Last week I wrote a "Guide to buying random flavors and recipe building." I probably should have titled it "How to buy/mix random flavors," but life is too short for coffee creamer. Frankly, I probably should have written this first as well, however my time was limited.
My goal was to help out newer mixers, as well as to help people save money (and it still is).
This week im back with logical increments of buying DIY gear. If you want to get into DIY eliquid, have $25, $35, $45, $65, 100$+ to spend, and/or are not sure what to buy; here are my thoughts on how to spend your money more effectively.
At the very least here is what you will need:
- Nicotine (free samples obtainable from Nude Nicotine and Liquid Barn I believe)
- Vegetable Glycerin (VG)
- Propylene Glycol (PG) [optional]
- Flavors from acceptable manufacturers/vendors
- Bottles (preferably new glass)
- A way to measure liquids (syringes/needles or scale/funnel)
- using syringes is known as: "mixing by volume." using a scale: "mixing by weight"
Here's how it works:
- Find highly reviewed recipes or flavors on www.E-Liquid-Recipes.com, www.alltheflavors.com, or here.
- Find your Tier/Price Bracket on the spreadsheet
- Then go horizontally across that price bracket's color coded section to find essential diy gear/best value for your $
- Find closest vendor(s)
- E. Coast = Bull City Flavors, Wizard Labs, and Carolina Extract .
- W. Coast = Ecig Express, Gremlin DIY, and Nude Nicotine.
- Add appropriate items/flavors from appropriate categories/vendor(s) to your cart.
- Mix and match tiers if more economical but, try to hit free shipping for items like VG,Nicotine,Bottles from vendors
- compare/buy/window shop/ or wait for sales
- brush up on the concept of calculating percentages by volume while your package is on the way, or familiarize yourself with eliquid specific calculators like http://dot1ml.com/mixer or www.e-liquid-recipes.com
- visit DIYorDIE.com or via youtube for some awesome how to/hands on videos and content
#Nicotine
Never buy nicotine with a concentration strength greater than 100mg/ml. Pure nicotine 999mg/ml is a dangerous chemical that should be handled only by professionals.
There are guides on here
I highly recommend Carolina Extract.
#Flavor Selection (work in progress)
If you saw "Guide to buying random flavors and recipe building," I mentioned 5 different, interchangeable, and versatile flavors. If you plan on creating your own recipes, now would be a good time to check it out, otherwise it can wait until another day. It is advised to find highly reviewed recipes and buy the ingredients for those.
My first 7-12 flavors if I cld start over would be:
- TFA Juicy Peach and/ or TFA Pear
- TFA Bavarian Cream V1 and/or FA Vienna Cream
- FA or INW Coconut (Either one)
- INW Double Apple (two apples) and/or FA FUJI
- TFA Vanilla Swirl
- FlavourArt Strawberry or TFA Strawberry Ripe
- CAP Vanilla Custard v1 and/or INW Creme Brulee (if you like that sort of thing)
- TFA Cheesecake Graham Crust not the regular cheesecake!
- TFA Vanilla Bean Ice Cream
Taste is subjective though
Flavor Abbreviations
- TFA = The Flavor Apprentice
- FA = FlavourArt
- INW = Inawera
- FLV = Flavorah
- CAP = Capella's
All 7-12 flavors Ive stated are very different, interchangeable, and versatile. Order your' first flavor orders in 5-10ml sample sizes.
TFA and fruit flavors seem to be the easiest to work with. Other brands or flavor profiles may require a lighter touch, more research, and experimentation.
With that, I cld make recipes similar to Seduce Juice's Snake Oil, Snake Venom, Snake Bite and Vanilla Custard flavor. As well as "mustard milk" and perhaps strawberry cheesecake, strawberries n cream, individual 2 flavor mixes of Vanilla Swirl and probably every single flavor on that list. If that doesnt sound good, find some recipes on ELR. Here are mine
suggested recipes/users include but not limited to:
- "mustard milk" by /u/fizzmustard
- /u/enyawreklaw - you can buy concentrates of his recipes at ecigexpress.com just add flavor base to nic/vg and you're good to go
- /u/botboy141 /u/skiddlzninja & /u/notcharlesmanson recipes
- /u/tranceinate is also G'd up from the feet up there are so many awesome mixers out there I have/haven't had the pleasure of speaking with (y'all know Im thinking/talking about you). To list them all would be close to impossible.
