100mg VG based nicotine to a usable base...need some advice!

[Kyle&Ann]

Greetings from Kyle&Ann!

We are about to enter a new world to us...we just received an order from RTSVapes! We just got our unflavored nicotine, PG, VG and some 50ml storage bottles. We are eagerly awaiting our favors, which a scheduled for delivery this Wednesday.

We need some advice about diluting this 100 mg nicotine to a usable solution.

Some information first. Our very best friend is a chemist who has access to the equipment we will need for this process. We are all very safety conscience and understand the hazards we are dealing with in this process. Our friend is excited to help us and is eager to get started.

We have received 120 ml of 100 mg strength VG based nicotine from RTSVapes. We have 1000 ml of both PG & VG. We have been vaping 18 mg strength juice and would like our DIY recipes to have this nicotine level. It is possible that we may decide to make some 24 mg & 12 mg juices in the future.

We are not sure the VG based unflavored nicotine was the best choice due to the viscosity of the resulting juices, but that is what Ann wanted. We are assuming that we can use PG to thin the recipes to our liking. Not sure though.

We would like to cut the 100 mg VG based nicotine to the optimal base solution to work with when trying to achieve a target juice of 18 mg strength. We would appreciate any and all information and advice provided by those much more experienced than us..

As always...thank you in advance for your info and time. If any additional information from us is needed, we will be more than happy to provide it!

Kyle&Ann

 

[myxomatosis]

You'll probably end up using very little straight VG only base if you want to thin your liquid out.

I recommend the ejuice calculator, and Hoosier's blog will be a big help to you along the way. He's complied the majority of basic DIY information that you'll need to get started. You'd save yourself a lot of confusion reading through those before you even begin.

 

[vsummer1]

Use the "Ejuice me up" calculator. You don't need a chemist, just common sense and being careful. You can play with the calculator to change pg/vg, or even mg strength. It makes the math easy.

Good luck and do take the safety seriously, but don't freak out.

eJuice Me Up - Best eJuice Calculator

ETA: I went from 18 to 16, am now at 14 and next batch will be 12. The calculator makes it easy to make whatever you want, and even to add things together to get to where you want to be.

 

[Spazmelda]

I'd mix it down to hm... about 40-50 mg/ml I guess. I just use straight 100 mg/ml in my recipes, usually, but I make big batches. If I was doing smaller batches I'd mix down first. I'd say mix it down to 36, but you mention you may want to make 24 mg/ml, and I'm not sure 36 would leave enough room for all the flavors and pg (to get the pg ratio where you want for your final liquids).

What do you want your final juice pg/VG ratio to be? That will influence what you want to mix it down with (pg, VG, or a combination of both).

If you've got some chemistry equipment available I'd definitely take advantage of a fume hood and a magnetic stir plate, gloves and eye protection. WTH 100% VG you are going to have to do some serious mixing to get it all uniform.

 

[myxomatosis]

Here's a link: E-Cigarette Forum - Hoosier - Blogs

 

[Spazmelda]

Oh, and once you make a decision on what nic concentration and pg/VG ratio of your base, do plug that into some practice recipes before you actually mix down the base. That will let you know if what you've chosen will work for what you want to do.

 

[xpackaday]

Most people are mixing 70% PG to 100% PG. I mix 85% pg/ 15%vg. But there are some mixing 100%vg. VG has the smoke and will sweeten your mix, while pg will give more TH. So if you like plums of smoke, more vg.

So with you nic base the you will always have a lease 18% VG, to mix your 18mg nic. You should be ok. I would start mixing at 70pg/30vg and adjust from there. Happy mixing, share with us any mixes that you make that you like.

 

[Thin]

If you cut it to, say, 18mg strength and then discover that some of your mixes require more flavor than you "allowed for" then your final strength will be out, by the amount of the extra dilution. Better idea to cut it to something reasonable, and cut it again when making the actual final mix. Lots of folks in the UK use 54mg strength base nic, but vape 18mg final strength.

You can cut it by adding more VG (you say yours is already VG based), or you can add PG - which will obviously give you a partial PG/VG ratio. Remember that most flavors are PG based tho, so again, if you simply added 120ml of PG to achieve 50mg strength base at a ratio of 50/50 PG/VG then it would be out when you add the flavor.

How about decanting maybe 50ml and diluting it with either PG or VG (whichever you decide), and see how you get along with it. Put the rest of the undiluted bottle somewhere cold and dark until you've learned a bit more about what you want your end results to be.

Edit - corrected error in amount of PG to add to make 50/50 base mix.

 

[Kyle&Ann]

We are more than likely to shoot for a ratio (PG/VG) of 30/70 to 50/50. Ann thinks she likes more VG than PG. She wants more vapor. I am more after the throat hit (therefore I am looking at a higher PG level). With more experience, I am confident I will be able to make separate batches to accommodate both preferences.

