A Beginners Guide To Mixing

Basic kit you need
Minimum Ingredients
PG, VG or PG/VG nicotine base
PG or VG Diluent
Flavourings

Mixing kit
A bottle
1 x 10ml syringe
1 x 5ml syringe
Nitrile gloves
A glass of water for rinsing
A tissue for cleaning

NB: In principle, it is expected that most people use PG based Nicotine for mixing. This is largely due to preference and easier availability of PG Nic base. As a result, illustrative examples will assume PG heavy juices and generally a 70/30 ratio unless stated

VG Nic base is available as well as 50/50 PG/VG. Ultimately the decision on which to use is something that will come through preference and experience. VG Nic base will allow you to achieve a higher VG ratio to your end juice.

Formula principle
Each juice contains nicotine suspended in either PG or VG liquid. This is referred to as Nicotine or Nic Base. This concentrate needs to diluted down to a safe target mg/ml strength before use.
Diluent can be non-nicotine PG or VG.

A flavourless eliquid will contain a ratio of these.

Flavours are generally PG based and when calculating a mix, these need to be included.

For example, when mixing a juice which is PG heavy and uses PG Nic Base, the total of the base, the diluent and the flavours will comprise the ratio of the total PG content.
The example below shows what constitutes a 70/30 PG/VG eliquid.



When mixing VG heavy liquids the actual percentage split will be influenced the amount of flavouring, and whether a VG Nic Base is used. To achieve near 100% VG liquids, VG Nic base is required. Even then, unless using VG flavouring, the mix will be more likely 5%PG / 95%VG depending on the amount of flavour added.

Since VG flavour concentrates are rare, the most likely VG concentrate will be home steeped tobacco concentrate which is most likely to result in a 20/80 mix

Here is an example of a VG heavy mix using home steeped tobacco concentrate.




Plan your preferred ratio, target strength, percentage flavouring and use a calculator to determine the actual volumes to be used.

Preferences
PG gives greater throat hit and flavour (probably because of PG flavourings)
VG produces more vapour.
VG is thicker and may not wick well in certain atomisers.
Your personal preference and any sensitivity to either will determine your ratio.

Strength vs diluent
The actual ml’s that are used to create the mix will be influenced by the target strength. A 6mg eliquid will require far less Nic Base than the 18mg eliquid. Therefore the amount of PG diluent will be high for 6mg yet low for 18mg – this is because of the inherent PG being included in order to deliver the target nicotine strength.
As a side note, volume (a 5ml vs 30ml bottle) is merely a multiplication of the base percentage split.

Impact of flavours on mix
Flavours are the wild card. Each flavour varies in intensity across each supplier. Learning from other’s experiences or experimenting yourself is the only way to determine the optimal percentage. Most initial flavour experiments generally assume a 10-20% use of flavours. It is worth noting that both PG and VG can has a sweet taste. Too little weak flavour may struggle to overcome the bases.

As mentioned before, flavours are generally PG based. In a 70/30 ratio liquid at 18mg strength using 20% flavouring, the PG diluent content is likely to be only half of the VG diluent. This seems odd but this is part of the contributing “top up” towards the total 70% PG.

An approach to experimenting is further on.

Taste is generally subjective but going beyond 30% flavouring can result in “vaper’s tongue”.


Thinning
Some heavy VG juices can be thick and some people thin the liquid further to assist in wicking. Distilled water (buy from chemists not Halfords) or vodka can be used. Vodka assists with throat hit and the alcohol absorbed is miniscule. For beginners do not bother to thin. This is something that can be learnt later and will also depend on the atomiser you are using. The volumes to use are entirely subjective but up to 10% would be ok. Mix calculators allow you to factor this in.

Another thing to note with alcoholic thinners is that these will increase throat hit. 20% of an alcoholic thinner is probably too harsh. Not just vodka can be used … rum or bourbon will act as a thinner and a flavour. Try to use spirits that are as pure as possible (35%-40% alcohol), not fortified spirits (Southern Comfort etc) which will have a higher sugar content and lead to gunked atty’s.

An example of a thinned juice



Your first recipe
There are a number of calculators that can be used including online ones at cloud9vaping.co.uk and postmodernsmoking.com. E-Juice-Me Up for Windows is simple yet allows you to experiment as well. It can be downloaded from eJuice Me Up - Best eJuice Calculator
You can save each recipe under a file name for future reference, please note this is not compatible with Android.

