DIY E-Liquid and Product Updates
Ok. Some product updates first.
We got our first modded battery in. I tested it out last night and it actually brought back to life a couple of atomizers I had that were kind of on the fritz. Now they are even working with normal e-cigarette batteries. The battery was still going strong even after using it for 4 hours straight and it was giving a nice consistent amount of vapor. The pictures and the mod will be up tomorrow after some more stringent testing. For now we have the version that works with the selecto 901 atomizer and one that works with the excelente 510 atomizer. You can get it without batteries and charger or with. Depends if you have them or not. The unit uses one 3.7v 14500 rechargeable lithium ion battery. You can sometimes find them at Radio Shack and similar stores or you can buy them online at places like Battery Junction or Ebay. The charger is basically a lithium ion battery charger that you can find online for about $12, you can find them GoingGear or Ebay.
We also got in USB passthroughs for the selecto 901 and excelente 510. They are on the passthrough page. Pictures coming soon.
Of course what a lot of people were waiting for is higher strength liquid. We have 50mg liquid in stock now (you can find it in the liquid section of the site, it’s available in 10ml and 30ml sizes). This liquid is only for do it yourself. It is unflavored, but doesn’t taste that great anyway without adding your own flavoring. Remember nicotine is highly poisonous and it’s not recommended to vape this liquid straight. Recommended usage is mixing it and cutting the strength down. If you get any liquid on you, immediately wash the area where the liquid landed on.
By the way before I get started on the making your own e-liquid part, here’s a coupon code 5% off of anything you order, type 5DIY in the shopping cart.
Commercial e-liquid has three main ingredients nicotine (unless it’s 0mg), propylene glycol and flavoring, a lot of them also have glycerin. Propylene glycol and glycerin are actually readily available ingredients as well as the flavoring. All of the ingredients are food grade or better.
Propylene glycol you can buy in the pharmacy (it’s used to mix other drugs) and also at farm supply stores (it’s used to treat ketosis in cattle). When looking for this ingredient you have to make sure it’s at least food grade. USP grade is actually better and the one you’ll most likely find at a farm supply store or pharmacy. Make sure not to buy technical grade or any other forms out there because those have not been tested as stringently. You are looking for 100% propylene glycol (USP or food grade). Do not buy anything that is mixed with something else.
Propylene glycol is the back bone of e-liquid and it’s actually the main ingredient with usually over 90% of the liquid consisting of it. It’s the part that makes the vapor.
Glycerin is another ingredient that is easy to obtain. You can find it in pharmacies, beauty supply stores, arts and craft stores, you can even find it at Walmart (in the baking or crafts section). When looking for glycerin look for 100% vegetable glycerin (either USP or food grade). Glycerin can actually be used as a substitute for propylene glycol if you can’t find it and is probably much easier to find. Glycerin is thicker than propylene glycol (and actually produces more vapor) and if you’re going to use it as a substitute you need to water it down (or it won’t work properly on your atomizer a lot of times). To water down glycerin you can use either distilled water or grain alcohol (Everclear, high proof Vodka, pretty much the highest proof alcohol you can find that is clear). When diluting be careful not to overdo it, a little can go a long way. The grain alcohol helps your liquid to have more of a kick, so you might want to try that out.
If you’ve searched far and low and couldn’t find any of these ingredients (or like me don’t feel like searching) you can always buy them online. Propylene glycol. Vegetable glycerin.
Now we need flavoring. For flavoring we are looking for food grade flavorings. Probably the most popular flavoring used (for DIY e-liquid) is Lorann’s flavoring. You might have used these before if you’ve ever baked a cake or made some other dessert or candy. When looking for a flavoring you want a flavoring that is made without oils. You will find a lot of flavoring has propylene glycol as the main ingredient and these are the one’s most recommended. Make sure you get them without sugar since sugar caramelizes with heat and can really do damage to your atomizer.
You can find flavorings in grocery stores, arts and craft stores, baking stores, etc… Online you can get them at Betty’s. The Lorann’s are very cheap, you can get them for $1.09 per bottle online. The bottles are tiny, but these are highly concentrated flavorings and a little goes a long way. You can also buy them direct (but it costs a little more for small quantities) Lorann’s. They aren’t the only flavoring supplier out there, they are just a popular one. You can also try Bickfords. There are several varieties, companies and flavors for these so if you find something else out there that works for you that is also fine.
Flavoring is something that’s very handy to have on hand. If you find you have a liquid you don’t really care for or the flavor isn’t very strong you can add some to liquid you already have and get the perfect flavor.
For a zero nicotine mix. All you need is propylene glycol or glycerin (watered down a little) and flavoring. That’s it. So for literally $20 – 30 you can have pretty much a lifetime supply. You can also do a combination of propylene glycol and glycerin (no need to water it down) to have more vapor. Some people don’t care for glycerin due to it’s sweet aftertaste, but then again some people don’t care about propylene glycol because it doesn’t have a sweet aftertaste.
Recommended use for flavoring is really just use until you like the amount of flavor in your liquid. Usually it’s somewhere in the 5 – 20% range. Stick to the lower number until you find a ratio you are satisfied with.
For making your own e-liquid with nicotine you just mix nicotine liquid, propylene glycol or glycerin and flavoring. So if you’re starting with 50mg liquid, let’s say you mix 5ml of nicotine liquid, you add 4.5ml of propylene glycol and .5ml of flavoring and you get 10ml of 25mg e-liquid. Of course you can do everything in lower or higher quantities, it was just an example of how easy you can create your own flavor. Also there is nothing that says you can’t mix multiple flavors and come up with your own custom flavors. Who knows you might like that cherry cheesecake flavor?
Also a quick tip: 99% of bottles you buy with e-liquid you can pull the tip right off and reuse the bottles for experiments and making up your own concoctions. If it’s a dropper tip, just pull the tip to the side a little and it should come right off.
Thanks for the continuing support.
David and Sandra
CigaretteReplacer.com
Prior to purchasing my first e-cig kit. I did some research, About the liquid. It seemed to be fairly simple to mix your own e-juice. Starting with the right ingredients. Okay PG n VG was on the shopping list. Went out on a Sunday n check the selfs of few pharmacy. Did not find what I needed.The pharmacy it self was closed.? So I went back on a week day n talked to the pharmacist. The first one showed me a bunch of stuff that had PG or VG in it. I explained I needed it pure as possible for vamping with a e-cig. He told me that it was not available. I went to another pharmacy n talked to the pharmacist n he showed me a bunch of stuff that had PG or VG in it. I explained I needed it pure as possible for vamping with a e-cig. He acted like I was a total Idiot. Okay, I found n ordered it online.
Get the ingredients, measuring device, “Syringe” n mixing dish. Also a pen n note pad for notes. Start with small mixes n test. Get a mix u like. Multiply the ingredients for a bigger batch. It would also be a good idea to have some empty dropper bottles. For your mix.
i found vg at whole foods in a 120 ml bottle for 5.50ish in louisiana, i use banana and strawberry flavors that are moslty pg so it all mixes well and makes alot of vapor. hope this helps i went to five different stores tracking down the vg
Where can liquid nicotine be purchased? Do you have any tips on what kinds of liquid nicotine to purchase in order to formulate my own DIY e-liquids?
We have some here. It’s labeled as unflavored or flavorless. Nicotine has a horrible taste on it’s own so it definitely needs to be mixed.