I decided that enough is enough. Im not gonna spend $20 a 30ml, when i go through 15ml a day. Thats almost as much as smoking. Plus, im pretty awesome with my hands & with numbers (yeah, im tootin my own horn). i see some familiar faces here & i immediately feel relieved. If they can do it (Panda), i sure as hell can. =P
Anyways, i was up for 5 hours last night, reading up on DIY & im gonna take the plunge today. I have decided to mix by weight, instead of syringes. It just seems a lot less messy. One thing that has me confused, though, is INW, FA, TFA, CAP, FW, etc. I looked in the wiki & ofc used the search bar, but came up empty.
Can someone shed some light on this, as well as their thoughts on mixing by weight?
Also, we're mostly assholes, so be prepared for that.
i guess you dont know me, cuz ill fit right in.
Welcome to the dark side! Make sure you look for well-known recipes and order flavors for those first. If you go into it trying to create your own recipes, you're probably going to be frustrated and disappointed. Check out ELR and sort by top rated.
Read the sidebar like everyone else! Just kidding. Don't just buy all TFA or CAP flavorings a lot of recipes will take different flavorings, they're not all the same. Like TFA strawberry is not the same as CAP strawberry.
goddamnit... so are you telling me that its all trial & error?
It is when you're making a recipe from scratch, last night I tried to make a blue raspberry sweet tart candy. It's awful, taste way to sweet like sugar. Ill probably tinker with it some more tonight. I think i added to much TFA sweet and tart. Also you know about steam engine calculator right?
Edit: steeping is almost a must. Except with fruity flavors they are usually a shake and vape. Like the one I made last night, I'm not going to dump it just yet, I'll give it a couple weeks.
When you're starting, just stick to the Monthly Recipe, Flavor of the Week, and Clone threads. Start trying things you "think" you would like over the course of a few months. Then branch out into some things you think you might not have tried, or things that you don't think you would like but seem to get rave reviews. For example, I didn't think I'd like Blackberry flavors, but I've come to find that TFA Blackberry is one of my favorite flavors. With this month's flavor orders, I'm hoping to explore Banana and Chocolate flavors, which don't sound very appealing to me. I hope to be pleasantly surprised (fingers crossed).
By the time you're done with that, you'll have a pretty good stack of recipes and flavors to get ideas for yourself and understand how to set up a unique recipe that is your own. This is the path that I've taken, and so far I'm happy with the results. Even just modifying an existing recipe you've mixed and liked to see how you might improve it is a great tool.
In my personal journey, I'm almost ready to start contributing personal recipes to the community. Up until this point, I haven't felt confident enough (been mixing for a little over half a year, for reference). So just dive in head-first and trust that things will work out. If they don't, use the community's resources by posting threads and asking questions. This is how we all improve.
Yes, and no. Flavors used commonly on here tend to be good, so that's a great starting point.
Also, don't look at DIY as saving money. Sure, eventually you'll be making dirt cheap juice... but, practically everyone here is putting in orders on a monthly, and sometimes even weekly basis... until they have hundreds of flavors, and don't know what to do with them anymore. Lol
Just short forms for brands of concentrates.
is there a preference? i wanted to start off by making a kiwi strawberry juice (ill find a recipe before i buy, ofc)
What about measuring by weight? how do you feel about it?
Mixing by weight is better than mixing by syringe. Mixing by micropipettor is better than mixing by weight. Each better step adds a lot of upfront cost, so mixing by weight is the best bang for the buck.
Strawberry-Kiwi is a tougher one because they share some common volatile compounds. But I'm sure there are good recipes available!
Welcome Crappy! I look forward to seeing your remarks on this sub as you get into the DIY thing! I see you all the time over on r/electronic_cigarette and you'll be a welcome addition here.
The different flavoring companies have different profiles on a same named flavor and it certainly has an effect on the taste of the juice. For instance... Strawberry. I like the flavor of Capella Sweet Strawberry, but it is totally different from TFA Strawberry. Then there's TFA itself... they make 3 different Strawberry flavors... each one different. One recipe may work well with CAP but be less tasty with TFA and vice versa. It can be frustrating when trying to generate your own recipes that "pop". Over time, you'll see and learn which flavors/companies best fit your palate.
Mixing by weight IS the way to go for at home mixing! I mixed by volume with syringes for a couple of months and just made the switch to mixing by weight last week. What a difference! Faster, easier, cleaner... MUCH more enjoyable and less time consuming.
I guess pandaeatsrage will be coming soon too, eh?
Welp, time to find a new sub! Crappy found us. It was nice while it lasted.
Welcome to DIY. I only mix by volume because I don't understand how mixing by weight is any less messy, but to each their own. Edit: Squeeze bottles, duh.
Because... no syringes? At most, I'll use like 2 disposable pipettes for a mix and just throw them away. How can you not see how it's less messy? Lol
Well, there is no mess when you mix by weight, so there's that
If you haven't seen it yet, DIY or Die is basically a goldmine, /u/Enyawreklaw keeps putting out fantastic recipes, and has a good intro video for beginners too.
e liquid recipes is quite hit or miss, follow authors with a good track record and a lot of feedback, and names you recognize that are active here that are well received.
The biggest problem with eliquid is the people that come and rate your recipe after they've subbed 3 out of 5 ingredients. Example:
In my description >If you're going to sub Capella's sweet cream with TFAs, you're going to have a wildly different flavor profile. CAP Sweet cream is much more mellow and the cheese flavor is completely absent akin to FA Fresh Cream. You would be better off removing sweet cream altogether and increasing Vanilla Custard up to 6%
First Comment
>Not bad at all. I had to substitute ripe strawberry and TFA sweet cream but it's still not too bad. I see what you mean about TFA sweet cream. Next time I make this I will use far less. Or I'll have to buy the CAP version.
And he still rated it.
The recipes that I post that are all TFA are the only ones where there's no issues
Find some recipes you like, search for some with good ratings and upvotes. Get the flavors required and you are on your way,
I bought the flavors necessary for mustard milk, SVBICC, Boardwalk, Phoney Pearry, Nana Cream Clone, Bronuts. Mostly from OSDIY and BCV
VG/PG/Scale from Amazon.
see, the problem is that there arent much ratings on a good Strawberry Kiwi. All i see is this.
I want to try & replicate Dripped Life's Twist (for my first mix)
This is a recipe posted by botboy
https://www.reddit.com/r/DIY_eJuice/comments/3arod2/kiwistrawberry_recipes/
8% TFA Strawberry
4% TFA Kiwi Double
2% Ethyl Maltol (10%)
This too, http://e-liquid-recipes.com/recipe/190661/Funk3s+Blood
Nude Nicotine makes a real good Strawberry Kiwi, but it's very floral. You have to let it "air out" for a day or so after steeping. This is referred to as 'breathing' in the DIY community. Unless you find out you like the floral taste, which some people do, but not most. It's also a pretty expensive concentrate compared to some of the others.
http://www.nudenicotine.com/product/kiwi-strawberry/
I recommend 4% to 6% as the main note, and then if you want to make it sweeter/tangier/etc. to change the profile, you can mix in some of the other flavor manufacturers at smaller percentages (0.5% - 2%) to round the flavor out.
Wiki has a list of abbreviations.