Hey guys been vapin for 2 years now and decided I don't wanna pay the rediculous prices for juice. So I'm gonna try diy. I've been doing some research for a couple days now and have a good grasp on what pg/vg to get and stuff like that. I have many questions and would like some help. Haven't ordered my ingredients yet, trying to get more familiar with what flavors are good to order. Any suggestions would be great. Thank you
Just start out with simple recipes... 1 or 2 flavor mixes to get the hang of it.
And if you want to use recipes with more than a couple ingredients use the well regarded recipes that have been posted here - Bronuts, Fizz's Nana Cream clone etc.
Choose well regarded recipes from here
Do not go over to ELR and think 5 stars there means a whole lot. Plenty of iffy juices over there. Search winning recipes here that fit your flavor profile and pick up flavors that correspond with those. Also, if you think you will enjoy it and continue doing it, go ahead and buy bigger bottles of flavors you will be using a lot:
- CAP New York Cheesecake
- TFA Vanilla Swirl
- TFA Strawberry Ripe
Obviously depending on what your flavor profile is...
Hell, a year now and I'm still working with 1-2 flavor recipes. Honestly once I found a few good ones I stuck to them.
Lavender, watermelon-lavender, watermelon-grape, grape-lavender, rosecandy, rosecandy-cola, grape-cola...
I've been living my life off of those flavors for a while now.
This.
Get two flavors: 1. Capella's Vanilla Custard, 2. TFA's Dulce De Leche.
Mix them at 7% and 1% respectively.
Enjoy some of the tastiest dessert type of vape, ever. Real simple, real good.
If you like desserts, this will probably become your ADV. It's that good.
From there, you can advance to some more complex mixes. Both of the aforementioned flavors are staples. There's hundreds of awesome mixes you can create using those two.
Cool name. Can you be more specific in your questions, like what is your flavor profile? Have you picked any recipes to try? Picked your vendors yet? Anything not covered well in the exhaustive sidebar? "My first order" flavors has some great suggestions.
It is intimidating to start, then it's like why doesn't everyone do this? Ridiculously easy once you get the hang of it....
I have been looking at Cappella for flavors. And my favorite vapes r simple. Banana milkshake/cream. Strawberry milkshake/cream. But I'd like to be confident in making juice from scratch as well
Look over at Bull City Vapor for the biggest selection across all the best brands. Pick your flavors from the sidebar "first order flavors".
And the most helpful advice I can give in order to be successful in creating your own recipes is this: ALWAYS try each of your flavors standalone. Search here and over at ELR for starting %. As you do this, good pairings should start to become obvious.
It's as easy or as hard as you want to make it. seriously, I don't spend half the love the other people here put into it and I'm 100% satisfied with my juices.
I get 100% VG 6mg/ml nicotine juice from nudenicotine, I get a few good flavors like lavender/watermelon/grape/rosecandy/cola/cherry, and I get several eye droppers. I take the premixed VG/nic juice out of the freezer, pour warm water over the bottle to get it flowing quicker, fill up a bottle roughly near the top to estimate 90%, then fill the rest with flavor. No eye droppers, nothing. Takes me 5 minutes.
I used to measure it out carefully, but one day I just filled up a 30ml eye dropper up with 27ml of VG, then marked it. Now I just eye ball that and fill the rest up with flavor. Works fine.
But, I will leave you with this, be safe. Nicotine is poison, and try not to spill it on your skin. If you have higher concentration nicotine than the juice you vape, wear gloves. You absorb it through the skin. And if you do anything complicated or do it often or are just clumsy, get gloves, a particle mask, and safety goggles. And be very careful with the nicotine and kids/pets. It's poison. Keep it safe and away from those that might drink it. Same goes for regular mixed juice, of course.
Don't get too nervous. You can get deep into it, play with tiny percentage changes and flavor mixes and steeping times, or you can just eyeball the shit and make it in 5 minutes. Do it how you want, just be careful with the nicotine. Treat it like the poison it is and don't take risks you don't need to.
This might be the best advice for someone new I've heard even if our definition of good flavors differs. Lavender and rose candy? Lol how's that for you?
lol, thanks. That combo was alright... but probably what you'd imagine. I ended up making pure rosecandy juice and that was awesome on its own. That's probably my favorite thing I've made so far.
