Getting setup for DIY E-liquid in Korea

[Skida]

I'm stocked up to last the next 2 months (brought with me), but I need to start looking into figuring out a supply line for when I run out.

The local prices are prohibitive, and playing a constant roulette game with customs on imported liquids also doesn't seem an option.

That leaves DIY, and it seems some of you guys already have experience with this. What I had in mind was maybe paying once for a large quantity of nic base from an overseas vendor, and then just not having to worry about it by getting 0 nic juices from overseas. So I was wondering if you guys could answer a couple questions for me.

1) What are your sources for: PG, VG, nicotine, flavors
2) Do you buy 0 nic juices? If so, where?
3) If I just buy my nic base in 20 mL increments on separate orders, will I get flagged?
4) If I buy something like a half liter of nic base and it get's flagged, can I just refuse the order? (the cost of customs would be like $300 for something I can get for $6+15 shipping)
5) Any other advice you can share would be great.

Thanks all. I really appreciate the help.

 

[Skida]

Can someone just answer one question then. IF you make your own liquid do you get your nicotine overseas?
I can figure out the rest.

 

[Shuddy]

1) I don't buy PG/VG/flavours/nicotine here. It's too difficult to research the sources, and even if you manage to dig up some info, if that info comes from a Korean vaping source, you have to decide if the source is trustworthy.

2) I've used a few sites for juice orders. The best service I've received, and the only time I've managed to dodge the tax bullet, was when using Giant Vapes. They also have a large range of quality juices.

3) The customs forms for nicotine state that you will be taxed 400won per ml of liquid containing nicotine. You also get charged a local education tax of 50% of the nicotine tax (200won/ml). This is regardless of dollar value or amount of liquid. This rate does not change for concentration either; 18mg/6mg/60mg will all be charged at 400won per ml. This at least makes the choice of which strength nicotine to import an easy one.

4) Half a litre would be exactly 300k won. You could refuse it, but I wouldn't advise it. You're name will probably be flagged and future imports are more likely to be inspected and will therefor take longer to reach you. I pay the import tax knowing that the tax will still be cheaper in the long run (this includes buying .... juice locally, and importing). Unfortunately, it pushes you towards mixing with 100mg nicotine base; not a major drama if you're sensible, but does require extra safety measures.

5) You can buy small bottles of nicotine base at local vape shops, but I have no idea where it comes from. It's usually rebranded. In my experience, there's a massive lack of knowledge in the vape stores here. I had a new store open near me a year ago. I went in and had a chat to them at the time. I popped in a few weeks ago for some emergency juice (65k won for 30 ml of Halo), and the girl that has been working there for a year was blown away when she saw my mech and kayfun, asking where I got it from, and if it was 'one of those ones that can change the power'. There's a couple of big shops that sell a few clones. They usually can't tell you who makes the clones, and one of them advertises them as being made in Germany (I'm pretty doubtful). Of course, this is all just my own personal experience, but this experience ranges from shops in Seoul, to Busan, to Jeju. I've had shop owners tell me that dripping onto cotton is 'old school'.

Basically, it's pretty hard work wading through all the bull...., lack of knowledge, and high prices. If you don't speak Korean? Forget it.

Even the big Korean names don't bother setting up to sell locally. I had to contact Kato directly and pay into his bank account to get hold of one of his mods. Another big Korean name just directed me to a US site that would have required me to pay international shipping from the states for a mod that's designed in the country I live.

Good luck ^^

 

[aftercafe]

1: What are your sources for: PG, VG, nicotine, flavors
PG/VG: Ameliquid.com. Renowned internet shops like gmarket and interpark sell them, too.
Flavors: Ameliquid carries 233 flavors (atm) from Flavor Art and The Flavor Apprentice (TFA).
Nicotine: Burnintense.org sells 100mg strength nicotine in 100ml quantities for 49,000WON.
note: I'm not too sure about how legal it is
Otherwise, you can go to vaporiums around the country and they'll sell you 100mg strength nicotine in 2ml quantities for 15,000won...

2:
Ameliquid. They have My Freedom Smokes, Mountain Oak Vapors, Premium eVo Liquid, and Vapor Venue flavors in 30ml quantities, starting 28,000WON each. But there's a deal everyday where a randomly selected flavors is sold for 17,500WON

3&4:
This is just me speaking out of experience with Korean customs: No

5) Any other advice you can share would be great.

