If you hang around here long enough you will see someone saying, "You shouldn't buy random flavors for DIY. Instead, buy flavors for highly reviewed recipes."
That is great advice that will save you time, money, and frustration. Fuck that though we gonna put the Y in DIY, or "How to buy random flavors" w/ your ol' pal BobbySavage.
This is not aimed at the Pokemon Masters of DIY that gotta catch 'em all. More so for the new kids on the block trying to maximize bang for buck while creating their own recipes.
If you need something that just works now as cheap as possible, this probably isnt the best route. Check out this guide instead
#Buying
Don't buy a flavor just because it sounds good based on manufacturer's description. If you are going to buy random flavors you want to have an idea of how you will use them. So ask yourself...
- What specific recipes/flavor profiles will I be making?
- What flavors will go into that recipe? research examples if necessary.
- Can this flavor have uses in other recipes (is it versatile)?
The more obscure a flavor is: the less likely you will use it when playing around. Don't let that stop you though. It is something to keep in mind for those on a budget.
Alright so you got your ingredient list and more tabs open in Chrome than your RAM knows what to do with.
Start narrowing down your flavors based on...
- reviews,
- compatibility/interchangeability,
- and budget if possible.
I don't mean just 1 obscure review on BullCity or www.ecigexpress.com/. Look for reviews by people you trust, or highly reviewed flavors on BCV/ECX/ELR . Also use the sidebar here, www.e-liquid-recipes.com, google, and www.AlltheFlavors.com. The french and italians love their DIY as well, so dont be afraid to use google translate or other diy sites.
>"Searchbar problems? Try simplifying.
>If you want to search for information, try cutting it down some when you enter it in the search bar.
>Are you looking for an aloe vera fruity recipe? Try searching for JUST aloe in the search bar. Don't complicate your searches. If you have a complicated search, try Google. Type the following command into Google:
aloe site:reddit.com/r/DIY_eJuice
>This will help you bring up a LOT of threads, which might give you the answer you're looking for."
That's all abdada's great advice.
Think of your mix and what you want to stand out, the primary flavor(s). Then a combination to modify it with, the secondary flavor(s). Then the additives to modify those 2-3 forefront flavors. An example of this would be Seduce Juice's Snake Venom
Snake Venom
- Peach (primary)
- Cream (secondary)
- Coconut (additive)
simple but effective/delicious
Peach, Coconut, and Creams are great interchangeable flavors as well. You can switch out the peach for apple or pear. Same goes for the coconut which is interchangeable with other fruit flavors like that apple or pear now at a lower percentage.
Don't limit yourself to one or two brands. Try (in no particular order) Flavour Art, Flavorah, Inawera, Hangsen, Jungle Flavors, TFA, etc... in 10mL sample sizes. You can buy more 10mL flavors for the same price of some 30ml size you may or may not like. If you can afford to, buy multiple brands of whatever random flavor you may be on the hunt for.
Make your order and expect some disappointment. How much were you spending on eliquid a month anyways? ~20$ per bottle. You can probably get 5-10 flavors for that much.
Hopefully you bought 10mL samples so you only lose a cpl bucks when you throw some nasty shit away, or never end up using it.
Hopefully you have a liter+ of VG/PG to play around with, because you will probably be throwing VG away if you can afford to. EssentialDepot has some great deals like the glycube and on 2gal orders of VG and PG.
#Mixing
I am assuming you have 5-20+ bottles for samples/recipes. This tutorial is not about gear. This one is though
Make single flavor samples in various percentages with no nicotine. Then taste those flavors immediately and/or in 1-2wks.
Start low on the flavor percent so you dont leave a bad taste in your mouth (figuratively and literally) for that flavor.
0.1-1% may be all you need of a flavor. Some are stronger than others. If you go too high you may get some weird chemical or perfumey off flavors.
Take notes on everything you do, so you can reproduce that recipe. If it didn't work still take notes so you know where to go from there.
After that: blend 2 flavors together so you know how they will interact with each other. Start with the most prominent flavors first, and work your way down to the additives after that. Use the notes you took.
You may need to make multiple batches with different ratios of flavor1:flavor2. TAKE NOTES
Once you get two flavors fine tuned, add in the 3rd. TAKE NOTES Fine tune those 3 then add the 4th if necessary etc.
Your recipes may taste different over time so let them age to homogenize.
If your recipes are not coming out how you like after much trial and error, it may be time to buy another version of that flavor. Go to the top and start over again.
Once you have some ADV recipes, then you can start buying the more obscure flavors. I still try to inform myself before making any purchase. Anyone interested in tobacco should search "tobacco". Later and congrats to the new mods.
