The True Cost of E-Liquid
Not long ago I came across a thread on a facebook vape page linking to a youtube vid explaining the savings that could be made from mixing your own e liquid as opposed to buying it ready made from a vendor. Obviously on a vape page those sort of threads can descend into madness and argument as those that buy pre made will defend the price of their purchase along with vendors who will also feel the need to justify their overheads and as to why the liquid they sell is not only more costly to produce but of higher quality. Im not writing this in any way to deny any vendor or manufacturer a profit. In my opinion any product on the market is only worth what someone is prepared to pay for it. But I cant help thinking that having a sensible debate on the cost of producing your own versus the cost of buying premixed from the many vendors and even small artizan mixers out there on the web would never work as too much propaganda and misinformation will always be thrown about and in some cases only to mislead those that would like to ask the genuine question “why the fuck are you charging me 5 sodding quid for 10ml of e liquid”
anyone that knows me (and lucky you if you do) will know a few things
1
I don’t fall for marketing bullshit. Words like premium and gourmet to me are marketing words that mean about as much as a weak fart on a windy day they have no belonging in the real world and are often used by advertisers as they don’t need to be justified to any advertising regulatory body. Equally im of the opinion that a poncey bottle with a posh label doesn’t make for a quality product. In many cases I think its just more advertising smoke and mirrors to convince the sheeple (sheeple is my word of the week) that the price tag on their product can be justified. (although its never actually broken down into facts and figures as to exactly how a 10ml bottle is costing so much)
2
im argumentative. I now that certain subjects I the vape community illicit greater arguments' pissyness' buthurt and hate more than others. Clones being a prime example as well as the cost of e liquid. When I have a point to make I can often be like a pit bull with a chew toy not letting up and many a time a ban or a warning has been imminent lol (for those of you wondering this is not one of those times nor is this the post of a pissy bastard who got told straight im still much an active member of that page lol)
3
I pay attention to the detail. I have borderline OCD for the fine parts in most things I do to the point that I may carry on a project that others would be happy with purely as I see the tiniest flaw that looks to me like a mountain that needs ironing out. When I mix my liquids I do indeed like to know where almost every last half a penny is going. I work out the cost of ingredients to the ml. It is this attention to detail I will use to give a precise breakdown of the true cost of mixing your own e liquid and the difference in price between home-brew and premixed shop bought. Not only will I link to the vendors I purchased my products from I will list the price of that ingredient to your door and break it down to cost per millilitre before re assembling it to the cost per use in a bottle before finally combining all the costs of the ingredients and slapping on the price of the bottle. Partly because im an OCD twat but mainly so you can not only see the true cost and savings in mixing your own but can double check the maths for yourself (if you so wish lol)
My pg I get from a company on ebay called lubrisolve a a cost to your door of 6.25 a litre
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/1-LITRE-MONOPROPYLENE-GLYCOL-MPG-USP-EP-GRADE-/281050457835
My vg comes from the very same vendor who it has to be said at the time of writing is the cheapest know of for a litre at 5.89
My next purchase is for nicotine base in a pg dilution at 70mg strength and is a cracking price delivered to your door for only 19.99 for 250ml (pretty damn fantastic price that works out at less then 8 quid per 100ml)
http://www.ukflavours.com/57-nicotine
Next no eliquid would be complete without flavouring and this one comes from the same place that sells the great price nicotine. The cost of 30ml of coffee (yes I like coffee) delivered to your door will set you back a whopping 2.69
http://www.ukflavours.com/26-coffee-flavours
last but not least you will need bottles. Although there’s a lot to be said for reusing your old premixed bottles. Especially if you have been paying premixed prices you may want to get some bang from your buck. The cost of the bottles I will be using from ebay are 10.44 per 100 20ml bottles. Bare in mind that you can buy less for less but this was the first one I settled on purely to get all the costings together.
If your still with me so far well done you may be as OCD as me. Bare in mind I havent accounted for mixing materials such as syringes and pipettes. As a one off purchase of these will cost you pence and can be reused over the long run taking the cost down to as good as nothing enough for me to not bother including them. (and also gives argumentative pedants something to pick holes in lol)
The juice mixing (finally)
for simplicity I will be calculating a standard 20ml bottle of e liquid at close to 18mg strength and a standard 70pg/30vg ratio. The reason I say close to is the nicotine itself is 70mg rather than 72 so would require 0.14ml extra on top of 5ml and I really couldn’t be arsed to cost fractions of a ml (so shoot me) lol
Nic 5ml = 0.07996 per ml x5 = 0.3998
Pg 5ml = 0.00625 per ml x5=0.03125
Vg 6ml =0.00589 per ml x6=0.03534
Flavour 4ml = 0.089666667 per ml x4=0.358666667
the above is a calculation of the required amount per ml of ingredients needed to make a 20ml bottle of 18(ish)mg liquid. The first number is the cost per millilitre of the ingredient and the second number is the cost of the ingredient overall in the bottle if we add the final numbers from each of the ingredients we have a liquid cost of 0.825056667 pence per 20ml lets round it up and say the juice in the bottle costs 83 pence for 20ml of 18(ish)mg strength e liquid. If we aren’t reusing our old juice bottles then we would add the cost of the bottle 0.1044 to the cost of the juice 0.825056667 which gives us (I hope you have your calculators out) 0.929456667 or rounded up to 93 pence per 20ml bottle of 18(ish)mg e liquid at a 70pg/30vg ratio
I am by no means saying that a single flavour juice is going to hit the dizzying heights of a shop bought (so called) premium range of e liquid and i know of juices that can contain uber fucking expensive ingredients that go a long way to justifying their manufacturing costs. I can also wholeheartedly accept that smaller cottage industry manufacturers produce less product so have to charge higher premeums in order to survive and make a living alongside larger bulk buying corperations who can afford through bulk buying to keep their manufacturing overheads down.....................BUT …..........do the fucking maths you could source other ingredients branded trusted ingredients from sources that are known in the vape world to be reputable and high quality. There is no way that cost will shift to the point where it would even come a fraction of the way to touching the prices you would pay a vendor for premixed e liquid. I am not going to do the calculations but I can bet you cold use perfumers apprentice or flavourart concentrates and still not move that bottom line in the bottle at above a quid per 10ml of juice.
One last thing to consider before anyone jumps down my throat as well. Even taking into account the slight variation in nic strength and possible arguments coming out at the muchos cheapness and therefore face saving argument that maybe the flavour concentrates aren’t up to muster. All my calculations are based on average purchases from an average home mixer. Im not so OCD that I would redo my calculations (and in fact leave it up to anyone reading this). But how would the bottom line of my calculations be affected if actually purchased in bulk. 5 litre drums of pg/vg nic by the litre. 100ml a time of flavour concentrates? I would guestimate a 46 pence 10ml bottle of e liquid possibly halving to 23 pence a bottle. Next time you get into an argument about the price of home mix versus that of premixed. Maybe you’ll link to this page :)