I love ameliquid and burnintense

 

[Ryan H]

I get 36mg "tasteless" nic from bestecig.com

I get my flavors from MyFreedomSmokes and I eat the $47 shipping cost. I make the orders at $150 or more for just concentrates at a time and that evens out the price a fair amount.

I get VG and PG here in Korea from Gmarket.

It USUALLY (not always) costs me about $1.40 / 10mL to make juice of any flavor, and I have about 40 to pick from/mix together.

 

[darkpoet]

1) I get my VG and PG from Esfood:
PG:[ES
VG: [ES

Until now, I pretty much exclusively used Greenhouseone.com for my 60mg base as well as flavored juices (I use 5 of their flavors to make a custom tobacco mix 3/10 bottles being VG)... but they now only do $22 EMS shipping (which is more likely to be inspected and taxed)... so I'm looking at that burnintense.com site for my next base (holy crap at the strength).

And for flavor: Lorann's from whatever ebay seller is cheapest.

2) I don't vape zero.

3) In my experience, if you order from the West, your package will be clearly marked. Asian sellers (like Greenhouseone) don't clearly mark the package. I used to throw in an Ego battery or some misc. hardware with 300ish ml and it passed through without tax. I used to place multiple orders of 20ml at a time from Madvapes when they had cheap shipping. They usually arrived within two weeks of each other (weird they didn't arrive at once when they were sent at once)... and I didn't have any issue. It's still cheaper and easier to DIY.

4) I wouldn't recommend refusing any shipment. Maybe they'll crack open your next care package from your family and delay it just for kicks.

5) My advice? If you need kanthal or wick or DCTs or batteries or something else in a pinch, mistmall.com is pretty good.

 

[pocariboy73]

I was buying liquids and pre-mixed nicotine from BestEcig, but I found that the flavors tasted terrible.

Thus I moved on to only ordering the 36mg nicotine from them, never without any Customs problems.

Just recently, however, I found another site which offered the same thing but in much larger quantity and lower in price.

Delivery is on its way by DHL. I'll let the forum know how it goes within a few days.

Is it against the forum rules to name the business?

 

[pocariboy73]

I was buying liquids and pre-mixed nicotine from BestEcig, but I found that the flavors tasted terrible.

Thus I moved on to only ordering the 36mg nicotine from them, never without any Customs problems.

Just recently, however, I found another site which offered the same thing but in much larger quantity and lower in price.

Delivery is on its way by DHL. I'll let the forum know how it goes within a few days.

Is it against the forum rules to name the business?

Well my hope has faded somewhat. The package is stuck in Customs with DHL because "the importer did not provide sufficient paperwork" and the importer should contact them soon or I should contact a DHL representative.

Hopefully it's just a "lag" in the system and the package gets moving again. Otherwise, Korean Customs is no doubt gonna send me a letter of some sort regarding TAX or it will sit in limbo while the importer (company) ignores my emails of concern.

Just great...

 

[Waddle]

@pocariboy73

Not to worry Customs will contact you. You are allowed 20ml tax free after that you will pay 600 won per ml. So it could add up depending on how much juice you imported. Normally customs don't blink an eye because either its under 150,000 won or the package is "not" labled as e-liquid. If they wrote e-liquid on the package then I would say you're busted. Hold off for a few days it may still get through.

What a lot of people do is buy 20ml 34mg/ml nic and 50ml 0mg/ml nic and mix. I figure the mix comes out to around 7mg/ml. You have to send package every couple of weeks depending on how much you vape. But 70ml for about $10-$15 is not too bad. Do you know about Fasttech?

 

[pocariboy73]

@pocariboy73

Not to worry Customs will contact you. You are allowed 20ml tax free after that you will pay 600 won per ml. So it could add up depending on how much juice you imported. Normally customs don't blink an eye because either its under 150,000 won or the package is "not" labled as e-liquid. If they wrote e-liquid on the package then I would say you're busted. Hold off for a few days it may still get through.

What a lot of people do is buy 20ml 34mg/ml nic and 50ml 0mg/ml nic and mix. I figure the mix comes out to around 7mg/ml. You have to send package every couple of weeks depending on how much you vape. But 70ml for about $10-$15 is not too bad. Do you know about Fasttech?

