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
- Vegetable Glycerin (VG)
- Propylene Glycol (PG) [optional]
- Flavors from acceptable manufacturers/vendors
- Bottles (preferably new/glass)
- A way to measure/move 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 (BCV), Wizard Labs (WL).
- W. Coast = Ecig Express (ECX), Gremlin DIY. (Gremlin)
- 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 (https://www.reddit.com/r/DIY_eJuice/comments/3lu9gx/nicotine_need_to_know_all_your_questions_answered/)
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.
Alternatively you can buy a premade "recipe base" which contains all the required ingredients in their respective percentages in one bottle. All you have to do is add nicotine separately and dilute the base down to the recommended percent. Here are DIYorDIE's http://www.ecigexpress.com/shop/diy-e-liquid/diyordie-concentrates.html (a great way to get into DIY eliquid and not have to worry about buying individual flavors)
My first 7-12 flavors if I cld start over would be:
- TFA Juicy Peach and/ or TFA Pear
- TFA Pear
- TFA Bavarian Cream V1 and/or FA Vienna Cream
- FA or INW Coconut (basically the same)
- FA FUJI and or INW Double Apple (two apples)
- TFA Vanilla Swirl
- FlavourArt Strawberry
- 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 or Vanilla Gelato
- Flavour Art Kiwi
- FA or FLV Caramel
Taste is subjective though. That's just like my opinion man
Abbreviations
Major Flavor Manufacturers:
- TFA = The Flavor Apprentice (flavor manufacturer)
- FA = FlavourArt (flavor manufacturer)
- INW = Inawera (flavor manufacturer)
- FLV = Flavorah (flavor manufacturer)
- CAP = Capella's (flavor manufacturer)
- FLV = Flavorah
Less popular Manufacturers (still good):
- FLV = Flavorah
- JF = jungle flavors (ECX's flavor brand)
- RF = Real Flavors (flavor manufacturer)
- Lotus = medicine flower rebranded (flavor manufacturer)
- RF = Real Flavors (flavor manufacturer)
- RF = Real Flavors (flavor manufacturer)
- Lotus = medicine flower rebranded (flavor manufacturer)
All 7-12 flavors Ive stated are very different, interchangeable, versatile, and are well reviewed. 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. Don't let that discourage you though.
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
Here is a great mixing by weight guide https://www.reddit.com/r/DIY_eJuice/comments/2iq3km/botboy141_guide_to_mixing_by_weight/_
#General Information - Hints - Extra
>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.
>Common Mistakes
https://www.reddit.com/r/DIY_eJuice/comments/5mni72/my_first_order_mistakes_critique/
>#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 post every recipe you have sampled and try to explain what did or did not work on that variation.
In doing so we all become better mixer's
>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
I realize this is a lot of information so in case anyone missed it here is the spread sheet again
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1dUKPBT7RzUd-xFMILa7M6aLdMvCv3DeEJ7-3mTWxs64/edit#gid=1205950701
here is the link with comments to the beta version of this post
https://www.reddit.com/r/DIY_eJuice/comments/56xk8p/logical_increments_of_diy_gear_beta/
>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.
Side note: Sorry I couldn't get this out for time Black Friday/Cyber Monday. Better late than never
12/7/16
But why is my juice harsh? I ordered from the cheapest vendor, yet everything I make burns my throat and tastes like pepper. I'm not going to post any recipes, but would someone tell me why my cheap nicotine sucks ass?
EDIT: I'm also brand new to DIY and haven't read the sidebar or bothered with the search function. Can someone tell me what recipe to make for my ADV?
I'm curious why you put FA Kiwi up there, I haven't used it yet, and I just don't know what to put it with. Actually I just pulled it out and smelled it, and it smells like some japanese candy. I can't exactly remember what kind though but it brings me back to when I was younger for sure. I'm gonna mix this up with some candy flavoring now.....
Edit: wow i'm pretty retarded, I realized a little under a half of the bottle was gone and forgot I had actually used this in some recipes lmao. Work must've just made me all sorts of screwed up.
Have you saw the top voted recipe in November's thread? Here's another simple but great use for it:
FA Kiwi 4%
TFA Toasted Marshmallow 2%
TFA Kentucky Bourbon 2%
And it does go great with Shisha Strawberry, at a 1:2 ratio of kiwi to strawberry.
Fuck thank you for mentioning that, I forgot.
FA kiwi has become a known banger recently
Haha case in point.
Try 2% fa kiwi with 4 % fa strawberry in 50/50
Shieeeet I don't have any PG, I'm pretty sensitive, but it doesn't really effect the taste for me, also no FA Strawberry, I'm stuck on Shisha and recently got TFA but I'm not too fond of TFA, I do enjoy most of FA's fruits though. They seem more on the realistic side, but can also include some dryness or harshness needing the backing of another flavor with the same profile. Like FA Mango and CAP Sweet Mango.
