Making DIY e-juice with "sugar lips" effect

[JEmpire]

I've only just started DIY for about 2 months now and did my first batch test - one particular ejuice I made was quite harsh but added some smoother too it and I think it made the taste a bit bland, whilst removing the harsh hit.

Anyway, I love my ejuices to be immensely sweet. Some premium ejuices have that "sugar lips" effect, where you can just taste the flavour or sugar on your lips without spitback. I want to try and replicate this without messing up my DIY ejuice. I've put in CAP super sweet in but I think it also made it more bland so I'm struggling with tasting my flavour (Sparkling wine, shisha raspberry and double watermelon).

How do I make this flavour and other ejuices super sweet without killing the overall flavour? Is it just adding up the % of flav concs? If so, I've heard overpowering your ejuice can kill flavour too - so what is the resolution 'cause I really feel disheartened that my flavour didn't come out super sweet and tasty!

 

[Gitchy]

Sucralose. Super sweet is that I think though. You need to use very small percentages of it, like 0.5 or 0.75 to get the sugar lips effect and not mute the other flavours.

For the others I'd use the raspberry at about 4% and the sparkling wine at 1.5 or 2% as a back flavour to bring out the raspberry more. Not used the watermelon but if it's like other CAP ones then 4 or 5% should do it.

You can adjust the percentages to get what you prefer yourself but would be better at upping them by 0.25 or 0.5% at a time till you get what you like. Also steep this recipe for at least 4 days imo.

 

[JEmpire]

Sucralose. Super sweet is that I think though. You need to use very small percentages of it, like 0.5 or 0.75 to get the sugar lips effect and not mute the other flavours.

For the others I'd use the raspberry at about 4% and the sparkling wine at 1.5 or 2% as a back flavour to bring out the raspberry more. Not used the watermelon but if it's like other CAP ones then 4 or 5% should do it.

You can adjust the percentages to get what you prefer yourself but would be better at upping them by 0.25 or 0.5% at a time till you get what you like. Also steep this recipe for at least 4 days imo.

Thanks for this.

So, why when I add more than 1% for super sweet, it doesn't taste sweet, it just taste bland? Surely it should taster sweeter?

Unfortunately, I got really frustrated and ended up adding the whole 10ml of raspberry and wine to a 250ml. So I'm guessing that's where I went wrong lol?

 

[Gitchy]

Thanks for this.

So, why when I add more than 1% for super sweet, it doesn't taste sweet, it just taste bland? Surely it should taster sweeter?

Unfortunately, I got really frustrated and ended up adding the whole 10ml of raspberry and wine to a 250ml. So I'm guessing that's where I went wrong lol?

Sweetners are funny things mate. Overdoing it can make your whole mix muted and bland, you just have to find the mix that works really. Most of the recipes you see using super sweet have it at about 0.5 up to 0.8 as it's really strong sweetner. Normal sucralose gets used up to 2 or 3% I think as it's less concentrated than the super sweet.

Your 250mls will now have 4% Raspberry and 4% wine. A decent raspberry wine if maybe a little mild lol

 

[JEmpire]

Sweetners are funny things mate. Overdoing it can make your whole mix muted and bland, you just have to find the mix that works really. Most of the recipes you see using super sweet have it at about 0.5 up to 0.8 as it's really strong sweetner. Normal sucralose gets used up to 2 or 3% I think as it's less concentrated than the super sweet.

Your 250mls will now have 4% Raspberry and 4% wine. A decent raspberry wine if maybe a little mild lol

Haha yeah. Unfortunately, I think adding too much smoother and super sweet has made it bland. I feel like chucking it as flavour is just so muted?!

 

[Gitchy]

Yeah. Maybe better to chuck it rather than waste more concentrates trying to salvage it. Although if it's vapable crack on and try again. Next time you might be better doing a 10ml tester first, saves wasting so much. You can use the vape calculator here to get the amounts right.

 

[Tazz]

Hi mate, i use Cap SS in some of my mixes. Generally i only use 2 drops per 30 ml of juice. Sometimes 3 drops and the max 5, which is rare. I wouldn't use %'s of it just drops. Iv heard of people using it like 2% etc and can only think their taste buds are shot. I once forgot id already sweetened a number of bottles once and added extra SS, ruined them.
Another thing that can smooth and sweeten is marshmallow, i use that a lot, even with tobacco mixes, really versatile.
One other thing i can think if is the vg/pg %. I once tried a mix ratio of 80 vg and 20 pg and the flavours were so so, then went to 65vg and 35 pg and the dif was really noticeable. The pg caries the flavour, the vg good for clouds. A real high vg will not carry flavour well at all. My happy level is 65% vg and 35% pg, some even like it 50/50 etc. Anyway good luck with it all.
Agree with Gitchy, if out of frustration you ended up adding so it eneded up at 4%, then before that no wonder you couldnt taste it.

 

[JEmpire]

Hi mate, i use Cap SS in some of my mixes. Generally i only use 2 drops per 30 ml of juice. Sometimes 3 drops and the max 5, which is rare. I wouldn't use %'s of it just drops. Iv heard of people using it like 2% etc and can only think their taste buds are shot. I once forgot id already sweetened a number of bottles once and added extra SS, ruined them.
Another thing that can smooth and sweeten is marshmallow, i use that a lot, even with tobacco mixes, really versatile.
One other thing i can think if is the vg/pg %. I once tried a mix ratio of 80 vg and 20 pg and the flavours were so so, then went to 65vg and 35 pg and the dif was really noticeable. The pg caries the flavour, the vg good for clouds. A real high vg will not carry flavour well at all. My happy level is 65% vg and 35% pg, some even like it 50/50 etc. Anyway good luck with it all.
Agree with Gitchy, if out of frustration you ended up adding so it eneded up at 4%, then before that no wonder you couldnt taste it.

Thanks for this - this is really helpful. I too go for 80/20 ratio. But now, I think I'll go for your suggestion. I just want my ejuices to be as sweet and smooth as possible, without the harsh or dry throat hit.

 

[Tazz]

Thanks for this - this is really helpful. I too go for 80/20 ratio. But now, I think I'll go for your suggestion. I just want my ejuices to be as sweet and smooth as possible, without the harsh or dry throat hit.

Yeah mate, try some more pg in the mix, that should lift the flavours, dont go crazy on the Cap ss, go overboard like i did and you wont want anything sweet for a while. it actually turned me off sugar in my coffee and just about anything sweet for a few weeks. Sweet overload. I have begun using INW shisha strawberry and like it at 5%. The general rule of thumb with Cap SS is 1 drop per 10 ml of juice. Go from there, up or down to find you preference. Flavour art Marshmallow i use at 5%. Dont forget to shake the concentrates too before you add them and shake the final mix like crazy each day or two before you vape em.
That's about my limit mate. Good luck.

edit. . there are a couple of other things i can think of. (shows how good my memory is huh)
Often when buying concentrates you might see recommended levels.
Say Flavour Art, they may say mix at 1 to 3%. Thing is that can be right and wrong, its just a rough guide. When i started i never knew that and would think after putting in 2% that it was a crap concentrate. Later after learning from others i realised what was going on. Some FA at 2% theres nothing there and others 2% csn be too much. Im mixing now some of theirs at 7%. TFA Ry4d at 8% was weak as water to me, i now often when its the dominant flavour i want mix it at 15%. Some FA tobacs though im adding just .5%
Before you mix with one you don't know about jump on here POV and ask if anyone uses it and what % they recomend.
Some great experienced mixing minds here, no not me i mainly just parrot what I've learnt from them, and they will help you out saving a truck load of mistakes.
Cheers mate.