Here at Vanilla Vapes we're very proud to support the ever-growing DIY E-liquid community. In our DIY Blog Series our resident mix master will be guiding you through many topics on making your own liquid at home, whatever your experience level.

I have been making my own e-liquid since 2013. Over that time, I have learnt an incredible amount, much of that learning coming from mistakes I have made. The trial and error needed to get a decent recipe is what puts many potential home mixers off trying. I have thrown away litres of un-vapable liquids over the years and mistakes and failures can become costly. Even if you are only mixing small samples, the number of iterations a recipe can need to perfect it, can mean that you have to bin far more than you’d like. And that’s not even considering the time it takes! Recipe creation really is a labour of love.

One-Shots have revolutionised the DIY mixing scene for so many people.

A one-shot is someone else’s recipe with all of the flavouring ingredients combined in the correct proportions ready to be used. Think of it a bit like a cake mix. You can take a cake mix, add milk and eggs and bake it, or you can bake a cake from scratch. With one-shots, your PG, VG and Nic shots are your milk and eggs, and your one-shot is your cake mix. Mix them all together, give it a good shake and voila! A tried and tested recipe with none of the fuss, failure and heartache ;)

Most one-shot concentrates have a recommended mixing % to get you started. Remember taste is subjective, so you may want to tweak the % up or down to suit your tastes..

They are very simple to mix. Let’s take an example… you want to mix a 60ml 3mg bottle of e-liquid. The one-shot says to mix at 10%. You simply need to measure 6ml (10% of 60ml) of concentrate into your bottle, add 1 nic shot (in a 60ml bottle, each 18mg nic shot adds 3mg to your overall nic strength, so for 6mg you would add 2 nic shots) then top up with PG and VG. You will need to calculate your preferred PG/VG ratio and remember that the one-shot will count towards your overall PG ratio and you will need to check the base of your nic shot as well.

Apart from a bloomin' good shake, that’s it, you’re done. Some e-liquids, particularly custard, tobacco and bakery type flavours, benefit from some time to let them mature, but if it tastes great to you fresh, vape it, it’s only going to get better .