Longfill & DIY Vape Mixing SA: Beginner's Guide

Mixing your own e-liquid sounds intimidating, but with modern longfill “flavour shot” kits it is genuinely beginner-friendly — no scales, no scary chemistry, just top up a bottle and shake. This guide is a plain-English walkthrough for South African vapers who want to cut their e-liquid cost and pick from a wider flavour range by mixing at home.

Nicotine products are for adult smokers and vapers aged 18+ only.

About longfill and DIY mixing

A longfill (also called a flavour shot kit) is a bottle that is only partly filled with concentrated flavour, leaving space at the top for you to add unflavoured base and, if you want nicotine, a nic shot. Because you are buying the flavour concentrated and doing the last step yourself, longfills work out cheaper per millilitre than ready-filled bottles — and there are far more flavour combinations available.

The two building blocks are simple:

Flavour shot / longfill kit — the concentrated flavour in a larger bottle with headroom to fill.
Nic shot — a small bottle of unflavoured nicotine (freebase or salt) you add to hit your target strength. Skip it entirely for 0mg.

Some kits are pre-calculated to a set strength (for example a 30ml or 120ml “kit” that already includes what you need to reach a stated mg once topped up), which makes them ideal for first-timers. We cover the mechanics in more depth in our DIY e-liquid guide — this article focuses on getting a complete beginner mixing their first bottle.

The options at ADVapes

ADVapes stocks ready-to-mix longfill kits that take the maths out of it. The Fresh nic-salt longfill kits come as 30ml kits at multiple strengths (25mg and 50mg) for R240, and there are 120ml freebase longfill kits at lower strengths (such as 2mg) for R269 — better suited to bigger sub-ohm setups. Flavours include Strawberry Pops, Iced Pear, Cookie Surprise, Citrus Berry Punch and Chewy Bubblooo. If you would rather set your own strength, a separate nic shot lets you dial it in.

Browse the ready-to-mix nic salt longfill kits. If you only need nicotine to add to an existing shortfill, our nic shots such as the New Lab freebase nic shot do the job.

How to choose and mix

A simple first-bottle routine:

Pick your kit format. For MTL pod vaping choose a 30ml nic-salt longfill kit; for sub-ohm DTL clouds choose a 120ml freebase kit.
Choose your strength. Pod vapers usually want 25–50mg salt; sub-ohm vapers want low freebase like 2–6mg.
Add the base / nic shot to the fill line as directed by the kit.
Shake well — a good 1–2 minutes so the flavour and nicotine fully blend.
Steep if needed. Some flavours taste better after resting a day or two, though many fruits are ready straight away.

Store finished bottles away from heat and light, and always keep nicotine safely out of reach of children and pets.

FAQ

Is DIY mixing hard?

Not with a longfill kit. The bottle is pre-measured, so you are really just topping up and shaking. It is one of the easiest ways to save money on e-liquid.

Do I have to add nicotine?

No. Leave the nic shot out for a 0mg mix, or add it to reach your target strength. That flexibility is a big part of why people mix their own.

Which kit suits my device?

Use a nic-salt 30ml longfill for MTL pods, and a 120ml freebase longfill for higher-power sub-ohm kits. Matching PG/VG and strength to your device gives the best result.