Secret's Lab e-liquid and concentrates, a DIY mixing guide
A 30ml bottle of concentrate, a bottle of unflavoured base, a nicotine shot and a graduated syringe. The kit is simple, the instructions much less so. On the product pages for Secret’s Lab e-liquid concentrates, the recommended flavour percentage changes from one shop to the next, sometimes within a single page. A few points either way can turn a recipe from flat to overpowering. Before measuring anything, it helps to know what the brand actually offers for mixing, and which figure to trust.
Secret’s Lab e-liquid, a French maker of liquids and concentrates
Not to be confused with the Secretlab gaming chair brand, Secret’s Lab is a French manufacturer of e-liquids and flavour concentrates. Its catalogue covers three formats: 10ml ready-to-vape bottles, 50ml shortfills sold without nicotine and designed to take a nicotine shot, and 30ml concentrates made for mixing your own.
For home mixing, three reference points cover most of what you need. The concentrates are diluted in an unflavoured base and are never vaped on their own. Their recommended strength sits between 10 and 15 percent depending on the product page, for a 50/50 base. Most of the brand’s own recipes are made at 50/50 too, with a handful of products at 40/60.
Retailers describe the range as made in France, with fruit, cooling and dessert recipes split across several lines. Each line has its own theme and naming style, which makes a catalogue of several hundred products easier to navigate.
The Secret’s Lab concentrates sold in 30ml bottles
Not every line from the brand exists as a concentrate. Across the concentrate catalogues we read, three families keep coming back, each with its own flavour territory. Lines such as Fruity Sun, Moon Fizz or Movie Juice appear mostly as shortfills.
Secret’s Keys, recipes named after coloured keys
The Secret’s Keys line names each recipe after the colour of a key. Golden Key pairs vanilla cream with salted butter caramel, Black Key blends cookie, caramel and popcorn, and Blue Key works raspberry with blue raspberry.
The other keys are mostly fruit, sometimes with a cooling note. Their make-up is not described the same way from one retailer to another, Purple Key above all, and only the description on the bottle settles the question.
Secret Garden and Secret’s Love, fruit blends
Secret Garden gives its recipes animal names. As a concentrate, The Monkey combines mango, guava and pineapple. Secret’s Love, sold separately, pairs dragon fruit and strawberry with a touch of coolness.
These fruit profiles are often the most approachable for a first home mix. A fruit recipe generally needs less resting time than a creamy one, and it is more forgiving of a slightly loose measurement.
Frozen Beast, the iced fruit line
The name says it all. Frozen Beast concentrates carry descriptive French names, such as watermelon, strawberry and kiwi, or blue raspberry, blueberry and black cherry, and they lean on a strong cooling effect. In a home mix, a concentrate that is already cooling generally needs no extra cooling additive.
What percentage for a Secret’s Lab e-liquid concentrate?
This is where the sources disagree most. On the product pages we read for this guide, the most common figure is 10 percent in a 50/50 base, for the Secret’s Keys as well as the Secret Garden concentrates.
Other pages list 15 percent for the same keys, Golden Key and Purple Key included. In the other direction, some go below 10 percent, with 9 percent for one Secret Garden concentrate and 8 percent for the Frozen Beast line. A single page can even show two different rates between its description and its specification table.
Faced with that spread, one rule applies. The rate printed on the bottle label wins, because it belongs to the formula in your hands. Without it, start at 10 percent, let the mix steep, then raise it by one or two points at a time if the flavour lacks presence.
| Final volume | Concentrate at 10% | Concentrate at 15% |
|---|---|---|
| 10ml | 1ml | 1.5ml |
| 30ml | 3ml | 4.5ml |
| 50ml | 5ml | 7.5ml |
| 100ml | 10ml | 15ml |
The rest of the bottle is shared between base and, if wanted, nicotine shots. Our e-liquid mixing chart gives the full quantities, shots included.
