So after another month or so of recipes, clones, and general mixing, I've run into nothing but disappointments and I'm about to call it quits. I've tried recipes people have posted on here, I've researched and read as much as possible but every one seems to be more terrible then the next. I've used top notch quality products, i just can't seem to find where I'm going so wrong.
Off topic a bit but since starting DIY all my go to gear has been shitting on me. I chalk some of this up to the juice tasting bad in the first place, but I just don't get it. I've been vaping since 2013 and have my chops down but things like my coils start acting up or I can't get them to wick properly have started happening.
I just give up and am on the verge of just selling off all my gear and DIY supplies and saying "fuck it" to this passion that has brought me friends, enjoyment, and a better quality of life.
I just need to get this off my chest I guess. I'm up for anything y'all can offer.
Edit - apologize for not adding more descriptions originally, am on my phone waiting for a film to start.
About 20 minutes ago I decided I was going to start DIY. Looked up the sub and this is the very first post I read......well shit.
Don't let me discourage you, please!!!!
You didn't. I was just kidding honestly. I was thinking about using a bottle of flavor I like and just adding to it to increase the amount. A nice starting base.
What kind of nic, VG, PG, and concentrates were you using? What were you vaping them out of?
I had my first order of VG, PG and nicotine delayed and decided I would try picking up some drug store VG and go to town with the flavors I had. Most of it was terrible. That particular VG, while the correct USP Glycerine, tasted like ass.
Then when the proper ingredients showed up, I went to town again. I'd see a recipe that sounded good and fire up a batch. Again disappointment. I was about to throw in the towel myself until I started to narrow down what tasted wrong and why.
Turns out there are a handful of flavors that other people seem to enjoy that happen to taste like the ass of a well soiled gym sock as far as I'm concerned. FA Pineapple, I'm looking at you.
It wasn't until I finally started trying single flavors (as was suggested here first) and dialing in what percentage I personally liked, and then mixing flavors that I knew would work together, that I was truly pleased with what I was making.
I'm not the sort of person that can learn from the mistakes of others. I have to blunder through and make them all myself in order to learn. I would reccomend simplifying what you're doing and finding one thing that works. Then build from there.
I'm going to probably get shit on heavily for this, but I'm going to tell you flat out that 99% of the recipes out there are complete and utter shit.
These prolific mixers are not honing flavors, they are just spamming recipe threads.
The 1% that are actually ADV-able are only out there because the person posting doesn't plan on starting a company, or doesn't know what they have.
People who make great recipes tend to keep them, which is why you have 20,000 e-juice companies popping up each year.
What's going to make you better is time. A lot of time, and a lot of practice. If you don't want that, then either buy ShitWild for a little more than you'd pay to make it yourself, or bite the bullet and buy some decent juice at a higher price.
In IT there's a method called bootstrapping. basically you strip away all but the most basic essential components and add them back one by one until you find the point of failure. It's tedious but it works.
If literally everything tastes bad, just drip some straight pg and vg. If it tastes like shit then you know it's either those base components, or the device you're using. If it's fine, you know the problem is either nic or flavor. Add 5% or less of a single flavor and try that, etc until you get to a full liquid. At some point the problem will announce itself.
I think a lot of people make the mistakes of either making their individual flavors too strong (I don't use anything at over 6% or 7%, which is still high I think) OR trying to make a "suicide drink vape". Remember when you were a kid and you would put like 5 different sodas in your cup? Doesn't work so well with e-juice. Also, keep your gear clean. Make sure to wash your bottles before doing the thing. I'm sure dust / factory + warehouse residue do nothing good for flavors. Also, I just made you think "doodoo".
My problem was I think some of the containers I was using were affecting the flavor
That might be my case with some of them, but the others are brand new bottles!
If you havent already, only mix 1 flavor juices. I had a similar problem with horrible tasting juices, and it was because i really had no idea what each flavor tasted like. I mixed up 10-20ml bottles of all of my flavors individually, then vaped them. After doing that, some of the recipes i read just made me cringe at the thought of the percentage of flavor they were using, so i would avoid those obviously. Once you know what these taste like on their own, you wont even look up recipes.
I'll try my hand at some more single flavors when I get home!
Single flavors take time to test, but it's worth it. 3 months in I hadn't come up with anything decent on my own (I had found one recipe that was an ADV though) so I finally started making 8ml batches of each flavor I had at 10%. I finally understood why my previous attempts turned out so terribly, and was able to intelligently create new recipes from scratch as well as know how to tweak existing recipes. It really makes a world of difference.
This guy's right, if your getting discouraged their is no issue at all using single flavors. I have roughly 20 people that keep asking me to sell them my DIY juice. So I must make pretty ok juice. I still vape 10-20mls of single flavor when i get a new flavor.
This stuff takes time, and their isnt enough CORRECT information out there to just study it and get it right. Right now were just blooming the "diy" scene. This is the ground floor. And I see you havent used FlavourArt flavors. Trust me when I say YOU CANNOT GO WRONG WITH FLAVOUR ART. Most of them you only use 5% or less. Tirramisu is wonderful all by its self, so are so many of their flavors.