I didn't start DIY by buying concentrates for well-established recipes. I started by doing this shit right here: thinking about the kinds of profiles I wanted to create and researching specfic concentrates to suit those ends. Once you get those flavors in and get to know them, the creative process can build from there and your list of useable, versatile concentrates fills out, thus informing your process and list of potential profiles, and so on. In most of my current creations, I still use an ingredient or so from my first major flavor order and I have a pretty decent amount of concentrates to choose from at this point. That is just a testament to the recursive nature of my process.
Now where I get sidelined (and I feel many can relate to this) is when I go buy concentrates for the sole purpose of mixing someone else's recipe and I end up with a pile of 10mls that I barely touch. Then I have to go and retroactively consider what I might do with them. This can be fun and rewarding, but it is no exercise for a beginner.
Good shit, OP.
Whenever it seems appropriate to do so, I strongly encourage new mixers not to do this shit right here. To save them time, money, and frustration, as Bobbysavage pointed out. But if ordering flavors this way creates more mixers like you, maybe it's not such a bad thing, after all.
As someone who started out mixing FA Grape Concord with FA Fresh Cream (unflavored juice is MUCH, MUCH better) I can see how your approach would help a lot.
As someone who doesn't like 9 out of 10 well regarded mixes I've found (and bought a lot of concentrates for that I'll probably never use again) I'd have to say we're all fucked and we should probably start out by buying every single flavor to save time and hassle.
<3
It really comes down to who the person is, what they want to invest, and what they want to get out of DIY. If the intention is to simply vape on the cheap for now and maybe dabble with creation a bit later, it is perfectly reasonable to advise the initiate to shop for recipes as if they were searching ECR for some tasty juice to order.
I also tell them in the very same breath to single-flavor test those flavors that they buy for recipes, to get a feel for them, so they'll be making informed decisions when they decide to tweak those shopped-for recipes for their own palates or get creative and build their own from scratch.
I'm all about helping people become mixers, zero interest in making just recipe-followers. The only question is, where to advise them to begin this journey?
Hahaha my first orders were almost all crappy tobacco flavors. My favorite liquids got cancelled, so I had to jump in the deep end.
Oh well necessity is the mother of invention: meanwhile I'm trying to invent necessity for the other half of my flavors.
Exactly me. I only got like 1 maybe 2 flavors I actively DONT like using, and once I get them low enough I plan to throw them away or give them away. I have a friend who wants to put the flavorings in their wax melter for smelliness.
Plus I'm minimialistic person. I hate having too many choices. Right now I have Vanilla Custard, French Vanilla, Simply Vanilla, & Vanilla Bourbon.
I can give the custard a pass, but the other three, no reason to have all three.
/u/skiddlzninja or anyone else feel free to use this for your mixing guide or add on your advice.
I'm still going to tell new mixers not to buy random flavors, in an effort to minimize their early frustration and expense, but for those who just won't listen to that, I think this is stupendous advice. Thank you very much for taking the time to share it.
I will keep updanking you, and suggesting the same thing. I suppose this is more for "newer hobbyists."
I think we're on the same page. The advice against buying random flavors (at least when given by me) is for the brand-new, first-order newbs. I also tell them to, right from the start, single-flavor test those flavors that they buy for recipes, so they'll know what they're doing when they want to tweak recipes or get creative and build their own from scratch. This post of yours really kicks in as excellent and especially relevant advice for second-order and beyond, once they've gotten their wicks wet.
Hey Bobby you missed the - in e-liquid-recipes.com so the link doesn't work. Absolutely brilliant post though any chance I could put it in my group documents on DIY Recipe Share Group on facebook for members to read.
Wow these are really great guides, I have just ran across these after already spending a couple weeks reading through all the reviews on ecigexpress and saving lists of flavors I want to try and then reprioritizing those and making little notes by them so now with your tips I'm well on my way to starting a little collection and doing the homebrew thing though I said a year ago I'd never do it. Never always comes along so quickly it seems!
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NOTE: in order to keep this sub clean and searchable, please read the following-
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If this post is questioning where to buy supplies, what flavors to buy, how to mix, or any other general questions, please delete this post and post in the weekly "New Mixers Questions" link in the sidebar.
-
If this post is requesting a clone recipe, please delete this post and use the monthly "Clone Requests" link in the sidebar.
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If this post is regarding what you can make with your flavorings, please delete this post and use the "Suggest a Recipe for Me" link in the sidebar.
If your post does not meet any of this criteria, it still may be subjected to utmost scrutiny. Please take some time to read through our wiki and other valuable mixing information in the sidebar if you haven't already. Failure to follow sub rules may result in a ban. Cheers, and happy mixing!
I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.