Steeping a Secret’s Lab e-liquid mix before judging it
A freshly made mix has not yet shown its full profile. The flavourings need time to settle into the base, a resting period known as steeping.
The times listed vary by recipe. Several pages for fruit or creamy concentrates mention two to three days, one Purple Key page two to seven days, and one Golden Key page 5 to 15 days. Golden Key, the most caramel-heavy of these, therefore carries the longest wait.
While it rests, keep the bottle closed, away from light and heat, and write the mixing date on the label. Tasting at regular intervals shows when the recipe has settled, rather than judging it on a puff taken too early. Our guide on how to make your own e-liquid walks through the order of steps and the equipment.
50/50 or 30/70 base for a home-mixed Secret’s Lab recipe
Once the percentage is set, the base comes next. The choice depends mainly on the device, and it also changes how the flavour comes across.
The brand makes most of its e-liquids at 50 percent PG and 50 percent VG. Matching that ratio at home brings a mix closer to the bottled version, and it is the base the product page percentages are written for. Retailers describe it as suited to pods and to mouth-to-lung or restricted direct-lung devices.
A 30/70 base is aimed at devices built for vapour. Vegetable glycerine thickens the vapour and rounds off the taste, at the risk of muting the finer notes of a fruit recipe. As our guide to choosing an e-liquid flavour explains, propylene glycol carries flavour more clearly. On a higher VG base, raise the concentrate slightly, and lower it a little on a higher PG base.
On the nicotine side, UK rules cap nicotine-containing e-liquid at 20mg/ml in bottles of no more than 10ml, which is why shots come in that size. Each shot also brings its own PG/VG ratio, shown on its label, which shifts the final mix slightly. Refillable tanks sold in the UK are limited to 2ml, whatever the base.
FAQ
Five questions that come up when mixing at home with one of the brand’s concentrates.
How much base do I need for 30ml of concentrate?
At 10 percent, a 30ml bottle makes 300ml of e-liquid, which means 270ml of base and nicotine shots combined. At 15 percent, the same bottle makes 200ml, with 170ml of base and shots.
How do I work out how many nicotine shots to add?
Multiply the final volume by the target nicotine strength, then divide by the strength of the shot, usually 20mg/ml. For 50ml at 3mg/ml, that gives 7.5ml of shot, 5ml of concentrate at 10 percent and 37.5ml of base.
Does the brand make nicotine salt versions?
Yes. Several Secret Garden recipes come in 10ml nicotine salt bottles, The Fox for example. That format is mainly aimed at pods with a tight draw.
What does shortfill mean?
A shortfill is a bottle sold without nicotine and only partly filled, leaving room for one or two nicotine shots. The brand’s 50ml bottles work this way, with a recipe designed for that addition.
How much concentrate goes into 200ml of base?
If 200ml is the final volume, use 20ml of concentrate at 10 percent and 180ml of base. Starting from 200ml of plain base instead, add about 22ml of concentrate to stay at 10 percent, for a little over 222ml of liquid.
Secret’s Lab e-liquid at home, the bottle label first
For mixers, the brand offers three families of 30ml concentrates, coloured keys with dessert or fruit profiles, fruit blends and iced fruit. All of them are built around a 50/50 base, with a percentage that product pages place anywhere from 8 to 15 percent depending on the recipe.
Keep the order of priority in mind. The bottle label first, 10 percent if there is none, then a steeping time suited to the profile before any adjustment. With a Secret’s Lab e-liquid concentrate, that method avoids correcting a recipe that simply had not finished resting, and it works for any flavouring that passes through a home mixing bench.
Further reading
- E-liquid mixing chart for shortfills
- How to make your own e-liquid
- How to choose an e-liquid flavour
Editorial content for adult readers only. Vaping products can contain nicotine, a substance that causes addiction, and nicotine vaping products are not for sale to anyone under 18 in the UK. This article is not a buying recommendation.