Well, it's sort of like trying anything new. It's trial and error. I've made a LOT of BAD ones, and a few good ones - to be honest, the good ones are nothing I've made up myself. All of my favorites have been recipes from people here who were kind enough to share the recipe. I've tried a lot of recipes that were posted here that I haven't liked too. Taste is so subjective, so everyone could say it's good, and your tastebuds will say, "What was THAT???" My best advice is to just keep at it.
What is the issue you're running into? Like what's bad about the juices? Taste is weak, too strong, just nasty? What flavorings are you using? Where are you getting VG/PG and nicotine? What ratio do you mix your juices(VG/PG)?
Maybe we can help get you on the right track again with some more info :)
Mostly they go from too weak/muted to just plain nasty. I've been using mostly TFA but recently got some CAP and FW juices. Nic is from Nude and VG was from Wizard Labs, running as close to max VG as I can (usually ending up around 75-65/25-35 VG favored.
My most recent juice is:
- FW Orange 7%
- TFA Marshmallow 3%
Just from experience, that's a recipe that's headed for failure. Orange vapes can be tough, but FW as the primary ingredient is even tougher. I have over 200 flavors and only 3 or 4 of the 20+ FWs I have ever get used at all.
I think your problem is that orange and marshmallow together is gonna taste gross no matter what you do, especially at 10%. Try orange at 5% and marsh at 2% if you really want to make that combo.
Does other (commercial) juice tast better in your gear? Because maybe it's the setup. My juice has a funny taste in both my IGO-L and IGO-W that I don't get from other drippers.
Post a recipe you've tried and what was wrong with it.
Are you a decent cook or baker?
Eh, certain juices did seem to taste just as bad, even ones I have used before on the same setup with different results.
One I just recently did was simply:
- FW Orange 7%
- TFA Marshmallow 3%
It just didn't taste full at all, flavor wasn't there, and was just overall crap. Someone else posted that Oranges (especially FW) are very difficult to work with so maybe it's just my bad luck.
FA Mandarin is a pretty true orange. FA Orange is also good, but a little less "true" orange. The thing about some oranges is that they are more Hi-C orange than fruit orange. Man, orange barely even sounds like a word anymore, let alone looks spelled right. Orange orange orange. Ooooooorainge. Orrrraaaaainge.
I'm going to go listen to Jon Spencer Blues Explosion.
I''m in the opposite boat than you my friend but I hope you read this.
I was stuck on a shitty carto tank for 2 years, hated that I never got any good flavor but mods and coils freaked me out.
I finally caved in in one weeks time I bought a cheap mech mod from fast tech, some batteries, and a kayfun lite. The kayfun has been a dream to build on as a first timer, lots of great videos out there and within the first week I was building my own coils in about 3 min. I use cotton as a wick...just enough so its a snug but not TIGHT fit.....screw on the chimney and cut the wish to almost flush with the chimney and then stuff it down into the well...I have had almost no issues with dry/burnt hits or wicking problems.
Onto the DIY. at the discouragement of most people here, I went with a premade kit from nude nicotine. I am happy I did this as now I know exactly what I need/dont need and how it all works...I am confident in buying flavors and syrngines etc seperate now.
I stuck to a single flavor mix so far, so that I did not fuck anything up. The melon madness I got is redic..so tasty...but you know what it wasn't tasty until like 2 weeks of letting it just sit there. I am a believer that steeping is super important, even if you have an untrasonic/ hot water bath.....its not the same as actually just letting TIME do it's thing. Juice you buy in store or online you have to remember was made....bottled...packaged....shipped...and then even potentially sat in a wharehouse/on a shelf for a number of days...those juices taste decent because they have already steeped for like 4-6 days or MORE when you first get them.
I am eager to start doing some recipes off the site here, but honestly between this melon I have here....and the banna cream buy flavor I did buy seperate from Mountbaker....I'm set...I could smoke them both in roatation forever.
All in all....my advice....stick to it. Get your mod/device sorted out first...then just make some EASY batches of single flavor juice...and dont even look at them for 2 weeks.
Appreciate the comment brother! I decided I'm going to stick with it and got a bottle of some juice from a shop here while I mix some single flavors to sit for awhile!
Thanks again man!
Sad to hear man but you shouldn't give up yet!
You'll find your flavor and be so happy you didn't quit.
I'm just starting to make my own (literally made the first two bottles last night and making new batches in like 2 hours) and super stoked.
I buy a good amount of space jam and found a recipe for Pluto so fingers crossed!
I was in your shoes until... I saw a post where someone talked about using individual drops into 10ml of nic base.
I use 5ml pipettes for my "drops", so I know that 24 drops from those pipettes is 1ml, which gives me an approximation to get my %s dialed in.
This is my experience ; LESS IS MORE!
For instance, I was trying mixes like the following :
TFA Strawberry : 6% TFA Strawberry ripe : 6% EM : 1% Marshmallow : 1%
so this was just really over flavoring my mixes. Everyone always throws % around in recipe making but in my experience, just start with 10ml of base, and slowly add 1 to 5 drops of a given flavour at a time, drip a couple drops and test the flavor out.
Since I started doing this I have not even cared to compare my juices at home to my favorites of old. Small time success story :-)
I think I was talking to you on Facebook about this the other day. Hope you figure out what's going on.
I think the advice about keeping it simple and eliminating each possible point of failure one at a time is good advice.