You need Framework 3.5 for it to work if you don't already have it installed. ( With thanks to @simate for the information. )
Download Microsoft .NET Framework 3.5 from Official Microsoft Download Center




Suggested Inventory
Pre-prep stage. Decide your mix and throughout this process stick with it! Do not deviate.
Save your bottles! Old juice bottles. Don’t throw them away. Clean them (very hot water ultrasonic cleaners), leave them to dry upside down. Shake any excess out but don’t worry if a few drops of water are still inside.

So, assuming you have your Nic Base, Diluents and flavours you will need:
Nitrile gloves to protect against spillages.
Syringes – 1 small gauge and 1 large gauge (I use these for VG)
2-3 pipettes or 1 per flavour
A pot to store the syringes/pipettes when not using them.
A flat surface to work on.
A glass of water for pipette/syringe rinsing. When mixing pungent flavours I try to use different pipettes or at least rinse them out. This may not be important when mixing only one liquid but if you are mixing another one straight after, you may not want to get menthol in your vanilla custard.
Tissue.

A recipe to follow. Stick to the recipe.

I would recommend something simple to start with. Taste is subjective and vendor liquids will have been developed and tested over time. The exact ratios of flavour needs to learnt.

Simply mix the volumes up into your bottle.

Done. Give it a quick shake and then leave it to steep.

Not quite as easy as that. I would recommend making sure there are no children, cats or excitable dogs around when you are doing this.

When mixing I use syringes to do the bulk liquids, i.e. Nic Base and diluent. For flavours and to prevent accidental flavour contamination, switch from ml’s measurement to dropper measurement and drop straight from the bottle. Some vendors supply flavours without droppers (Cupcake World) and this is where I use a pipette.

Calculating an accurate drops per 1ml is important when dropping straight from the bottle and the general recommendation is to assume 30 drops per 1ml. Dropper tips have different diameters and therefore their payload can vary.

To be totally accurate with either syringes or pipettes, investing in good quality tools pays off.

Accurate glass pipettes can be sourced from ebay with markings on them. Fill with water and count the amount of drops you get to “calibrate” them.
Accurate syringes can also be acquired, called Low Dead Space Syringes in 1ml sizes. These eliminate the need for flushing liquid that is trapped in the nose of the syringe and are particularly good for accuracy of small amounts.

Developing your own … a practical example
Start small. Record. These are my 2 principles.
Flavours vary. You will never really know initially how they will taste. Do not waste valuable Nic base by mixing up 30ml of experimental flavours.
Mix as above but make up the recipe at 1-5ml volume. Keep new flavours low, especially tobacco’s (max 5% for these initially).

Leave the mix to steep.

When ready test it on a dripping atty.

If it needs a flavour nudge, adjust the recipe and add the extra oomph. Don’t go over the top.

(If it’s just plain bad, ditch it … at least it’s not 30ml.)

Record what you did.
Repeat.

With this process you will be slowly upping the PG split but it doesn’t matter. You are taste testing, adjusting and refining the mix.


Steeping
Time is the best. Leave the mix somewhere warm-ish and dark.
People steep them with the caps off but with nozzles on, others leave them fully bottled. I haven't experimented but I do find cap off to be better.
Ways of speeding this up are to leave overnight on a radiator, to use an ultrasonic cleaner, place in a warm water bath. Try not to expose the juice to too much heat since this can destroy the nicotine strength. Don't attempt using a microwave.
Time is the best method I've found ... so far.

Production Planning
With mixing you are always 1 month behind if your mixes require a lot of steeping time. If you intend to live off home mixes, make sure have a month’s supply of vendor juice. It is likely it will take a month just by the process of steeping and experimentation to be able to get to a good juice you can live off. Once that is established you then have another potential month of steeping ahead of you.
Work 1 month in advance.

Sampling
You need a dripping atty. A 306 is good but I would seriously recommend buying a rebuildable one such as the IGO-L and learning to make your own coils. When testing lots of juices, this makes it so much simpler to clean and ensure you have no flavour contamination.
When wondering when to sample, there is always an urge to have a go before juice is ready. When is the juice ready? To begin with you won’t know. You will have to try it.

I sample 24 hours later, 1 week later, 2 weeks later. Just a few drops and you will begin to see how the juice is coming on. Some flavours are a bit shy initially but soon start to grow in intensity. This ongoing sampling is really useful to get a better understanding of how the flavours behave and of your personal tastes. Long term steeping can make a poor juice amazing or a good juice dreadful. This is why constant sampling is important to find when the juice is at its best.


*The Above was taken from a UK member on a UK Forum, Credit goes to the Member 'Ash' *