Hey all,
I had been smoking for right at 4 years when I suddenly got sick of paying so much for cigarettes, as well as my lack of smell, taste, and energy from when I was doing so. I got started with what is I am sure some generic ecig with a clear tank for holding the liquid and an adjustable voltage battery. Good enough for me to not have a cigarette in over a week, my longest in nearly 2 years.
When I got it, I went with a coconut flavor that they had. Just coconut. It was smooth, not too fruity, but still sweet and it smelled good. I recently ran out and had to go and buy some other flavor because the place where I get it from was closed and I was craving pretty bad. I'm now stuck on some fruity mint shit I bought as a quick solution, and it was terrible. Not to mention I went through about 10ml a week, or 8 bucks.
I had been creeping around here for about a week and thought that you guys may have a solution for my problem. Making your own juice is certainly way cheaper from what I've seen, and when I eventually get down to no nicotine, perfectly safe to mix myself!
But, where do I start? Do I just get a quart of the propylene glycol and vegetable glycerin as well as a flavor and just start mixing till it tastes good? Is it really that easy or am I missing something? Not to mention its someodd 90% cheaper if it is nicotine free.
Lastly, does anyone know of the type of coconut flavor I described? The first flavor I ever smoked is probably going to end up being my base flavor, seriously all day vape. If it helps, the ejuice was like a very pale pink, not far off from being clear.
Thank all of you preemptively for your assistance.
Tl;dr PG+VG+flavor=juice? And an awesome mild sweet smooth coconut flavor.
Here is a personal write up I did on costs
Popular Juice Clone recipe thread
There is also a lot of monthly recipe threads on the sidebar, and in the current sticky that most people here contribute to.
As far as getting PG/VG, best prices after shipping will be found here, at Essential Depot
Lots of people here get their nic juice from Wizard Labs, however, I get mine from My Freedom Smokes
I personally get all my flavorings from The Perfumer's Apprentice. They seem to be the most popular on this sub in general.
In order to mix, I like to use syringes with 14 gauge blunt tip needles. The 10ml and 3ml syringes are what I use most. I would order a few as they do not last forever, and some flavors like to "Stick" to the syringe. You will also need bottles. I like these bottles a lot, but there others that can be found much cheaper.
As far as your coconut, TFA has Coconut Candy, which may be the flavor you're searching for, or Coconut Extra, which is a very strong (so use in small amounts) flavor that is very good in mixes, but I'm not sure how it is when used alone.
When mixing, I would use a calculator like E-Juice Me Up.
Also, remember when mixing, if you aren't using dedicated syringes for each ingredient, to wash them out when switching ingredients, as to minimize contamination.
Hope I helped! Feel free to ask more questions.
If this seems like a bit too much for now, you can check out a myriad of online juice vendors, which are much cheaper than $8 for 10ml. The go to inexpensive vendor is Mount Baker Vapor. You could also read around at /r/electronic_cigarette for tons of other vendors witch cheaper juice.
Holy shit, less than a dollar for 30ml? That is three weeks of vapor for me! Vs buying at a store for 20 dollars, meaning a 95% savings.
I went through the recipe list and found a tigers blood recipe. If I can sit around all day smoking a snocone, I think that is what we like to call 'the high life'.
If I could give you gold, I would, but instead have an upvote!
you really learn when you sit down to do it yourself, but watch a few youtube videos of people mixing their own to get an idea.
Download ejuice me up calculator so you can get the amounts correct.
I have used much smaller than a quart of PG and it has lasted me a couple of months already, so I don't think you'd need a quart. Maybe start with small amounts of each ingredient until you are sure you like mixing your own juice, and sure you like the ingredients you've purchased.
I love coconut, and I use coconut extra (tfa) from wizard labs. I haven't made a plain coconut,but I've been mixing it into other juice that I make.
And it all comes down to experimenting with flavors. Try some of the recipes on the side bar and see if you like them, then venture out and make some of your own.
You can see all I ordered here: http://imgur.com/a/k6x1U
Came to around $150 total, and I got a lot of flavors.
Things I would do different:
Get more 1ml and 3ml syringes. I use a lot of those when mixing up and revising flavors, and it sucks having to constantly wash them to not contaminate other flavors, etc.
Also, I would have got a few more 10mL bottles from WizardLabs as the Vtech bottles took about a month to ship, but 50 bottles for that price is pretty good, and they work great.
I got quite a bit of stuff, but I have enough supplies to make juice for a while. Still finding flavors I like and coming up with my ADV recipes. Once that happens I'll be ordering 4oz of each flavors I need, and possibly more nicotine just in case it does get regulated.
Keep in mind you get free shipping from Wizard Labs at $65. Also if you are ordering sample size flavors from TPA, try to get them through Wizard Labs as you get 8mL opposed to 4mL for slightly cheaper. Though a lot of TPA flavors are out of stock for this reason I assume. Which is why I placed an order directly through TPA for the ones I couldn't get from WizardLabs.
Goodness! I'd like to make my own, but my soon to be wife would kill me if I went and spend 150 on it. I think I may skimp on some flavors and maybe spend around 60 dollars so I can retroactively save and wait to expand. Thank you!
I make single flavor "coconut candy" from TFA, tastes good to me all by itself @ 5%(Mounds candy bar). I didn't see nic solution on your list, are you going nic free right away? And yes, it really is that easy to make your own.
This purchase will probably be made sometime in may. I will work on weaning myself down and hopefully the effect of me just having something similar to the puffing action will let me slide out of nicotine fairly easy.
I will definitely have to grab that flavor then. Thank you!
I got everything I needed for 60 bucks shipped with one 30ml flavor, this should last me 6 months or more. I just bought 20 flavors from wizard labs to expand. Buy the 8ml bottles to find what you like then buy a larger quantity. FWIW I quit smoking in 2 days once I started vaping a year or so ago. I started at 24mg and now vape 8mg. Spend a lot of time reading here, all the info you need is available just takes time to read it. The stuff in the Sidebar is your best friend :-)
I posted something similar yesterday and didn't get much love. I asked for easy newbie recipes and was told about what you were told. I didnt want to spend 60-100 and buy a ton of equipment. I did have one helpful comment which I'll share. - pick a "single" flavor (which I think you already did-coconut! ) and try using that only. So to answer your tl:dr - yes, simply add a small amount of coconut flavor to some VG/PG or some mixture of the 2 and thats it. I just placed an order last night with Mount Baker Vapor for some starting supplys and it only cost 23 bucks. for 2 flavors, a bottle of premixed 50-50 VG/PG and a few bucks for some empty bottles. Thats it!