After I finished it, I used a heating patch to open the lid and heated it for about 7 hours. Now I have screwed on the lid. Do I still need to open the lid for subsequent soaking? Or should I open it once in a while? Thank you everyone for your answers.
After heating, the color turns darker than light yellow.
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Welcome to ELR @2874006149, perhaps some information about what lid you are referring to got lost in translation. What is the lid for? Could you better describe or post a picture of lid so someone here may be able to answer your question 
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Iām going to assume your heating e-liquid
Answer is No you can leave the Lid on now
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It sounds to me like youāre trying to take a shortcut to avoid the steeping process. Not a good idea and hereās why. Applying heat to your mix (and for 7 hours??) will cause the nicotine to oxidize thus reducing itās strength in the overall recipe. Youāve already witnessed this by seeing how your mix became a darker color. Dark doesnāt necessarily mean better in this case.
Additionally the idea of letting the mix ābreatheā by leaving it uncapped to help the steeping process is also a bad idea. The flavor concentrates we use contain certain molecules or āvolatilesā to achieve the desired flavor. By leaving the mix uncapped and exposed to the air you are allowing those volatiles to escape which then compromises the end result. Nicotine is also negatively affected by air.
Sorry for the lengthy explanation but my advice is never expose your mix to heat and leave the cap (lid) on! Store in a cabinet or drawer away from light and give it a shake every few days.
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@2874006149 a small amount of heat applied (minus the nicotine) is acceptable to help blend everything together with your initial shake but donāt exceed 60C. I do it all the time before homogenizing or just plain shaking/mixing and itās fine. These extracts/concentrates are commonly made for baking/candy, etc. Many people like to warm their PG/VG base before adding their flavors. You can do it that way too. Or donāt warm at all. Itās up to you. But like TorturedZen said, DONāT warm your nicotine.
ā¦and welcome to ELR!
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Id like to add from my personal experience with mixing. Iāve never had too much luck with using heat to aid in steepā¦ Iāve found the best way was to just find flavors that I found tasted pretty good right after mixing and allowing them to sit. Iāve also stopped trying to make complex mixes for now, as even with a time steep they never came out good. Iāve recently begun after almost 2 years of mixing using lower flavor percentages and minimal different flavors and theyāve come out great so far.
I have a hard time with a lot of flavors that the majority of people really like, but most of time Iāve found that I personally will like a flavor if it smells nice right out of the bottle. If I smell something strange it usually transfers to my mixes and doesnāt seem to change much with steeping. I feel like Iām a minority when it comes to this, but I hope explaining it can help people who have a really hard time getting good flavor like I did.
A couple days ago I had an exception to flavors smelling good VS tasting good right after mixing. Made an orange cream bar recipe testing low percentages, and right after shaking it tasted totally nasty. 2 days later after just letting the bottle sit on its side in my room, it actually tasted amazing. I have a vanilla ice cream flavor that smells nice-ish, after mixing it tastes like goat cheese, but after 3 days it tastes delicious. Knowing how it tasted solo made me think it would be a nice addition to my orange cream bar recipe. Solo flavors donāt have to be boring if theyāre good.
As much as it sounds like a pain in the ass, especially if youāre impatient like me, find a flavor that you think smells nice out of the bottle and just mix it up solo on a lowish percentage, like 3% flavor + 0.5% cap super sweet if you like sweetness. Taste it after shaking and wait a few days and taste again. While not 100% true all the time, you donāt exactly have to wait a whole month or weeks like some people suggest to test single flavors. Iāve never had much luck waiting weeks, my best mixes have usually tasted good in just a few days, if not right after mixing.
PS. Id also like to add, sometimes heat can be bad for flavors. I had a commercial juice, I think it was unicorn tears. It was one of my favorites, and I accidentally left it in my car for a few hours and it tasted absolutely foul. It took on a nasty taste that was chemical and bitter, had to toyally break down and clean my tank to get rid of it. There was also a fruit flavor left in my car that same time, only that one was fine. I can only imagine some DIY mixes would do the same. I also just remembered, I had a fruity flakes recipe I made when I first started. It tasted delicious to me at the time, but when I exposed it to heat it became bitter and disgusting. 
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I can relate to this mate. Quite often I have had flavours that people have raved about in the notes and for me it has been just a big nope.
I donāt do complex recipes either, but I also donāt do sub ohm so simple works for me.
Probably one of my favourites to mix is CAP VCv1 at 10% and start using it from a week steep. The longer it lasts the better it gets and you can taste it changing along the way. Longest a mix of this has lasted me is 6+ months and it was fantastic at that!
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Thatās wild. So I actually do use sub ohm and cap vanilla custard just tastes so bad to me. I canāt even do it at low percentages. Very interesting. Maybe I should give it another try at a 1% and just let it sit for a while. I remember when I first started mixing i actually did like the molinberry legendary custard. I havenāt mixed it in a while, maybe I should try it out again.
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Some people canāt take to CAP VCv1 as it gives them a peppery or weird taste. Like everything, taste is very subjective so it may just be a flavour that doesnāt work for you.
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Welcome and glad you joined us.
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