First attempt at DIY mixing - may have got things wrong !

[damob9k]

Hi There expert vapers !

I'm pretty new to the whole vaping thing, started late November - and haven't wavered ever since !

I used to smoke Cafe Creme cigars, and have been blending a couple of pre-made cigar juices to get a pretty nice one.

Today after receiving all the supplies I needed, I started to make my own juices.

I am using FlavourArt concentrates with Neat72 nicotine and PG & VG from Creme de Vape, and am using the eJuice Me UP program.

The issue I have is that the 4 batches that I have made have virtually no colour, especially when compared to the Creme de Vape cigar juice that I have been using.
This made me think that I was using the calculator incorrectly or the amounts were wrong , and so I double checked everything.

The first thing I noticed that was wrong was that the drops per ml was way off, it was defaulted to 20 drops, but from what I had seen when dripping in the largest quantity of flavour, was that in no way was 20 drops equal to 1 ml.
So I tested how many drops is 1 ml by dripping into a syringe and it comes to 60 !
BTW i'm dripping the concentrate straight out of the bottles supplied by FA and not from a pipette.

So I recalculated how many additional drops I needed and then added them into the 30ml bottles of juice.
BUT there is still no colour to the juice !

So just want to check that I am entering in the details correctly into the eJuice Me UP program.
FA recommend 3% for their cigar flavours, so that is what I am entering in in the percentage box for that flavour.
I am adding two other flavours at 1 % each so again that is what I have entered.

So for the main cigar flavour it is telling me that I need 0.9 ml or 54 drops for 30ml of juice ... does that sound correct to you guys/girls ?

I have put the bottles in warm water and shook them up at regular intervals, and obviously will leave them to steep for a few weeks before I try them, but I am confused by the lack of any real colour.

Is it that DIY juices don't have the same sort of colour as professionally made juices do (i.e. they use food dye ?) or will the colour come with time ?

Would one of you experts tell me if i've got the amounts / calculations wrong or that there is nothing to worry about !

Thanks for you time and help and sorry for the long(ish) first post

Cheers

Damian.

 

[b road blaster]

the colour will come with steeping mate did you use drops or use a syringe to get the right amount of mls as drops is not very accurate.
your better doing it by mls in a syringe.

 

[Ment]

Welcome to the forum.

Your calculations are correct. As above, it will darken with time. Think about it - you're diluting your concentrate 32:1 in clear liquid, it's not going to have much colour to start with.

If you're happy with this, mix up bigger batches, tobaccos keep improving with time, and leave the tops off for the first week and shake daily.

 

[damob9k]

Welcome to the forum.

Your calculations are correct. As above, it will darken with time. Think about it - you're diluting your concentrate 32:1 in clear liquid, it's not going to have much colour to start with.

If you're happy with this, mix up bigger batches, tobaccos keep improving with time, and leave the tops off for the first week and shake daily.

Thanks Guys, that's put my mind to rest, just needs a bit of time !
I was using the drops measurement as my syringe is too big to give accuracy below 1 ml , so I have just bought a couple 1ml syringes which should help for the next batch.
BTW anyone know to remove the top of these FlavourArt bottles ? they are hard plastic, and I tried to pull one off but couldn't !

 

[b road blaster]

Not sure on them ones mate with others i normally get a pair of scissors under the cap to pop them off.
but if you get a drawing needle you can put that down through the drip tip and suck it out the bottle that way

 

[oldhippydude]

I have never considered the colour of a liquid as a relevant factor, if it tastes ok it is ok in my book.

 

[damob9k]

Not sure on them ones mate with others i normally get a pair of scissors under the cap to pop them off.
but if you get a drawing needle you can put that down through the drip tip and suck it out the bottle that way

Yup, I'll attack it with something sharp tomorrow been doing this mixing malarky all day now ! ... need to go shoot something in Fallout 4 now

 

[wraith]

Another option when working with bigger quantities is to find out what the weight per ml of pg and vg are then do some sums and use very accurate scales.

As said above, unless your flavours have coloring in them the colour comes with time. Some of my recipes stay pretty clear, others end up pretty dark.

I have heard that tobacco flavours require longest maturation time of any flavours. A couple of months seems to he the norm.

 

[scrumpox]

Those Flavourart bottles are a PITA. The caps just need a really good tug to get them off, if you attack them with something sharp you'll wreck them and never get them back on.
Mind you, for mixing it may be better to transfer the entire contents to more workable bottles and throw the Flavourart ones out.

There is supposed to be a soft patch on those PET bottles to make squeezing possible but I'm buggered if I can find it consistently.

 

[elliotj]

I levered the caps off and then popped them back, it was not that easy.

Make sure you keep a record of what you are mixing for future reference. Use some rated recipes, it really helps you understand how the different flavours go together. Different brands of the same flavour can have really different tastes and strength.

Hope you make some good juice.