Considering the sudden surge in people who don't read the sidebar or search, yes it does seem like it's becoming more mainstream.

Been watching the trend go from "bathtub juice" to "Vendors started off as DIYers" all year.

DIY is becoming more prestigious, for sure.

I think that the popularity of DIY is directly linked to the popularity of sub-ohm tanks.

When I started vaping (protank/spinner) I was spending <$1 per day to vape (1-2ml per day at $.30-.50 per ml). Before I started DIY I was going through 10-15ml per day at the same prices, which put me at close to "smoking money" to keep vaping.

There are a whole lot of people out there in the same boat that I was in, watching their costs increase by 3-5x over when they started, and something has to give.

Until higher yield/lower volume vaping becomes the norm (again), or until retail juice drops down into the $.10/ml range, DIY will be king for those people that are burning through juice are going to be looking for alternatives, and DIY is (IMO) the best choice out there.

I think it's going to be seen the same as rolling your own cigarettes. There's a small part of the population that wants to take the time to make your own juice, build their own coils, built their own mods excetera. But, most people in the mainstream are just going to want to buy something and have it work.

honestly? i started DIY because i started getting bored of the latest & greatest mod, or RDA. at the end of the day, its all about flavor, for me, so why not take it into my own hands & make the best shit?

I think you are discounting the role you and your accessible videos are having.

By portraying it as a simple, fun and economical element of vaping, you're helping to create new vapers that expect that experience, and as those new users are attracted, they naturally contact you with what is probably a flattering amount of annoyance. :)

Hiya, Yea, I think it's definitely just a part of vaping you graduate to. I've only been vaping about 4 months or so and I've been DIYing for 2. For me it was just a case of £16 for 30ml vs <£1 for 30ml and even cheaper if you make bigger batches. Though at the same time it seems where I live most people are still on the pen type e-cigs and hardly anyone drips, but I think once you get into dripping, you have to start DIY to be able to afford it.

I've been vaping for well over 2 years and started to mix my own juice within a month of starting to vape. It's only now that I've begun to understand what I'm actually doing and what I'm trying to accomplish. I though purchasing a pre-mixed mixing base and some flavors I liked was all there was to it. Tomorrow I'll be purchasing my first scale and pipettes. I have built a large supply of flavors but after doing some searching on the sidebar I have discovered I need about another $100 worth of flavor extracts to round out my supply so I can make more of the recipes I want to try. I saw a wonderful recipe for apple cider I want to try and then there are............

By the way if you make video's would you mind letting me know what the site address is so I can watch them?

I think the interest in DIY is two fold. The thing that happened in Texas has made people aware that it may not be so easy to purchase juice as it once was. Couple that with Arkansas and I think Illinois and we are starting to see a trend that could make those who don't know how to make their own juice worry about the availability of product in the future. The second thing motivating people to move to DIY is the taxes that are starting to pop up everywhere. When juice that use to cost $10 suddenly becomes $40 for the same thing it makes people aware it is time to learn.

We are still such a minority, it's not even funny. Yes, it's gaining traction. I'd bet we make up less than 10% of vapers.....if that. 5% sounds more feasible.

I've been mixing for several years now and I'm honestly surprised that it has taken this long to get where it is, anyone with an internet connection and a few extra dollars for ingredients can get started.

I think companies like Flavor Art think so.

New to vaping. Was researching DIY as I was researching my first mod to buy. DIY has amazing visibility.

I honestly started because i got bored one day and looked up how much it would cost to make a juice i loved. Once i discovered that i was paying a 200% mark up per bottle i was done with B&M juice. Don't get me wrong. If it wasn't for them i never would have been able to kick analogs and for that i am grateful but in the end i am not starting my wood fires with 50 dollar bills. Turns out this is pretty fun and i am helping some of my friends save money now as well. Win win.

When e-liquid is so blatantly expensive and you can go from spending $1-2/ml to $1-2 per 30ml it becomes pretty clear why so many people are doing it.

If vendors didn't put MSRP at $22 for 30mL it wouldn't have blown up like this. Spending $22/day or $1/day is not a hard choice. It almost pisses me off that companies like cuttwood over-charge so incredibly and then put pics of their race cars on IG. Reinforces my DIY choice.

I started DIY because my local B+M only sold house juice and most of it wasn't very good. Right about that time I found a shop that carries name brand juice but I still prefer my shitty mixes over the store bought juice. Except for Fontana, of course.

I was looking into DIY shortly after getting my first decent vape (tried the crappy gas station ones first). I just wasn't happy with the stuff at the B&M.

I self-flavor (if not quite flavor-making) because economy.

Plain and simple.

I think the real majority will be smokers looking for alternatives in retail cigalikes, like Blu. These people aren't going to see vaping as a hobby, merely a means to an end. Therefore, most of these people will never even set foot in a B&M vape shop, much less even consider the possibility of DIY juice.

For the hobbyists/enthusiasts who truly enjoy vaping, DIY mixing is an inevitability.

For me personally, I liken it to cooking a good meal... Sure, I like to eat out now and then, but I can cook a pretty fantastic meal all on my own - and do so 90% of the time. And while I have no doubt I'll occasionally indulge in a $22 bottle of someone else's concoction, I can make a couple pretty decent mixes on my own... it's fun to learn, experiment, and enjoy.