- /u/queuetue
- me
- /u/id10-t /u/nicobeak /u/vurve /u/t_mace /u/baphomet /u/leapinglabrats /u/runtdastardly /u/chemicalburnvictim
#Scale Selection
- First and foremost you want something that weighs in 0.01(hundredth) increments of a gram.
- There are multiple models of the AWS LB501 do not choose the 0.1G version
- Cheaper hundredth scales exist on amazon or ebay, and most likely will work fine however the AWS LB501 has features others leave to be desired.
- You may or may not need pipettes, syringes, or a funnel to transfer nicotine even with a scale
#General Information
>Starter Kits: Vendors sometimes offer starter kits that include all the essential DIY gear/flavors, sold at a small discount if you buy them together. The total price is often reduced by x%. It is generally not recommended to buy these, because if you do your homework you can shop more efficiently.
>Buy what you will use: People sometimes buy more flavor than they really need or skimp when they need to spend on other materials. If you don't know how a flavor will taste only buy sample sizes of it. That way you can reallocate money into in a larger amount of VG, Nicotine, bottles, and/or larger variety of smaller flavors
>Future-proofing This is primarily for first orders, and how to spend your money most effectively. Sooner or later you will make a 2nd order at which point I advise buying even more flavors or larger quantities of flavors you know you like. Taste is subjective
>For DIY eliquid, a good value strategy: is to hit free shipping price points, and buy in bulk when appropriate.
>Prices: Prices shown are a conservative estimate. Vendors often give discounts on certain items for limited periods of time (holidays). Total prices generally include shipping or taxes, but may not. Ultimately, how much you will spend is up to you.
>Outside USA: These shopping lists are tiered prices in the US. Elsewhere, the price differences might affect which is the best component in that tier.
>Remember: Take all "internet forum advice" with a grain of salt. Do your own research to find out what best suits your needs.
>Seriously: No one cares more about you than you yourself, so do not get tricked into getting something that you will regret.
>#Limitations of this Guide
>Good stuff: This guide is good when it comes to recommending products that give you good "bang for your buck." That means not including some excellent, but overpriced, alternatives.
>This guide is good for buying DIY eLiquid orders that have an optimal balance of convenience, flavors, and price/value. This means that none of the shopping lists are too disproportionate (hopefully/still editing).
>Some considerations: This guide is NOT good for those who insist on buying absolute cheapest. Sometimes one vendor is dominant, and in those cases I will recommend lots of items from them. But I don’t sell my recommendations. They are based on what I think is best.
>This guide is also not ideal for those looking for cloning where the intention is to get 1:1 clone. That is over here....(prolly wont be 1:1) or at /r/DIFM_ejuice
>Note: Once again it must be stressed that this is only a guide. Neither this nor a thousand other guides can substitute you doing your own research, and getting what is best for you.
>If you like something recommended here, please take the time to read up on why it is good when compared to other alternatives, and purchase it only if you are satisfied with the comparison.
>Need Help? >What to do: >If you need help, try searching the sidebar, google, and www.e-liquid-recipes.com,
>If you are asking for help on a recipe, please do not post a wall of vague poorly formatted words. Instead, take a screenshot of your shopping cart/recipe and add:
- Your budget
- Your intended flavor profile
- Your current recipe and what did/didn't work including flavor manufacturer
>If you want help, please make it easy for others to help you. Also, feel free to post any questions or requests for help here or in our "Weekly: New Mixer's Questions" thread!
>Feel free to share/copy/paste/print this rough draft. Try to leave a link back here to reddit or mention /r/diy_ejuice possible. If not I love you anyways. Please note this is in beta and disregard any typos, errors, or comic sans you may notice.
In the flavor purchasing section a couple adds that I found invaluable at my mixing start.