Right now I'm on lavender-grape, but I'm only putting a little lavender these days. Probably around 3% lavender 7% grape plus or minus. I used to vape pure lavender, but I got sick of it after a few bottles, and now I just like it as a subtle side flavor. It seems to mellow out the sharp candy-ish fruity flavors, so I love it with grape and watermelon. It's good when I want to mellow out the sweetness.
One of my other favorites was cola-lavender! It was surprisingly good. I tried grape-cola, watermelon-cola, cherryblossom-cola, and all I loved. But the lavender cola blew me away for some reason. Might just be me, but seems to pair very well and soften it out more. I need to order more cola and rosecandy, but that's another one I'm wanting to try.
Oh, and this is probably an absolute sin for you guys, but I will just re-use whatever bottle even if it has a few ml in it already. I might be just about done with my grape-lavender and then I'd fill it back up and mix with something else. I would never go from coffee to grape or something, but definitely don't mind if I'm sticking to a fruit flavor.
Here to agree with the other posters. Keep it simple at first. And if you can get a scale, do it. They arent that expensive, especially if you order. It makes a difference. Especially with making small batches, which is what you want to do for the first little bit. Some flavors you get are no good, sometimes you put too much, or not enough. Each flavor does different things. Some you want more vg, some you dont need as much flavor, etc. My point is, you are going to mess up. Dont feel bad. We all did when we started, and i am sure most of us still do. Try to keep it simple, and try to do just a little bit at a time, so you dont pour a bunch out like i had to do. :)
How do u use the scale
so normally, you would use a beaker, and measure out the volume, which in our case, would be ML's.
a scale, you convert the volume into weight. for the most simple example, flavorings are 1gram per 1ml.
i like this calculator for mixing, and it also displays the weight quite accurately.
http://e-liquid-recipes.com/create
you will see a ton of posts in this sub why a scale is great. there are a lot of reassons, but my main two are: It is much cleaner, and you can do it into the bottle you are using for the juice (dont have to pour out of the beaker into the bottle, which is kind of a pain in the ass).
and also what I said about making a small batch. when i get a new flavor in, i can make 10ml batches, very easily. to make sure i like it before making a 30ml batch.
making a batch that small in a beaker is somewhat hard to measure correctly.
you would want a scale that read 0.00, and I believe there are some listings in the sidebar.
i just ordered a cheap one from china to try it out first.
Someone posted about the benefits of mixing by weight today, in fact: http://bit.ly/1PWxSEI
It will save you a ton of time and hassle, and make mixing an unobstructed pleasure. Mixing by weight pulls it out of the "work" category, and puts it squarely in the "creative fun" category, IMO.
If you'd like to see it in action, this video shows you how quick and easy, and not at all intimidating it can be. http://bit.ly/1Uu31mQ
And, if you end up using the ELR website, just change your preferences to "mixing by weight" and you're good to go.
Pick up a syringe for your nicotine, for sure, but, skip syringes for your flavors & bases and buy that scale. You'll save so much time & hassle.
Best thing to keep in mind with DIY is always start small with your mixes. If you find a recipe you think you might like, mix up a 10ml batch without nic and try it. Sometimes recipes sound awesome but taste terrible. You don't wanna mix 100ml of juice that taste like swampass.
As far as pg/vg ratio, it's largely user preference. I've found that I like a 40/60 pg/vg mix. Any higher on the vg and some setups just don't wick it well.
Just a suggestion but it you like creamy fruity vapes, I would mix up some Mustard Milk for your first batch. It's 5 ingredients incl nicotine and it tastes great. It's a basic strawberries and cream. You can find the recipe on here somewhere.
Good luck and have fun! I love diy and you save a TON of money.
First, watch this, then come back: How to make your own E-Liquid : Mixing by Weight - DIY Tutorial I hate youtube tutorials, and I still recommend this, so seriously, watch it.
Now, a warning. You can spend a tiny amount to start DIY, or you can just take the plunge and spend a good chunk, but be set for a while and the cost per ml drops even more.
So you'll need supplies. Other than nicotine and flavorings, Amazon works pretty well.
I put my PG and VG into some squeeze bottles I found at wal-mart for $0.97. Makes dispensing them super easy (just like in the video). You can also find them on Amazon for slightly more, but Walmart is on the way to work, so I just stopped there.
