The Beginner’s Guide to Make and Market Your Own DIY E-juice

By Rebecca Hill
Last Updated on

The Beginner’s Guide to Make and Market Your Own DIY E-juice

Want to learn all about how you can enter the lucrative E-juice market? By learning how to make and market your own DIY E-juice you can be in the game in no time!

Statistics show that close to 70 percent of e-cig users began vaping in the past year. With a decline in conventional cigarette smoking and vaping on the rise, the e-juice industry offers an excellent business opportunity for entrepreneurs.

DIY E-juice

What is Required to Produce DIY E-juice?

E-juice, also known as e-liquid, is the mixture used in electronic cigarettes. It consists of a “base”, diluted nicotine and flavorings.

Some types of liquid e juice include vodka to add “throat hit” to mimic the feeling of smoking conventional cigarettes. It’s a common additive used in nicotine free e-juice.

For the purposes of getting started, we have listed the common ingredients, and as you become more familiar with the process you can consider working with vodka and water.

Here is an overview of each ingredient:

DIY E-juice

Propylene Glycol

This is the most common base liquid for DIYers but can pose allergy challenges. It is FDA approved and makes a good base as it has no color or odor.

It’s an organic chemical compound found in many consumer products from food to tobacco to medicinal products.

Vegetable Glycerol

This has similar features to PG with a few differences. As the name implies VG is derived from vegetables. It is thicker than PG and is also sweeter.

DIY E-juice

Flavorings We recommend using flavors made specifically for e-juice as these are created to enhance flavor while inhaling.

That said, many DIY e-juice connoisseurs experiment using both DIY flavors and food flavorings.

DIY E-juice

Nicotine Liquid

Although vaping without nicotine is becoming popular, you will want to offer e-liquid both with and without nicotine.

Diluted nicotine liquid can be used with both PG and VG bases and can be added in different strengths.

If you want a comparison to conventional cigarettes, ultra-light contains 8mg of nicotine, light contains 11mg, regular contains 16mg, strong contains 24mg and unfiltered- 36mg.

DIY e-Juice

What Else do I Need to Get Started?

You will also require the proper tools which include:

  • Clean Childproof Containers – Clean bottles are a must and can be purchased online.
  • Syringes You will need a different syringe to measure and dispense each ingredient.
  • Powder Free Rubber Gloves – Rubber gloves are a must when handling nicotine as it can be absorbed by your skin. High quantities are hazardous while smaller quantities can cause rashes.
  • Goggles/Face Shield – Goggles are required as nicotine juice can cause eye damage or even blindness.
Disposable Vape Cartridges DIY E-juice

The 5 Steps to DIY E-juice:

There are five steps involved in making e-juice:

1. Nicotine Prep

This is the most important step because too much nicotine is a recipe for disaster. The following formulas will help you determine how much nicotine to use:

(Strength of nicotine in mg/mL) (Volume of e-juice in mL) = Amount of nicotine in mg.

(Amount needed) / (Strength of diluted nicotine) = Volume to use

DIY E-juice

Wearing your gloves and goggles, use a clean syringe to extract the required amount of nicotine from the bottle. Make sure there aren’t any air bubbles, as this will make your measurements inaccurate.

To remove air bubbles, tap the cylinder of the needle and then depress the excess back into the nicotine bottle. You can then inject the measured amount into your container.

DIY E-juice cloud ArGo

  2. Flavour Prep

We recommend following the instructions on the manufacturer’s bottle when adding flavor. If you do not see a recommendation, a dilution of 10 percent is usually safe.

This amount does not change even if you are combining flavors. So, in total your flavors should be no more than 10 to 15 percent.

Use a new syringe to measure your flavoring. As with cooking or mixing a good cocktail, flavorings can be changed with the slightest variance in combinations and quantities.

Airistech Tick DIY E-juice

More is not always better when it comes to artificial flavors. When in doubt go lower and add very small additions until you get the taste you want.

Mixing flavors is all about trial and error, therefore it’s important to write down every single measurement and keep track of recipes that work and recipes that don’t.

You will also need to track the quantities so you can determine how much base is required. Keep in mind that flavors will be affected by the base you use.

DIY E-juice

3. Base Prep

To use the right base, use the following formula: Nicotine + Flavours – Total Volume = Base

It might be tempting to fill the rest of the bottle to the top, but this will not give you the right ratio. Another thing to remember is to check the dilution of your nicotine, which usually contains PG or VG.

This amount should be considered when determining your quantities. You can create your own balance between the two, but generally, you are looking at somewhere between 50/50 and 80/20. You can then add your base.

dab cartridges shatter batter DIY E-juice

4. Mix Well & Steep

Screw on the childproof top and give it a good shake. Remember when using VG, it will be quite thick, so it will take some muscle to get it mixed completely.

Although steeping is not a must, we find that flavors tend to become more pleasant when allowed to steep.

Steeping can be done for a few days to as long as a week. Although we’ve recommended using childproof caps, it’s best to remove the lid during the steeping process.

By letting your e-juice breathe it will mellow, which is important when blending flavors.

Flowermate Swift Pro clouds DIY E-juice

Steeping is even more effective when using creamier flavours such as custard or vanilla. It’s not unheard of to give your e-juice a try before letting it steep. It will help you determine how close you are to getting the flavour right.

Steeping also intensifies the color of your e-juice which can make it more appealing.

Customers at the VapeFuse Booth at the HHI Expo Melbourne, Australia DIY E-juice

5. Marketing Your E-Juice

Marketing is complicated and finding a co-packer that can assist with all aspects from design to shipping is your best bet.

You also want to come up with a company name that is relevant to the industry and has a catchy sound. Clever names for your e-juice flavors can help build your brand, but you can also keep things simple and name them based on their ingredients.

Sydney HHI 2018 DIY E-juice

I recommend finding a company that can assist with the full gamut of marketing services you need to get started including:

  • Label Design/ Consulting on Packaging
  • Bottling
  • Labels
  • Boxes Special Ordered
  • Pack Boxes
  • Handling and FedEx Corporate Shipping
  • Distribution

Advice on the complicated federal, provincial and municipal regulations will also help you avoid any delays in getting your product to market.

Rebecca Hill

Rebecca Hill

Rebecca Hill is the community manager at iBliss Vapor, a Canadian e-juice manufacturer that helps people get away from smoking and move towards a healthier lifestyle.

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