I did however mix Kiwi with Fuji and the FA Mad Mix to make a pretty good kiwi Redbull flavor, I really want to try and do all of their fruit flavors. I just don't have cranberry which I don't think I've tried that redbull. I'm rambling....I'm just tired I think. Great writeup though, if my friends ever get into mixing I'll definitely direct them here, but until then their lazy asses are just gonna be getting juice from me. xD
Try it with whatever strawberry you like at it's respective percent. That's the beauty of this DIY stuff. I only mention 50/50 bc if you use max vg you may have to raise your percentage to get the same effect.
I love to hear people ideas, so no worries m9.
<3
I got this years ago @ a party but its too small now, seems fitting (pun intended) https://jojoelectro.com/all-products/trance-armstrong/
May want to add SC as Super concentrate, LB as Liquid Barn, FE as ECX Chinese re-brand, MB as Molin Berry, HS as Hangsen and LA as LorAnns to the abbreviations section. Just a thought :) or for anyone reading this!
Epic guide. A link to this should be included in the weekly new mixers thread.
Excellent! I just started several weeks ago and have placed several orders for flavors based on recipes I find in here and e-liquid recipes.com. I found sorting by the popularity on e-liquid recipe.com is a great way to weed through the 1,000 located in that sight. However, that caused me to go a little crazy on my initial flavor purchases... I think I have over 100 and I've only been mixing for 2 weeks! This brings me to my question for you... what would you recommend as a storage container or organizer for al your equipment and flavors? I was thinking a hanging rack designed for nail polish bottles, but I thought I'd get your opinion.
TIA
even 100mg/ml nic can hospitalize you fyi. If this is aimed at beginners i'd clearly state that gloves should be worn and even a face mask is recommended. Its a serious poison not meant to be sold for home use. All the nicotine vendors sell laboratory grade nic.
That is true however, this is a part 1 of 3 and only pertains to DIY gear and not handling of any liquids. I agree [10% Nicotine solutions] can be dangerous if mishandled, but at this point my main concern is making sure people don't buy a chemical much more dangerous. I've seen it happen more than once
Gloves are recommended in the spreadsheet and available from the recommended vendors.
Any nicotine vendor worth their weight will have warnings all over their website and bottles. I also don't want to scare people off. Lower concentrations of nicotine are available (to anyone else wondering.)
All spills should be cleaned up immediately, but that is also noted on my bottle of Carolina Extract (no affiliation)
Appropriate warnings will be in the appropriate places and my time is limited. Fortunately I have ppl like yourself and cloudCRAFT3RS to fill in the blanks for me (not sarcasm)
Thank you for pointing that out.
Thanks so much again! :-) But I'm a bit confused, the great WIP went from beta to alpha? (I'm used to version-stages that go forward: alpha > beta > etc.)
youre right i got confused hectic couple of months fuck it
edit: now I can just be like "it's in alpha bro"
Haha you took my shout out off ; ( lol
Yea brother no problem. I know when I started I thought you needed pg so I bought a 70/30 premix with 3mg and I would add about 15% flavor and it was always so runny and thin. So I stopped buying premade and just bought vg nicotine and flavors (nic and flavors in pg) and most my recipes call for between 5/15% flavor with that and the nicotine it will make your mix a good 80/20 with out the need of pg.
Also if your not using a calculator and your using syringes I recommend filling the ejuice bottle first with nicotine and flavors than buy your self a ketchup Despenser bottle (.99cents at Walmart) fill bottle with the flavors and nic and just top it off with vg no need to measure the vg just fill the 30ml to the top leaving a air bubble. Makes it alot easyier
Awesome write up I wish I had this when I started thanks brotha
Mind if we sidebar this? Very nicely done, and I've only skimmed it so far.
Beat me to it by 11 minutes, probably because I did read the whole thing. Definitely needs to be sidebarred.
Goddamn, /u/BobbySavage, this is beautiful. This sub and especially the people in it who take the time to repeatedly answer the questions this covers owe you a huge debt of gratitude.
o and maybe you can also help with this
>can we get this thrown in this under the compilations section please
>and can we get
>/u/nicobeak /u/t_mace /u/baphomet /u/chemicalburnvictim /u/SolanaceaeEnthusiast the "resident tobacco specialist flair" as well please if they dont have it already. They deserve it as much or more than me
It doesnt all have to be done today but ive been thinking about that for a while
Anything for you, Mr. Savage. Taking care of the compilations immediately and then adding this to the sidebar if Kirkt doesn't beat me to it. But can we first make sure that those individuals want "resident tobacco specialist flair?" They might not wish to be typecast.