Vanilla bean ice cream/gelato: pretty much this plus a fruit = decent...it's a polarizing flavor though some folks hate it and taste pepper, others find it invaluable, but as a newbie it's a good 30ml purchase at the very least.
some sort of cinnamon: ceylon is a good one, but cinnamon danish fits well too. A little cinnamon can make fruits pop. Important to start super low though as it can quickly get overpowering. Flv Rich Cinnamon is good. It's expensive but you barely use any of it to get the cinnamon effect.
Marshmallow: can give a nice mouthfeel for juices that feel flat in my experience.
Valid points, I kicked around the idea of vbic/gelato. However you are correct:
- I've noticed VBIC is either love or hate.
- Ive have gelato, but have sampled neither.
I recommend all beginners buy sample flavors in the smallest size available but highly recommend people doing so because of this flavor's notorious attribute that some people taste pepper.
If 3-5$ doesnt lower the amount of different flavorings or gear you can buy: Gamble on some 30mls . Not everyone perceives taste the same way though, which is why I definitely recommend picking up 3 different 10mls samples for roughly the same price if budget is a concern. (Just my opinion)
Order2 or 3 is where I suggest buying 30ml of personally known good tasting flavors, or a lot of different 10mls. I dont think either of us are wrong or correct about that, its all subjective preferences.
The flavors are all personal taste, however I agree with you and think you made some great choices. Thank you for the input, I appreciate the info
Awesome work man, truly a savage!
Thanks G. When this post gets buried we still have a quick reference for "Weekly: New Mixers Questions thread" :P
Thoughts:
Probably could lighten up on all the warnings if this is a guide specific to Logical Price increments, stay off the idea that this is a guide to starting to DIY. Theres enough of those and none of these. So stay on point. Cut out all the fat to keep it simple.
Maybe don't do it in PDF form? Doing it in reddit itself sucks... Possibly a google drive document? Or does DIY_eJuice have a wiki?
I love the idea of giving choices for the flavor selections, giving similar choices, but not quite. I would give choices that are more different in some places though. Like the difference between FA Coconut vs INW Coconut wouldn't make sense to a new person. However maybe Coconut vs Cactus... I'm assuming Coconut is used to add juiciness to flavors, maybe? Not certain.
But Bavarian Cream vs Vienna Cream, perfect! They both provide the same function in a recipe and are very different flavorings and work very differently. Possibly give three choices for each?
Add a fluff (Meringue, Marshmallow)
Anyways, LOOOOOVE the way you recommend the first flavors. Possibly for the fruits give like 5 choices and do a "Choose 3"
I think you make some great points.
I started thinking about the worst case scenario DIY posts Ive seen and may have got a lil carried away with the warnings. You're right though
The .pdf format is almost as bad formatting Reddit tables. I couldnt make Google do what I wanted it to and was being lazy.
Think about it though .pdf + comic sans = DIY anti piracy (until editing takes place then its free). I would definitely question the integrity of the source, if someone linked me a rainbow spreadsheet, written in comic sans, via PDF, about DIY eliquid :P
I like the idea about the flavors That is definitely for people on a budget, that don't want to take many chances. I was thinking about going so far as to pick out decent recipes that are easy and be like "Here: pick from these recipes based on amount of different flavorings you can buy. Here are 2,3,4, and 5 ingredient recipes." Maybe we can do both the current format (but better) and handpicked recipes.
The FA/INW Coconut are almost interchangeable IMO. Perhaps we could denote that like
(interchangeable) FA/INW Coconut or INW Cactus.
I use Coconut Flavors as additives to modify lead flavor combos.
- 2%FA Fuji or 4%FA Double Apple or 4% TFA Juicy Peach
- 1%FA Vienna Cream and/or 2-3% TFA Bavarian cream
- 0.2-0.5% FA or INW coconut
The lactones make mixes slightly creamy or full at lower percentages [0.1%-0.5%], and play well with a lot of other fruits, while offering a nice surprise. I feel like INW' Coconut s is juicy-er than FA's though.
INW Cactus adds a different kind of juiciness nuance to fruit mixes. I would use it in the same way as coconut[0.1%-0.3%] , with an even lighter hand to achieve a different effect.
Thanks for the advice!
I'm new to this and this is the best beginner guide I've found by far. Amazing work.