I put my flavors into dripper bottles, which I got from Heartland Vapes, but that only works if you want 100+. Free shipping is at $75, so I also threw flavors into my orders, since I'd need them anyway. Personally, I started with single flavor juices that I knew I'd like. I ordered a lot from MtBakerVapor, and most of their flavors are just single flavor FlavorWest (FW) stuff, so I grabbed them. I made those for a month, then I started buying more flavors (like my favorite, TFA Chai). Now I'm adding more flavors into my juices, judging on what I think would work well (it doesn't always). Start simple, then build on what you learn.
Buy some nicotine from your preferred vendor, if you want nicotine in your juice.
Then wait impatiently while USPS loses your package in San Diego, CA, during which you can download the calculator and experiment with it. The bottom calculator on the side bar is amazing. Now you're going, "Crap, I gotta weigh my liquids!". Well, not really. You can take the specific gravities off the manufacturer data sheets (sometimes there, sometimes right, don't trust the ones from FW), google them, or ask here and someone probably has them. Or, you can use the built-in weights for PG and VG, and then set your flavors to 1ml = 1g. It's close enough.
Most of all, remember to have fun.
Quick tip: Better not enough flavor than too much. Too much flavoring mutes the flavor, not enhances, and spearmint burns your lips when you add too much. You can always add more, you can't take away.
Just keep spending time researching.
Read all the recipe threads (monthly threads, best of the year, etc) and make note of any that sound good to you. Eventually you'll be able to see a pattern of flavors that you could buy and use for different things. I'd recommend sticking to one or two simple recipes at first to get a feel for how certain things taste if vaping the same flavor doesn't bother you.
Try your flavors individually.
Make notes.
Percentages are huge in mixing, a recipe can be ruined by adding one percent too much of certain things, so it's important to know what the properties of flavors you're buying are. Check out tfa honey for some examples.
If you want to be even somewhat serious about mixing buy a scale and mix by weight.
Sidebar.
Thanks
No problem. It just takes time. You'll see more recipes and notice flavors at certain percentages. That's an easy way to guess how much of something to use. I lurked for weeks before I even considered my first purchase. Like someone else said it depends on how much you want to get into it. It could be as simple as squirting a few things into a bottle or making thirty revisions to a single recipe.
Here's what I did. Go to www.e-liquid-recipes.com
Sort by highest rated. Look at the ingredients in the top 3 recipes and order a small bottle(10ml) of each flavor.
Nic + PG(optional imho) + VG + flavors = juice
I got lucky and found a clone recipe for my ADV. Ran the numbers and figured out how much I needed to make X ml of the stuff. After I got comfortable making a few clone recipes I started venturing out into new creations. Typically used my fav clone flavors as a base and mixed and matched a few new flavors in. You know, baby steps
I'm curious about nic. I use 3 mg now and I've seen u buy bottles in 37 50 and 100mg. Pg/vg mix how do u no which to get
Personally I buy 60mg Nic, 100mg is cheaper per unit but imo it oxidizes faster when not properly stored and I can be a lazy stoner.
I always get mine in PG because the one time I got it in VG i had separation problems, again, lazy stoner. If you get your nic in VG you really have to give it a good stir to ensure nothing has separated.
Since you only vape at 3mg even if you get it in PG you should still be able to do at least 70-80% VG depending on if you are going for Max VG or not.
What kind of unit do you vape out of? EGO Pens? Box Mods? Sub-Ohm?
Box mod. And dripper
So higher VG is your friend, you are either going to want to get your Nic in VG or get high concentrations so you don't end up with more PG in your mix than you want.
I use a Subbox mini and personally prefer my mixes at 70% VG, gives me good clouds and enough PG to pack a nice flavor punch. I vape at 6mg and use 60mg Nic concentrate in 100% PG, I never have problems, I could save a lil money by going to 100mg, but again, lazy stoner.
Can you tell us what you usually like to vape? 100% tobacco, all fruit, desserts, etc. There's lots of good recipes to fit any profile, usually you start with 2-3 recipes of ingredients and go from there.
To be honest, I only make one flavor (and I have a modified version of it). I have no desire to ever sell liquid or even give it away, just to use a liquid I make at a 10th of the cost. Find a recipe you like, something you can vape all day, and buy the small bottles of flavoring and try it out. For me, it was a piña guavada clone I found here. I liked it so much, it has been my adv for a few months now. I eventually bought 4oz bottles of flavoring and am committed to making it as long as I vape.
Here is the recipe if you were wondering: https://www.reddit.com/r/DIY_eJuice/comments/3hg1vf/pina_guavsters/?