The Wonders of DIY e-Liquid Turned me from Voiceless Vaping Virgin to Walter White Wizard

Thu 5 Oct 2017

A year ago this week, having decreased my intake of dried rolling tobacco over a few months, I ventured into the new world of vaping. There were many reasons for this, number one being that although I didn’t want to give up smoking, I knew I needed to. I was an addict and felt I had no will power so the idea of vaping was appealing.

Other reasons included the ever-increasing stigma, and a desire to save some money and stick it to the taxman, being the rebel I am.

Seeking advice from established vapers, I now had an idea of what kit to get and already knew where to get some liquid. £60.00 later I had a nice mod, tank and for a further £20.00, 4x10ml flavours of glorious tobacco at a cool 18mg. A few hours later, with a burnt out coil, burnt out throat and not much voice left, I bought a packet of Golden Virginia and didn’t touch the vape for a couple of weeks, bar a few puffs. Whilst trying to save money, I had spent what I would typically have spent on 2 months smoking.

Meeting with the experienced vapers again, I was told unanimously… ”Don’t vape tobacco”, “Don’t vape 18mg”, “Don’t buy the liquids from the petrol station, make your own!”

Now, this is not something I considered, and why I now utilise the wonders of Google for research. I naively assumed that there would be a good 30+ ingredients, mostly unobtainable, and many with names of over 20 letters and beginning with “methy”. Walter White if you will.

However…. Heisenberg I became. Almost literally, I vaped so much of that beautiful Vampire Vape product many of us know and love that I nearly turned blue, like that kid who drank too much Sunny Delite at school turned orange.

I spent a further £30, but got so much more value for money. 30ml of Heisenberg, some PG, VG and liquid nicotine shots. A bit of very basic chemistry and voila! I had made the blue!

Almost without realising, in a short space of time I had stopped smoking, started saving money, and as my taste senses returned, my need for nicotine reduced, and my craving for more flavours increased. Every large 120ml bottle I made contained a nicotine shot less each time. Nicotine has now been replaced by flavour, and a new passion. Alongside the high-end chemistry, an understanding of wattage, resistance and batteries which we were apparently taught in Physics class (while we were plugging crocodile clips on peoples’ earlobes) has been gained.

I feel comfortable vaping in any environment now, and can create different juices for different coils and different mods to control cloud size, throat hit etc. Knowing the constituency of each bottle I make, I can amend and tweak with confidence. That ability which is possible through DIY at a significantly cheaper price than buying a range of ready-made juices has to be championed.

The biggest achievement in getting involved in DIY E-Liquid however is being able to pass on the knowledge to friends who both smoke and vape, and seeing them gain from it.

There is fundamentally nothing wrong with buying the little 10ml e-Liquids ready-made. But the benefits of DIY go far beyond this little article. Aside from the slightly higher initial outlay, 10 minutes of research and a little mess from time to time, I can only see benefits to DIY. Far better value for money, the ability to make the flavour combination you want, the ability to amend already created juice, control over nicotine and ensuring suitability for your tank, coil and mod, less travel time to shops or waiting time for delivery of smaller 10ml post-TPD bottles.

Even perhaps the potential to develop the next Heisenberg!

Written by ELFC content creator Alex Blatherwick

Further reading: 5 Reasons Why One Shot Concentrates are Great