With the popularity of subohm tanks and high wattage devices, e-liquid costs can quickly outstrip the equivalent expenditure in cigarettes. The only ways to mitigate the cost is to either buy cheap eliquid (generally, you get what you pay for) or go the DIY route. Me and my wife run through 20-30 ml/day and that would easily cost more than cigarettes ($20/day of premium e-liquid). Costs me about $1.15/day with DIY.

I've been vaping for, shit, five years? Maybe four and some change? Not sure. Its been a long road from where it was to where it is meow. In the beginning it was all about getting a device that vaped better, and better, and better... But we are at a point now where all the devices out kick ass. People complain about istick issues and QC issues from China. But honestly? They are all light years better than what I started with.

People came to me for mod advice. "what's best for my needs?" and things like that. Now that my answer is "whatever you like most", I've started looking at what other types of advice I can give. If the devices are all good, what else can I help with? Juice!

So about a month ago I started mixing. When people ask why their Cereal Killa is harsh even though everyone else Vapes it, I look for a simpler solution. How can I make cereal killa be not harsh? I figure it out, and I give a bottle to that friend who complained about the citric acid that was causing the harshness he experienced. So now I learned something new about juice, and he gets a cheaper source for something comparable to what he had before!

I started mixing because I wanted to help my friends out. And so I could essentially vape for as close to free as possible. But mostly so my friends weren't being bled dry by people.

Am I a pro? Fuck nah. Do I want to be? Nah. I've got some recipes that I think are sale worthy (which I'll start posting eventually), but that's not why I'm doing it. It's fun, and it's a productive thing to do while watching Narcos.

I think the barrier is being broken down that people have about how exactly e-liquid is made. I remember a few years ago buying flavors from Mount Baker thinking to myself "Oh man, I can't imagine what kind of crazy chemistry is behind this. How do they make all these flavors? It tastes just like (whatever thing)!"
But once I started looking into DIY and realized just how simple it is, that whole mindset was gone. Vaping is such an abstract thing to begin with. There's a lot of misinformation and misunderstanding about what it really is, but as this industry as a whole keeps growing people will learn more and more about it. In a way DIY feels like the logical next step for a lot of vapers, whether it's cost, taste preference or just wanting to try something new.

I know that I as someone who recently started DIY, given my first device was an ego-t type a from Joyetech years ago, I see it as a way to make the flavors I've always wanted to see happen for myself, and feed my creativity, while obviously saving money. Thus far I love it.

There are very few people in my vape community who mix their own juice, I'm the only one who passes samples around. Some people express small amounts of interest in doing it themselves and I'm always happy to educate but most people just look at me like I'm some sort of alchemist.

I hope you are right but I keep to myself to much to know what really going on. I've always looked at it along the lines of cooking, I know best what I like and most foods are better home made. I bought pre-made when I first started but ended up with a huge stash of bottles that I tried once and never went back to. I started adding flavors to liquids that where close but after a while it was just better to start from scratch. Also just like with my cooking, I may use a recipe if it's something new but now I just mix freestyle. Start with my base add a little of this more of that, set some aside because I can add this flavor after it steeps to boost this. Now that I think about it, while I'm sure Diy will grow it won't be for everyone but maybe one day we'll have a cable network full of mixing competitions 😋.. OK that's a stretch but we do have YouTube.

I believe that DIYing is definitely becoming more popular. But keep in mind that so is vaping. If 5% of vapers DIY and the amount of people who vape increases by 50% over a year, then the amount of DIYers will increase by 50% as well. So yes there are more DIYers, but how much is the ratio of vapers to DIYers changing? And I do believe that over time a higher percent of vapers are diving into DIY; however I do not think that it will ever become a "rite of passage" because I know plenty of people that have tried DIY and just don't like it. They are too busy or too lazy, they don't take the time to learn, they're just uninterested, or for whatever other reason they don't intent to DIY. But, luckily fr them, they know me. Or someone else who DIYs. I think if the prices of juice from local shops doesn't drop then we are going to see a dramatic shift to a more spider web pattern between vapers and DIYers. For example if there are 100 vapers in an areas and 5% of them are DIYers and 50% of the Vapers begin buying DIY liquid. This would beam 5/100 people DIY, 50 people get their juice from their DIY juice community, and 45 still support local shops. (All these numbers are bullshit, I'm just using them to explain my thoughts btw) This cut in demand from local shops will result in a drop in local prices, and the likely failing of many small businesses. Maybe we will see a "walmart" of the vape world try to monopolize the industry after that, but that's just total speculation.

TL;DR I think more vapers are DIYing, but the increase in the amount of vapers and users of mods makes the increase in the ratio of vapers to DIYers seem steeper than it is. I do not think DIY will become something the majority of vapers do; I think most vapers will end up having a friend that DIYs that they buy juice from instead of going to a local shop.

Im getting into DIY because I love crafting my own flavors, I love putting my time into a concoction and letting people try it only to hear peoples ooo's and ahh's. I think a lot of people get into DIY because they expect it to be super easy or trying to make a quick buck then eventually realize it takes a certain amount of commitment they aren't willing to give. The only people that will legitimately stick to DIY are people into crafting or people selling juice others will gradually just go back to buying B&M juice.