DIY Vape Juice – Does it really save you money?

Whilst the cost of vaping is fairly minimal, and doesn’t break the bank, vapers have been finding money saving ways to make it even cheaper and the primary way they’re doing this is by making their own vape juice at home.

Homebrew is the unofficial name for it, and this involves the person making large volumes of vape juice at home for a fraction of the price of what “factory made” bottles would cost. But is it really worth it for the time it takes and the cost of all necessary ingredients? Let’s take a look!

The process of making DIY E-Liquid

The process of making your own vape juice is quite a long winded and intricate process with a lot of steps which you must ensure you intricately follow to ensure the end result that you create is actually safe and ok to vape.

Some people think it’s just a case of getting all the ingredients needed, chucking it in a bottle, shaking it and that’s it, but this is so far from the actual reality of what it takes.

The biggest risk when you want to make your own e-liquid is if you’re wanting to use nicotine to add in to your recipe. This is due to the fact it is classed as a very hazardous chemical and handling raw nicotine without the correct PPE on could lead to some serious implications.

Nicotine can be very easily absorbed into your system through the pores on your skin, and this can lead to serious skin irritation, and other side effects like nausea, vomiting, dizziness, and in the absolute worst-case scenario, it can actually be fatal to a person if they absorbed a certain volume of it.

Also, you’d want to be sure to get the required amount that goes in to your vape juice exactly spot on, as if you use too much, this can make your vape juice very harsh on the throat, and likely un-vapeable.

And it could also lead to nicotine poisoning if it is not diluted enough within the mixture because you’ve not followed the recipe correctly. This all might sound a bit farfetched and over the top, but I’m just highlight some very real risks that is involved with the process of making vape juice!

Don’t try and take short cuts either when it comes to make DIY vape juice either, as tempting as it is. Some places online feature certain “hacks and tricks” to make the process quicker and easier and suggest adding in things to your vape juice if you’ve messed the recipe up or don’t want to wait for the steeping time, but this is just a silly idea and you shouldn’t bother with it. Speaking of steeping…

Respect the steeping process

If you’ve never heard of the term “steeping” within the vaping game, it’s a term to describe the process that comes after you’ve made your homebrew vape juice. This process can make or break your e-liquid you’ve spent all that time making, and you must respect the length of time it takes for the steeping process to complete.

If you’re making something simple and straight forward like a sweet, fruity concoction, the normal steeping time is around 7 days.

But if you wanted to make a dessert/cake/custard flavour, the steeping time can be anywhere from 2-4 weeks for the juice to be fully ready, so bare that in mind when you find a recipe you like, and don’t try and deviate away from the recommended steeping time!

So is DIY vape juice safe?

If we’re looking at all the technicalities involved with this process, no it isn’t really safe to consume homebrewed vape juice. There are a number of factors that leads to me come to this conclusion, but the main factor is people do not have clean rooms, labs, fully sterile working surfaces and environments where they can make their vape juice to the same standards to what industry made vape juice is made in.

Most people will reserve a small space in their office, or kitchen, or wherever there is room in the house to make their vape juice and whilst they likely do clean the areas before use, it won’t be to the high standards that ISO clean labs used by companies, like us at 2X, use to make e-liquid.

The other big safety factor is what I’ve already mentioned and that’s not following the recipe exactly right and miscalculating a certain amount of an ingredient that needs to be used. At the end of the day, what you’re making, you’re planning on inhaling into your lungs and body, so you’ll want to be sure everything is spot on prior to vaping it, which sometimes doesn’t always happen.

Does making your own DIY e-liquids really save money?

As I mentioned at the start of this article, a lot of vapers opted to make their own vape juice in a bid to save money compared to the cost of buying premium made vape juice from a vape shop or online shop, but is it really saving them money?

In a way, it can save money, but I don’t think it saves a lot of money compared to the length of time and hassle involved with making homemade juice. The core ingredients needed to make any vape juice is Propylene Glycol, Vegetable Glycerine, flavour concentrate and of course nicotine, if you use it in your vape juice that is. Buying all of this can be quite pricey on initial outlay, and the price of nicotine is not cheap these days I can assure you!

You’ll want to get a good high-quality nicotine from a reputable seller, and this will come with a price that’s reflected by the quality. Also, if you want to be making several different flavours, you’ll need all of the different concentrates to make these flavours as well so it will soon add up if you’ve got a bit of a varied taste preference when it comes to vape juice.

Add on top of this the cost of your mixing jugs, pipettes, safety PPE like goggles and gloves, empty bottles, funnels etc, the costs really do add up and will likely be more than what a 10ml of ready to vape premium quality e-liquid would cost from us here at 2X Vape!

How is 2X Vape E-liquid made?

At 2X Vape, we pride ourselves on how our vape juices are made. All of our liquids are made within ISO9001:2015 lab that is HACCP Certified.

We never use anything that is not permitted by law in our vape juices. This means no oil bases and no additives such as colourings, or sweeteners like Diacetyl are used.

Since the TPD was introduced back in May 2016, Diacetyl has been banned in all e-liquid flavours. Diacetyl gives vape juice flavours a buttery taste. So, flavours such a Jam on Toast, Buttered Popcorn and some dessert flavours used to contain small amount.

With the TPD regulations all new e-liquid flavours need to be submitted to the MHRA to ensure that there are no banned ingredients. As we have our own flavour house and produce out flavouring from scratch, we control everything that goes into our flavours.

Conclusion

To answer the question of this blog title, is making your own vape juice worth it? In my opinion, not really when you add up the cost of everything you’ll need plus the time and care needed to be taken to make something that is of a good quality to be able to vape. Stick to buying your vape juices from reputable sellers and leave the making process up to us!