Yeah, I've ordered tons on coils, tanks, mods, accessories, etc from FT and have always been satisfied. However, I didn't know they sell unflavored VG/PG nicotine juice. Is that so?

My latest troubles are NOT the result of Customs yet, but apparently DHL was missing some paperwork from the vendor on what exactly the product was PLUS my passport # and full name. Then after I supplied them with the invoice (sent to me later by the company) and passport #, they are now going to proceed with passing the package onto Korean Customs.

My order consisted of 2 bottles 250ml 36mg (Nic) VG and PG flavourless liquid with no mention of nicotine on anything. And the total value (with shipping costs) was about $50, so I'm well under the zero nicotine e-liquid tax free asking.

Tomorrow I shall see if it passes through. Every time with BestEcig it was fine, but they did not use DHL.

Regardless, thanks for your info and I'll keep my fingers crossed and hope for the best.

If the forum permits, which I'm still not sure about, I'll pass on the name on the company so others can either suffer the same fate as I, or get a really great deal (which I'm hoping for).

Cheers,

 

[Waddle]

I'll keep my fingers crossed for you. Can't see why it would be a problem posting the name of the company.

 

[pocariboy73]

Just an update:

After the confusion with DHL and 2 different reps getting their "coils" crossed, the paperwork became sorted. Now, however, I've been texted by DHL that CUSTOMS has decided to do a "random" check with my package and that a further delay of 1-2 days might take place.

Anybody know if they have a "Nicotine Analyzing Machine," or if one even exists? I'm hoping the "random check" involves checking the labels, the paperwork, and the invoices to see if they are all in order.

Fingers now TIGHTLY crossed!

 

[Waddle]

You've been flagged by customs, more than likely they will inspect the package. Probably opening it. If they see any indication of nicotine, or even suspect, they will charge 600w tax per mg. Would the bottles not list the nic content? That would be suprising, if not dangerous, if they dont. The concentration of nicotine is irrelevant. In other words it doesnt matter if its 1mg/ml or 100mg/ml. You say you have 500ml, then get prepared as it could come to over 300,000won.

How did you pay for the transaction? You could possibly refuse to accept the goods and have to wait months to get a refund, and probably less shipping costs.

 

[pocariboy73]

Well, if that's the case, I'm simply not accepting it and it will be sent back to the vendor for reimbursement.

 

[Waddle]

You might want to give the vendor's name now. Did you buy using Paypal, Amazon, or Ebay? Depending on what it says on the vendor's website, for example, if it clearly states all import taxes are to be paid by you then you may not have a leg to stand on...honestly don't know. I do know that you are protected under Ebay or Amazon. So there would be no dispute. If you paid by Korean credit card then you are in for a battle.

 

[pocariboy73]

I paid using PayPal, but don't plan or intend to file a claim. I've already been in regular contact with the vendor and they promise not to worry for it doesn't make it through Customs, they will either reimburse me the $$ or resend.

I don't feel comfortable naming the vendor yet. I will do so however when the outcome of the situation is completed.

Also, I can't be so sure that this site isn't being monitored by Customs. Who knows what they might be up to. I might have already burned my own ...~~~

 

[Waddle]

You'll be alright. Best of luck with it.

If you look around you'll see that its quite possible to DIY here in Korea. I can buy virtually everything here in Korea except the flavors I want. But thats because I only use TFA or FlavorArt flavoring. I figure I can make 30ml of 6mg/ml nic juice for about $1.50.

 

[Waddle]

Also, I can't be so sure that this site isn't being monitored by Customs. Who knows what they might be up to. I might have already burned my own ...~~~

That's laughable my friend. With the millions of packages that go through customs on a monthly, if not weekly basis, I doubt they have the manpower, resources, or even the desire to keep tabs on the dozen or so of us who actually post on this forum.

Again..best of luck with it...moving on!

 

[pocariboy73]

You'll be alright. Best of luck with it.

If you look around you'll see that its quite possible to DIY here in Korea. I can buy virtually everything here in Korea except the flavors I want. But thats because I only use TFA or FlavorArt flavoring. I figure I can make 30ml of 6mg/ml nic juice for about $1.50.

If you don't mind me asking, do you buy your nicotine here in Korea? And if so, how much are you paying?

Thanks Waddle...