For sure do it up
can we get this thrown in this under the compilations section please
and can we get
/u/nicobeak /u/t_mace /u/baphomet /u/chemicalburnvictim /u/SolanaceaeEnthusiast the "resident tobacco specialist flair" as well please if they dont have it already.
It doesnt all have to be done today but ive been thinking about that for a while
Great write up for people taking the plunge.
I personally am not a big fan of TFA juicy peach. I find it can become harsh if it is a primary fruit in the recipe.
TFA Strawberry Ripe and TFA Strawberry at a 3:2 or a 2:1 ratio is the base I use for a lot of recipes. Very versatile.
Few things though because if it gets sidebar action lazy might follow it dead on instead of doing 30 hours of research like most of us but will get turned off right away because of those start up costs.
PG/VG - 42oz essential depot for $12 on Amazon, done move on because you'll get killed on shipping at every place and it's 98% all the same and doesn't make a difference unlike Nicotine.
American Weigh Scales LB-501 scale is what pretty much all of us use as it's great. Weight is the only way to go compared to that old archaic form as it's easier and more effective. Amazon has that scale for $25 on sale but Ebay always has it for under $30.
Pipettes: https://www.amazon.com/Plastic-Transfer-Pipettes-Gradulated-Pack/dp/B00Y4BMJC8 - you use for the nicotine and then just toss them when you're done instead of syringes. The 10-15ml plastic bottles will be a total mess and you'll have liquid all over your scale especially if you didn't know to heat up the VG and have a good bottle that it comes out properly, even then it can be tricky to start off with glass bottles, especially 30ml that have a nice wide top and you'll have no problems.
You push wizard a lot but Nude/Vapor is well regarded (maybe 8:1 more than Wizard) and not crazy expensive like Carolina too, maybe mention that nude gives out a free 15ml sample but you do have to pay $3 for shipping.
The 2 things most of us totally screw up and you covered one. For flavoring never ever get a 30ml to start even though it's cheap because you just don't understand how much that really is. I'd just go to GremlinDIY use 10% off code ELRECIPES same for bull/ecig - Get the little 5ml's and that includes FA but also the great INW for $2 too instead of starting with TFA then venturing out like most. Bull/Ecig might have cheaper TFA/FW/Cap etc... though so check all 3 and they are all amazing places.
Try good single flavors or 2 deep so if you like a menthol maybe INW's Mixed/Natural Mint with Koolada or Menthol, because mixing 5 deep off the bat forever you'll never learn: https://www.reddit.com/r/DIY_eJuice/comments/584v77/nothing_is_wrong_with_single_flavors/ -- You'll then see that ELR's people are crazy with everybody mixing at 15-25% The only good thing about that site nowdays is the notes section to get knowledge but also the create a recipe calculator.
Don't go nuts on clones because I didn't like any that were posted here, that French Site, ECF etc... I went off of the old school list that's years old here but I'm sure people have done a better job and the monthy recipe threads are probably the best place to hit for recipes. The bad clones, which I couldn't vape any of them they were so bad put me off for many months on DIY because I thought I was going to have great juice and it was the opposite. It was also the first trap a lot of us fell into with buying so many flavorings at the start because we had a list of what to make right away as I did literally 20 off the bat in one sitting my first go. So if you have 8 clones in mind you could be looking at 25+ flavorings easy, then you end up with flavorings you'll never use again in your life.
Bottles Bottles Bottles. Whatever you think you need double or triple it. Get some big plastic bottles for your VG/PG also and a nozzle or ketchup like bottle for the VG if you can find it, I know Amazon doesn't have a great selection. If you're getting 120ml or more of Nicotine get glass bottles with a cap, not the dripper, because that's what you'll need when you split it and put it in the freezer. I had 60ml of Vaportek's nic in two 30ml glass bottles with drippers, was ready to mix and when I took them out it was bone dry.
$25 scale, $3 nic, $24 pg/vg, $2 pipettes, maybe $15 flavorings, $1 gloves, $12 bottles. That way you can go in cheap and see if it's for you because most drop around $150-200+ easy. If you give up at least you have good scale to weigh your drugs or supplements at a .001 level.
Nude nicotine is shit they aren't even in the verified vendors list. Their customer service is subpar. There is a reason their Black Friday ad was removed. I had to remove them from this guide they actually drove me re-do this list without them on it
Carolina extract is 2 more dollars than wizard lab. Excluding shipping however if you're hitting the price point where cxtc is in play you shldnt have o pay shipping for the other supplies
Also a liter is physically way less than an gallon* for half the price and way more shipping In the long the long run. Buy once cry once is the anthem for this guide. Most bang for buck is a stated goal