If a spirit connoisseur equips themselves with a number of glasses to best sample a variety of different liquors, then the e-juice is the vapor’s liquor. It’s the stuff that makes vaping enjoyable, turning an electronic device into a wonderful trip of flavors and textures, with a variety of specifications from vapor volume to mouth-feel, throat hit and more.
But what’s actually in an e-juice bottle? Aside from the obvious flavorings and a mixture of natural and artificial ingredients as per the desired end result, the vast majority of an e-juice bottle is simply glycerin and glycol. Let’s get into that a little more deeply.
What’s In an E-Juice?
As per Project Vape, an e-juice is a liquid prepared mostly with the two Gs: vegetable glycerin, and propylene glycol. After that, the third most common ingredient is nicotine, although it’s not necessary to create a great flavor. Then, comes the rest.
Mixing the Juice
While the mixture is really, really basic, there are a few considerations to make. For one, you have to consider the ratio of VG and PG – too much of one or the other may ruin the experience for you, or make what another vaper might define as the perfect vape. It’s largely a matter of opinion and experience, which is why the DIY e-juice world is growing rapidly.
The basic rule is this – PG is absorbed into the wick more easily, so PG-heavy blends can be vaped without much heat-up. They also give you a harsher throat hit. VG-heavy blends take longer to get ready and are more energy-intensive, but produce thicker vapor and make for a much lighter throat hit. A lot of blends go 50/50, and others skewer to one side as heavily as 80/20.
The final ingredient, nicotine, can be bought in concentration or pre-diluted. Nicotine in its pure form is poison – it will kill you if you touch too much of it. That’s right – as per Forbes, skin contact is enough to leave you sick.
This is a real concern, because as per WebMD, the rise of liquid nicotine use has also caused more poisonings. Learn how to handle your nicotine safely, with gloves and padlocks.
This is also why most nicotine for e-juice purposes can be bought in concentrations of 8mg to 36mg, which ranges from ultra-light cigarette feel, to unfiltered cigarette feel.
Things to Keep In Mind
While you can have quite a lot of fun making your own e-juice – and you’ll doubtlessly save quite a lot of money doing so – one important thing to keep in mind is that there’s still a world of difference between a flavored DIY e-juice cooked up in your own kitchen with an hour or so of work, and a developed, flavor-tested premium e-juice as you’d find in reputable shops like the West Coast Vape Supply.
In other words – you can cook your own meals and brew your own draft, but at the end of the day unless it’s your ultimate hobby, you can’t say that what you make in your kitchen or garage is what you’d want to enjoy on special occasions. In the same way, premium juices still have a place in a vaper’s life as that quality product you’ll want to sample after a long day at work.