Question about DIY Nicotine

[Florence104]

Hey

I have been making my own juice for about 1.5 years now. When ever I choose to buy a premium ejuice I get a super nice head rush that hits so quickly. When I make my own ejuice the head rush is weak and not that nice. I use 100% nic at 3%. Does anyone know the reason behind this, do I need to steep the juice more? Is the nicotine just not as good? Thanks

 

[DaveP]

Hey

I have been making my own juice for about 1.5 years now. When ever I choose to buy a premium ejuice I get a super nice head rush that hits so quickly. When I make my own ejuice the head rush is weak and not that nice. I use 100% nic at 3%. Does anyone know the reason behind this, do I need to steep the juice more? Is the nicotine just not as good? Thanks

Welcome to ECF, Florence!

Obviously, the juice you are buying is much stronger in nic level than the juice you are mixing at home.

100% nic at 3% doesn't really tell us much (Pure nicotine is 1000mg/ml). That's 3mg for each milliliter of juice in the bottle. I'm assuming you have 100mg/ml nic base (10% mix) and use 3mg/ml of that nic base in your DIY juice mix. What does the label on your nicotine bottle say? What does the label say for nicotine level on the premixed juice that you buy?

3mg/ml nic strength is low, but that's also what I vape. It's going to be a weak mix compared to the nicotine that's in a tobacco cigarette. Most of those are in the 18mg to 24mg range. If you are trying to quit smoking the latter is where you probably need to be at first.

There's also a big difference between vaping mouth to lung (MTL) and direct to lung (DTL). Lots of DTL vapers use 6mg/ml nic in their juice, but they are vaping a lot more juice in the clouds they exhale. MTL vapers commonly use higher nic levels to achieve a mix that works.

Here's a DIY ejuice calculator that you can start with to determine the quantities of the ingredients you need to put into your DIY bottle. You can mix using a syringe or a dropper or you can buy a $25 electronic scale and mix by weight.

DIY E-liquid | Steam Engine | free vaping calculators

Go here for all the information you need to know to become a DIY ejuice mixer.
DIY E-Liquid

 

[DeloresRose]

As Dave said, 100% is not the same as 100 mg/ml.

Most likely the store bought juice is a higher nic level, is salts ( don’t anybody @ me on this, some of us ‘feel’ salts differently than freebase. I do ) or perhaps your nic is old and less potent, or you’re not calculating correctly.

 

[Florence104]

Its actually 100mg vg based nicotine. The store juice I bought says 3mg for a 60 ml bottle. Does that mean its higher than 3% because its a 60 ml bottle? I use mouth to lung RDA at .2 ohms.

 

[Sugar_and_Spice]

Welcome to ecf.
You are using vg at home and it tends to mute flavors a bit. Pg actually helps flavors to taste their best and helps with a throat hit. What is your final ejuice levels when you mix your own? If you are using max vg then that may be the answer.

 

[somdcomputerguy]

The store juice I bought says 3mg for a 60 ml bottle. Does that mean its higher than 3% because its a 60 ml bottle?

It's actually 3mg/ml, and a 60ml bottle of 3 mg/ml will have the same amount of nic as a 10 or 100ml bottle of e-juice.

 

[DaveP]

Its actually 100mg vg based nicotine. The store juice I bought says 3mg for a 60 ml bottle. Does that mean its higher than 3% because its a 60 ml bottle? I use mouth to lung RDA at .2 ohms.

Percentage isn't used in DIY juice mixing because it can be confusing. To ensure understanding we use the milligrams per milliliter measurement to make sure everyone's on the same page. That's also the measurement that's commonly used by chemists and the people who make your ejuice. When we talk about 100mg nic it's also understood that it's 100 milligrams of nic per milliliter of base. We use scales for DIY that measure weight in milligrams and that makes the recipe work out correctly and it's easily understandable when a recipe is published on a forum.

If you use percentage as a reference you have to convert that to milligrams for each ingredient when you start a mix on a scale. Scales don't understand percentages, they understand milligrams so you'd have to convert it anyway. Extra steps can induce errors in the math.

 

[DeloresRose]

Its actually 100mg vg based nicotine. The store juice I bought says 3mg for a 60 ml bottle. Does that mean its higher than 3% because its a 60 ml bottle? I use mouth to lung RDA at .2 ohms.

No, 3% is 3% regardless of bottle size. 3% equals 30 mg/ml though. When you mix, use a calculator and do not confuse the two.

 

[tw33k]

if using 100mg/mil 3% is 3mg/mil not 30

 

[DeloresRose]

if using 100mg/mil 3% is 3mg/mil not 30

You’re confusing what I said.

I said 3% in juice is 3% regardless of bottle size.

If a juice bottle says 3% that does not mean the same as if a recipe calls for 3%.