If you have been vaping for any amount of time there’s a good chance that you’ve considered the idea of creating your own vape liquid or eJuice. This is understandable. Especially during this Coronavirus pandemic that has got everyone stuck at home and going a bit stir crazy. People who vape tend to be fairly individualistic because it’s not an extremely widespread trend. So we understand if you are the type of person who likes to do things on your own and wants to be a bit different. But is it worthwhile to make your own DIY eJuice? We don’t think so, outside of some rather extraordinary circumstances.
Why It’s Better Not to Make Your Own eJuice
However, like creating moonshine in your bathtub, making vape juice at home is a risky endeavor. We might recommend building a home brewery before we would recommend making your own eJuice. The reason is that making vape liquid that works, is safe, and doesn’t foul up your vape machine (or your lungs) is a very delicate process that’s best handled by the professionals. In theory, you could do it. Getting your hands on the necessary ingredients would be a hassle. You would probably have to order them just like you order your vape liquid, and the wait would probably be longer since suppliers are not set up to deliver to individual customers. The hardest part would probably be figuring out how to extract nicotine from the tobacco plants that you would have to grow in your back yard. The fact is that it would be an enormous hassle.
Ejuice manufacturers can do it economically because they have relationships with suppliers for their ingredients and because they have the equipment and the facilities to make it in bulk. At the end of the day, you would probably be spinning your wheels for a small amount of juice, and you would be unlikely to get the flavors that you like best.
Most importantly, making your own vape juice could be dangerous. You may remember there was a big news story about people buying bootleg vape cartridges from some shady online suppliers who damaged their lungs very badly. The result was a major anti-vaping panic that had lawmakers poised to draft strict laws against the hobby. So please, take great care if you insist on taking on such a project. The end result could be a serious health detriment to yourself, and legal problems for the vaping community that we definitely don’t need.
That being said, we know many of our customers are smart, educated, willing to do research, and to take care in undertaking such a project. So, assuming only adults are still in the room, here’s a look at what making your own vape juice would be like.
DIY eLiquid: How to Make Your Own eJuice
Step 1: VG & PG
The most common and reliable ingredients that give vape juice its proper consistency, allows it to react properly to heat, and to become a vapor are Propylene Glycol and Vegetable Glycerin. Unless you have a laboratory where you can make your own, (and we couldn’t tell you how if we wanted to), you’ll have to buy it in drums wholesale. This would cost you about $1,000 for one drum of each.
Step 2: Nicotine & Flavor
The nicotine and flavorings proportionate to two drums of Propylene Glycol and Vegetable Glycerin would cost about $500, and you would be stuck with one or two flavors.
Step 3: The Final Product
After spending $1,500 to $2,000 on your ingredients and the tools involved in the process (and probably stinking up your garage or bathroom permanently) you would end up with about 200,000ml of product (or 2,000x 100ml vape juice bottles). Chances are, 90% of your supply would go bad before you could ever enjoy one poof of it, and you would probably get evicted from your apartment.
For that amount of time and money, you could have bought a mid-level electric unicycle and use it to ride for pennies on the mile to your local vape shop.
But is DIY Vape Juice Worth It?
Alright, so if you’re like most people, this project is probably not up your alley. However, is it absolutely a waste of time? It depends.
The general consensus around here is that doing it the way we described above is not worth it unless you’re looking to become a licensed manufacturer and seller of vape liquid. To do so you would need a business license, a license to handle the chemicals, and would probably be subject to state and/or federal safety inspections. If that sounds good to you, we get it- who wouldn’t want to be in business for themselves and tell their employer to take a jog? But if you’re doing it for your own supply, the result would be decidedly not groovy.
To be clear, you would probably have to take out a small business loan for at least $50,000 to set up everything we mentioned plus creating your own ISO certified laboratory. All that compared to the $20 needed to buy enough vape juice to last most people a year seems insane.
What it Would Take to Make DIY Ejuice Worth While
For the sake of argument, there are hypothetical situations where making your own DIY eliquids might be worth your time. Suppose an asteroid came down and made a smoking hole out of your local vape shop and solar flares fried the interweb. Then, you would be on your own for eJuice. To make your own supply, you would have to be a home-brew MacGyver with the requisite chemistry knowledge to make your own Propylene Glycol and Vegetable Glycerin. That means you would have to do your research before the great event. Since you never know when the next extinction-level event is going to happen, you’d better start reading up and collecting beakers now. Maybe there’s a free online course somewhere. Who knows?
In another, more plausible scenario, you are the star of the next reboot of Mythbusters and you want to prove that it’s possible to make your own stuff. In that case, the studio will probably cover the cost. But if there were no explosions, who would watch? You’d have to script in a reason to blow up your lab. That could be quite fun.
In yet another even more plausible scenario, you are double-dared to make your own stuff and your sense of honor won’t let you back down. If you’re willing to lay down two months' rent for your foolish pride, it might be worth it.
But, at the end of the day, these scenarios are just completely absurd. The only good reason to make your own stuff is that you want to become an eJuice merchant. Fortunately, eLiquids are inexpensive, readily available, and come in hundreds of delicious flavors.
Assuming you’re convinced by this argument and are satisfied buying professionally made, guaranteed safe and delicious eLiquids, check out our wide selection of high-quality eliquids at JuiceHead E-liquid.
We offer a wide selection of high-quality, top-rated e-liquids in a variety of freebase nicotine and salt nicotine ejuice flavors like Blueberry Lemon, Peach Pear Freeze, Pineapple Grapefruit Salts, and more!
Shop online now and enjoy fast, free shipping on all orders within the US!
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