick clouds that are sweeter in taste.

When you mix eliquid with 50% VG / 50% PG base, you get a balanced eliquid in terms of throat hit, cloud thickness and size, and flavor transmission. The majority of DIY vapers prefer 50/50 base, or around that ratio (such as 40/60, 70/30, etc.). If you are new to making DIY eliquid, you could start with 50/50 base and see how that works for you. Afterwards you can tweak your recipes to meet your exact requirements.

Have all ingredients and tools ready at your mixing station beforehand; make sure everything is clearly labelled to avoid confusion.

Mixing with salt base: the math when mixing with nicotine salt base is the same as when mixing with “normal” base. The mixing process is the same. The difference lies in what nicotine salt base can deliver. Vaping with juice made with nicotine salt base comes down to two things. One, the vape is truly and honestly silky smooth at relatively high nicotine levels like 40mg/ml. Two, eliquid made with nicotine salt base transmits flavor MUCH better than eliquid made with classic base.

Decide What Kind of Juice Will You Make:

The first thing you need to decide on is the PG/VG ratio of the eliquid you will make. The ratio refers to how much PG and VG you want in your juice. This decision will determine how thick your eliquid is going to be. If you are going to vape your DIY eliquid in a sub-ohm tank, you could try mixing with 70% VG and above. For MTL (mouth-to-lung) vaping, it’s a good idea to stick to 50% PG and above. Just ask Google and you will find an excellent cache of usable information from online vaping meccas like ECF (Electronic Cigarette Forum) and various other online vaping portals like POTV (Planet Of The Vapes).

The next thing you need to decide is the percentage of eliquid flavors to add. As a rule of thumb, most flavors work well at 15% of the overall juice, but obviously this can change from person to person and brand to brand. Just start with 15% figure and either dilute or add more flavor to personalize according to what you want.

Last but not least, a decision needs to be made about nicotine strength if you are not making 0mg eliquid. Some aromas work well at 10%, others at 12%, and some at 20%. Again, Google is your friend, check out all the accumulated info online and experiment.

Preparing To Mix Your DIY Eliquid:

When making DIY juice, it’s easiest when you first figure out how much of what you need. To work out the amounts of each ingredient you need an ejuice calculator, one example being Steam Engine. It will calculate the exact amount of each ingredient you need to mix together, including the desired ratios of PG and VG, nicotine strength, and flavor percentage. The order in which to add each ingredient into the mix doesn’t matter, but it’s generally easiest to start with the nicotine base, followed by the other ingredients. But again, it’s up to you. Whenever you measure something, make sure to check and double-check the amounts. Once you correctly mix all the ingredients, give it a really good shake to ensure that the nicotine and flavors are evenly distributed throughout the carriers (PG and VG).

Labelling and Steeping:

Ok, great! You just made you first ever eliquid! Now you need to label the bottle with the flavor, nicotine level, PG/VG ratio, and mixing date. If your eliquid is a menthol or fruit flavored juice, steeping isn’t really necessary. If you mixed a tobacco or some creamy dessert or pastry liquid, we say it is absolutely necessary to give it at least one week to mature.

Steeping is best achieved by leaving the juice in a dark room at room temperature, in a cool and dry place such as a cupboard or chest. In a lot of cases, if you don’t steep, your eliquid won’t taste right. The ready-to-vape eliquids your normally buy are all steeped before being sold, which is why you can vape it straight away. The same concept applies to DIY ejuice makers.

And that’s it, now you know exactly how to make DIY eliquid!