1st attempt harshness

[mattg]

A moment of your time please,
I've had my first attempts at DIY steeping for about 8 days & couldn't wait any longer so tried them today, I mixed tham all at 3mg nic, 70/30 vg/pg (using E-liquid recipies.com calculator)
Each one was shaken & left with cap off for 20 mins every day as suggested on 'new amsterdam vapes' guide to mixing & each was a variation on his strawberry cream recipie. I used digital scales for measuring by weight & made up them up in 30ml batches.
When I vape them there's a slight harshness in all of them that tends to come & go as if the nicotine isn't distributed evenly.
The flavour is nice but quite vague compared to how great they smell so next batch I intend to increase the flavourings to overall 15%

1st recipie as follows
Nic (darkstar 7.2% PG) 1.3g 4.17%
PG 4.93g 15.83%
VG 26.49g 70%
Bavarian cream (TFA) 0.9g 3%
Graham Cracker (TFA) 0.63g 2%
Strawberry ripe (TFA) 1.56g 5%
total 35.81g 100%

Could the harshness be that I didn't mix/shake it well enough when I first made it maybe ??
Cheers,
Matt.

 

[Ment]

I'd say it's just a question of getting used to new ingredients.

I use all 3 of those flavours and DS nic on a daily basis and my mixes are perfectly smooth.

Even the best juices will seem a little harsh when you return to them after a while, till you get used to them again, so just press on and don't be too aggy about shaking/steeping.

 

[scrumpox]

Mixers are split on the necessity for "breathing" a new mix, the part where you leave the to stand with the cap off. Personally, I never do it.
I would have thought 2 weeks maturation for that blend of cream, biscuit and fruit and I wouldn't expect harshness at 3mg with 10% total flavouring.

Assuming the mix is in a transparent bottle, when you look at the juice against a strong light, like a desk lap, do you see any separation of diluent in there or does it look consistent? That'll tell you if it's mixed thoroughly or not. If it isn't the PG will rise to the top and the VG sinks to the bottom.

 

[westy]

What coils are you useing and watts?
From my experience strawberry and cream is nicer at a low watt cool vape to hot and you just get a crappy taste...and cream steep normally take a few weeks I'm still new my self but I can vape my strawberry cream straight affter it's mixed but you just don't any cream better affter a steep but I don't get any harshness

 

[mattg]

Thanks for the replys fellas, I try to do as much research myself before asking here.
@Ment what levels do you use those flavours at please mate ?
@scrumpox No seperation & they'd darkened up nicely, I was breathing them to allow the ethyl alchol in the bavarian cream to evaporate off.
@westy I've no concerns regarding my builds & wattages but a valid point nonetheless.
I made up another batch last night at 2.5ml nic & upped the flavour levels to 15% along with some 15ml samplers of dripworx double dunk concentrate at 2.5ml-15% & 20% & 3ml-15% & 20%.

 

[vandykevapes]

did you account for the pg in the flavourings ? and pg nic as mixing 70%vg doesn't always mean it landing on 70/30 it could be less and i found PG nic is not good for mixing at high vg mixes you be best of with VG nic in future, i do 15% flavouring and 15% pg and with vg nic and vg it lands bang on 70/30!

 

[mattg]

I played around with the E-liquid recipies.com calculator & it allows you to select vg or pg flavourings, it then reduces/increases accordingly the amount of pg to add so I would say yes its a 70/30 mix.
It seems quite specific as I tried a 90/10 recipie on it & even if the pg was 0.01 over it wouldn't compute....