I want to thank everyone thus far for your information & feedback!

 

[Spazmelda]

How much 100 mg/ml nic did you get? I ask this, because now I'm leaning towards suggesting you don't dilute the whole batch quite yet. Like Thin said, maybe dilute 50 ml and play around with it before you do something irreversible with the entire batch. If you only got 60 ml or something, this is less of an issue.

ETA: oops, didn't read carefully enough. I see now you got 120 ml. So yeah, I'd suggest playing with 50 ml of that first.

 

[Kyle&Ann]

How much 100 mg/ml nic did you get?

We purchased 120 ml of VG based unflavored nicotine from RTSVapes.

 

[vsummer1]

Most people are mixing 70% PG to 100% PG. I mix 85% pg/ 15%vg. But there are some mixing 100%vg. VG has the smoke and will sweeten your mix, while pg will give more TH. So if you like plums of smoke, more vg.

So with you nic base the you will always have a lease 18% VG, to mix your 18mg nic. You should be ok. I would start mixing at 70pg/30vg and adjust from there. Happy mixing, share with us any mixes that you make that you like.

I don't really know what "most" people are mixing, but I would never vape that much PG. In fact, "most" people I know who DIY never do either. I prefer clouds of vapor, with enough PG to only carry the flavor. The highest PG I would even consider would be 50/50 and I usually mix 80 VG to only 20 PG, and most of that comes from the flavorings themselves.

That is the beauty of it, you can mix differently to find out the ratio that you like best.

 

[Spazmelda]

We purchased 120 ml of VG based unflavored nicotine from RTSVapes.

Yes, I saw that I missed that and edited my post.

 

[xpackaday]

How much 100 mg/ml nic did you get? I ask this, because now I'm leaning towards suggesting you don't dilute the whole batch quite yet. Like Thin said, maybe dilute 50 ml and play around with it before you do something irreversible with the entire batch. If you only got 60 ml or something, this is less of an issue.

ETA: oops, didn't read carefully enough. I see now you got 120 ml. So yeah, I'd suggest playing with 50 ml of that first.

I just dilute in small batches. I would mix up small batches of 100 ml when I first started. I still mix up small batches of 200ml of my base (85pg/15vg) at 6mg nic, that use for small mix (50 ML) batches of my final flavor's, which dilutes it a little. and my final mix comes in closer to 5 -5.5

 

[Moogle]

I cut mine to 50mg/ml. Easy enough to just add the same amount of VG. You might want to get a Nic test kit just to verify strength. I used 2 oz amber bottles to freeze my Nic then transfer that to 4oz canning jars, add VG and I'm good for over 3 months! Good luck and be safe.

 

[Abe_Katz]

We are more than likely to shoot for a ratio (PG/VG) of 30/70 to 50/50. Ann thinks she likes more VG than PG. She wants more vapor. I am more after the throat hit (therefore I am looking at a higher PG level). With more experience, I am confident I will be able to make separate batches to accommodate both preferences.

I want to thank everyone thus far for your information & feedback!

Personally I find that 60/40 pg to vg is the best ratio for me. But I like throat hit and at 9mg and 12mg the nicotine won't do it on its own--the PG helps a lot (also I get good clouds). Generally speaking I use 60mg/ml base for my ratio. If you have 100mg and would like it to be close to 50/50 I would suggest that you mix it with 120ml of PG and you'll have 240ml of 50mg/ml 50/50 nicotine base (which is safe to work with--heck the 100mg/ml is safe to work with if you wear gloves and work in a well ventilated area). If Ann wants more VG then you can put that into your calculator. I know many people recommend the e-juice me up calculator but I find this one to be better.

E-Liquid Calculator Ten Flavor's Plus PG/VG Adjusting

With your new 50/50 50mg/ml base you would plug in 50 for the mg, 50/50 for the pg vg ratio and your target (24, 12, 18 whatever you want). I would think with 50mg/ml you'd have enough wiggle room just in case you need to add more flavor than you alloted for.

 

[JamesPhan]

Honest question wouldn't it be easier and less of a hassle to just use the 100mg nic level w/o diluting it? say I want to make 18mg nic level in a 100 ml mix. I'll add
20ml pg base flavor
30ml pg,
32ml vg,
18ml 100mg nic vg base.
and that'll give me 50/50 pg/vg at 18mg strength right?

 

[Spazmelda]

Honest question wouldn't it be easier and less of a hassle to just use the 100mg nic level w/o diluting it? say I want to make 18mg nic level in a 100 ml mix. I'll add
20ml pg base flavor
30ml pg,
32ml vg,
18ml 100mg nic vg base.
and that'll give me 50/50 pg/vg at 18mg strength right?

Sure, but someone starting out is probably not going to want to mix up 100 ml of a juice. If they are doing 5 ml batches, they'd need to measure out what... 0.9 ml? Measuring out small amounts like that leaves more room for error.