What Happened When I Tried To Make My Own eJuice

Hey guys! Welcome back to the blog! The last article we talked about how to make your own vape juice, as well as all the sites you can browse to find all the equipment. It may sound easy and fun, but I’m going to share my experience about the first time I tried to make my own vape juice.

WHY I WANTED TO MAKE MY OWN E-JUICE

While it’s true you could make “a” vape juice (notice my skepticism) by throwing together random quantities of these ingredients, chances are your homemade vape juice wouldn’t be that great. In fact, it’d probably be downright terrible. So then how is it possible that so many companies are able to pump out delicious and affordable e-juice? It couldn’t be that hard, and everyone has to start somewhere.

I was tired of paying high prices for vape juice at my local vape shops, and I was running out of patience waiting for my favorite vape juices to ship out and arrive to me. There were also too many times where my preferred nicotine content was out of stock and I’d have to scramble at the last minute to figure out where to get my favorite ejuice.

As a constantly curious entrepreneur, I glanced scornfully at the e-liquids currently laying on my counter and thought to myself, surely I can recreate this. How hard could it be? Scenes of Breaking Bad started to flit through my mind and daydreams of crafting a vape laboratory in my basement seemed to be easy enough. I made up my mind and started to browse some DIY vape sites, quickly filling my shopping cart with the necessary supplies. I was going to be a vape mixologist, create my own vape juice line, sell my juice to shops worldwide, and set up a profitable vape juice business overnight. Vape world lookout! 

CREATING MY OWN E-LIQUID

Once I decided to try my luck crafting my own personal ejuice, it was easy to get excited about all these new flavors. I browse around a few sites and decided that Liquid Barn looked promising enough. I selected the DIY eJuice Kit, picked out some tantalizing flavors, skipped the nicotine options, and eagerly placed my order. As soon as I got that “Package Delivered” notification, I raced to my front door and eagerly opened the box. After arranging the items to inspect what was what, I read the booklet and started to mix the VG and PG in my little beaker. I added the recommended amount of flavoring (Blue Raspberry) and immediately filled my tank with my new e-juice.

Wow! The flavor was definitely sweet, with blue raspberries and sugar flowing throughout that first puff. But alas, my delight was short-lived. My glee of making my own vape juice slowly faded into disappointment the more puffs I took. The first hit was great, but the following hits became tasteless and bland. I wondered if letting the juice steep for a week would deepen the flavor. Grudgingly, I left the e-liquid on the counter and made a mental note to check on it in about a week.

Finally, it was time! The week was over and I eagerly filled up my tank with my properly steeped e-juice. I took my first hit...and was disappointed. The flavor tasted the same! It was bland, with a nice flavor to begin with, but it faded away into an uninteresting memory. Repeated hits began to taste stale and flavorless. I tried to figure out what was missing, and was truly stumped. I had purposely not used any nicotine so I could get the full flavor, but my first bottle of homemade vape juice wasn’t all that great to begin with.

TROUBLESHOOTING

I wondered if it had been my choice of flavor. Maybe the Blue Raspberry wasn't that great because I’m not a fan of blue raspberry flavors to begin with. I mixed up a new batch, this time of Pink Lemonade, determined that this batch would be better. I patiently waited a week again, hoping and praying that this one would be better. Unfortunately, it was more of the same bland flavor that had been the issue with the first batch.

Finally, I decided to check out a third flavor: Blueberry. I’d always loved fruit flavored e-liquids, so maybe the third e-juice attempt would do the trick. I wasn’t very hopeful, and mixed the contents together, this time adding a heavier dose of the flavoring. I waited two weeks for this one, figuring I might be able to finally make my own ejuice that would satisfy my craving for flavorful and delicious clouds. But no. After the two weeks were up, my blueberry ejuice was no more interesting than the first two. I threw up my hands in despair and decided to forego my attempts into the homemade e-liquid realm.

CONCLUSION

Vaping e-liquid is a careful combination of flavoring, nicotine, vegetable glycerin (VG), and propylene glycol (PG). These ingredients come together, often in a precise way, to create a vape juice. It's not necessarily difficult, but more a test of patience. There will be a lot of trial and error, with room for improvement and critique. Making your own vape juice is a science, much like cooking or baking, that requires a recipe. The generic recipe I was following from the DIY manual was extremely helpful in teaching me how to blend the ingredients together. I should have used that knowledge to expand into more unique flavors, such as the ones from TFA or any of the other flavoring websites.

I think my biggest downfall in trying to make my own vape juice is that even though I had the proper tools (albeit from a generic kit), I didn’t give myself realistic expectations. I gave up too easily because I was expecting a delicious flavor on my first attempt. If I was truly dedicated to crafting my own e-liquid, I should have stuck it out for a little longer. My advice to any future vape juice entrepreneurs is to try several different ways to make your own e-juice. Don’t get discouraged if your first attempts don’t go as you expected.

Have you tried to make your own e-juice? If so, let me know some of your words of encouragement! Are there any sites that you prefer over another? How about some of your favorite recipes? Who knows...I might even check out one of these recipes and get back in the homemade e-juice game!