Most of the DYI juice I see use about 3mg to 12mg nicotine per ml, with what I can only assume is freebase Nicotine. The standard at most Smoke or vape shops in California, is 50mg per ml. With 50/50VG PG I've looked at the ingredients and don't see much of difference between that, and my recipes. I use salt Nicotine 25% base (VG.) Despite attempts to copy store bought brands my juice is almost always harsh or spicy, I proportionately increase flavor, I've tried lowering and increasing VG content, and am going to try adding 1% water. I use a lab stirrer, so I know its adequately mixed, does it need more time to steep?
Any information is apricated. Feel free to reply with youre own recopies.
What would adding 1% water accomplish?
I was hoping it would help keep the juice more liquidized, when using over 60% VG. Also I've noticed a cleaner burn but I'm only really doing it because store brought brands have 1% water listed in the ingredients.
If you're having problems with your cotton not being saturated enough, then change your ratios to something like 50/50. You don't want water in your e-liquid - More PG is what you need.
About the harshness though - It could be a number of things: the quality of the nic, flavorings used, maybe even sensitivity to flavor compounds or PG - but even salt nic is going to be harsh for some at 50. Also make sure you didn't accidentally buy hit salts
I do the 1% water and I think it's fine in most cases where Cap SS is added as a sweetener because it introduces some preservatives but you must still exercise extreme care that it is not contaminated.
That peppery taste is most likely from your nicotine being stored improperly. It's best to keep it in a freezer and to use a fairly small portioning bottle so that can also be kept frozen but be brought up to room temperature without too much waiting.
It sounds like your cotton is not saturating, what are u vaping on with this liquid? Try a 60/40 vg/pg and DO NOT put water in your eliquid, only VG, PG, and flavoring and nicotine. Make sure your vg and pg are usp food grade safe, and make sure you get your nicotine from a trusted source some salts are harsher than other salts as well experiment with different salt nicotines and see what you like. Every eliquid made is going to kinda be like a different chef making every recipe if that makes sense so just try try again!
I quickly realized that nicotine strength and vaping wattage have a huge impact on the necessary flavour percentages. Nearly 99% of the recipes found in this sub and on ATF/ELR are optimized for lose-dose/high-wattage DTL vaping. High-wattage DTL delivers far more product per puff (thus more flavouring), and the temperatures used are activating the nuances of flavours that simply cannot be obtained from a 10-18W device.
In my opinion, which I'm sure some will argue with here, you need to be targeting upwards of 18-25% flavouring in your recipes. Some recipes can get by with less, but most cannot. Even "solo" flavour percentages need to be boosted if you want them to come through after a steep.
I find that I can often mix an off-the-shelf recipe and have it taste pretty good for the night, but by the next day the flavours are gone and all that's left is a muted mix of nicotine and that 0.5% of super sweet. A good example of this is Water-Malone. With 18mg freebase in a 15W device, the recipe tastes quite good after a shake & vape, but the mix is shit by the next day. You have to boost most of the percentages by 50-100% to hit the same mark after a steep.
And that's another thing I've learned. S&V flavour testing is worthless for low-wattage vaping, even for fruits, because no matter how good it is off the shake, the mix can nose dive over the next 48-72 hours. I find it's better to make a batch of mixes and then forget about them for a week.
The one thing that doesn't seem to change as much with nicotine strength or wattage is the amount of sweetener to use. 0.5-1% will cover almost any recipe regardless of the target wattage. Anything more than that and you end up with sugary lips and that artificial sweetener taste lingering on every puff.
I'm assuming they loose flavor due to evaporation.
I steep all of my mixes with the cap on, so evaporation shouldn't play into it. I think it's more on an atomic level, with chemical reactions occurring over time between carriers, nicotine and flavourants.
I actually confirmed your theory today, bc yesterday I made a 50 batch, and used 10% of my swedish fish flavor base, I added 1.5% distilled water, a 65/35 pg/VG ratio, and the juice was actually good, but when I left it in my pod overnight, the flavor dialed back like 60% and was harsh I'm going to try it again, but use 20% flavor base.
You’re right about changing flavor quantities for types of vaping. I’ve found things like cherry and lemon-lime won’t change too much, but more custard and dessert flavors will get muted at a low percentage when using a higher wattage device. For rdl, I use 10-15% flavoring and for dl, I use 20-25%. My fruity and strong flavors stay the same percentage regardless. Maybe I’m just lucky in my mixes, but I haven’t had them change that drastically in flavor after a steep. I only ever had one flavor that would disappear after a week and I stopped buying it awhile ago.
Additionally, I picked up some 100 mg/ml nicotine. That stuff has made scaling recipes really easy. It’s pg based like my flavors, so I can just mix the pgs together and add vg when I reach the desired ratio.
hmm. Well, I use 100 mg/ml 50/50 salt from NN (signature blend) and/or DeLosi. 5 or 6 ml per 60 ml recipe. (sorry I don't mess with %'s) Every recipe I mix has come out super smooth. Salt is so much smoother! I have a quart of freebase that I'm just gonna give away coz I'll never go back as long as I have a salt stockpile.
my yummy simple sour mango recipe (60 ml bottle):
salt- 5-6 ml
FA mango- 5 ml
sweetner- 6 drops
FA sour- 1.5 ml
70/30 NN pg/vg til full
Yeah I stocked up on salt before the mail ban😂