Just wondering if DIY mixers like to use brand name liquid from time to time and why. I recently ordered a bunch of flavors and also got two 60mls of Naked e juice to have in the meantime.
Thanks for your opinion!
I do, because I'll inevitably be too damn lazy to mix, and run out of liquid.
Same. I've been telling myself for a month that I need to order VG but for some reason it hasn't happened yet...
Go buy some at the drug store!
I do. I buy occasionally buy flavors so that I can clone them or make an inspired by juice. My girlfriend still buys even though I make the bulk of what she vapes. She likes the variety though. I haven't gotten to creams or deserts yet (I've been making simple fruit and menthol blends for probably 2-3 months now). The next order I place will include cream and fruit flavors though.
Pick up capella sugar cookie too. 6% sugar cookie and 3% vanilla custard and you have imo the best base for fruits with cream. You can play with the percentages but it's a great start.
Don't you guys avoid flavors with Acetoin and Acetyl Propionyl in it's formula? I DIY a lot but never buy these.
Diacetyl is the biggest concern, but even so, vaping exposes the user to a tiny fraction of the exposure from cigarettes. All three are known as diketones, and are avoided in commercial e-liquid in the interest of remaining as healthy as possible and avoiding more criticism in an already attacked industry. With diy, you are able to make that call yourself, and have a bit of a calculated risk. Personally, I still use the OG custards and creams, because the risk is minimal, but that's my choice and I wouldn't encourage anyone to use them instead of the safer options available. I also use real butter and whole milk as opposed to margarine and skim milk in my oatmeal...it all just tastes a bit better, imo.
With DIY, you can pick if it's worth the risk or not. I've only got diketone free flavorings. I'll probably get diketone free creams.
With store bought, you have no idea if they've put diacetyl or diketone containing flavorings in the juice you've bought. By making it at home, I control exactly what goes in it.
Nope, haven't bought any premixed juice in almost 2 years. I have had a urge for some NiteLite Bounty Hunter and Gold, but I resisted.
In a month it will be two years free of buying juice for me. Occasionally the desperate pleas in the clone request thread will tempt my curiosity, but then I think about how much I'd spend on the juice that could be spent on new flavors instead.
I will but it has to be something complex enough. Dragonscape from artist collection is a good example. They declared bankruptcy so it's an easier sell when a 30ml is 9.99 and it's buy one get one free.
I think a lot of premiums are over hyped in that I can make a strawberry milk or custard this or lemonade that or this cereal etc. Over hyped because I can make those things easily and probably get 90-99% of the way there.
More specifically my fave Dragonscape is listed as Indian Spice, Asian Tea, Belgian Coffee and English Custard...it's weird but it's weirdly amazing and somehow just works. You can just tell a lot of development went into it.
If you tell me a premium is the best strawberry milk I don't really care because I already have an awesome recipe for it or can find a clone or can find a good recipe for something similar that's 99% of the way there. If I tried to clone something like Dragonscape (or something that complex) it would probably come out terrible.
The only time I'll ever buy a 'premium' line is when I'm traveling and I see a local line that I want to try out. For example, I was in Texas a little while ago and there's a Texas-based company called "Hometown Heroes". It's a group of veterans that vape and mix juices according to the girl behind the counter. I don't know if any of that is true, but their Ambrosia wasn't bad. Yeah, I could probably make it. But I like finding niche little brands like that and occasionally you run into something good.
Been mixing for going on 2 years now, I only vape my own juice tbh. Not just to 'rep' my own company or anything like that, but I don't often find "premium" juice that I like more than my own. If I ever do find juices I like better I could just create something similar altered to be better suited for my own personal taste buds. This is mostly a result of being very picky on my juice, for example if I can taste the slightest amount of sweetener (Which sooo many brands are made with) then I'm instantly turned away lol. (Side note, not claiming my juice is better than all other brands - I just prefer making stuff suited specifically for my taste buds, everyone's is different after all!)
I still purchase e-liquid every once and a while. Mainly e-liquids that have a considerable amount of attention, just to see what others are up to. Though, I do wince at the thought that some people are consistently feeding their vapor habits with commercial e-liquid. It's just so damn expensive on such a gamble most of the time.
I see it like this. I'm a chef. And I eat at every damn restaurant I can get a table at, because it stimulates my creativity and I can see what other chefs are doing. Same thing applies here. I but just about every juice I can get my hands on. Some suck....some are amazing, but it helps me learn what I like and helps me identify flavors in other makers mixes. In the end...it makes you a better mixer
I buy kilo cereal milk when it's available to me. I haven't got even remotely close to a clone for it yet.
There's a pocky flavor that a store near me sells that i'll pick up every couple months. also from the same place I'll try something outside my palette or in some way different to get ideas/spark creativity.
So, I guess, I pick up certain ones to try and clone them later on.
Not to sound like a shill or anything but ejuicesteals has kilo for cheap in 0mg and since you DIY I assume you can add nicotine. They sent me some free juice as a promotion and were pleasant to deal with
iirc that'd also dilute the flavor of the juice. a good idea though.
looks like ecigempire is cheaper with nicotine included.
I only just got into DiY this past weekend. I plan for the bulk of ejuice to be my own, but I definitely plan on buying from online vendors as well. Both to help me become a better mixer and to support some of the people in the industry that deserve it. But damn I look forward to not having to rely on anyone else for juice. And while it will be nice to save some money, I really will be happy to not have to balance my juice consumption against my juice supply and delivery times, not to mention (hopefully) having consistent juices every time.
Also, just as an aside, Naked 100 Amazing Mango was always gonna be the first juice I was gonna attempt to make. I love that stuff. Still can't wait to give it a try, but had to bump it from my top spot in favor of Mother of the Gods Milk by /u/IDI0-T
I only buy pre-made liquid if I can't make a copy of a flavor that I really like and really want to vape it. Don't think I've purchased any in over a year.
I have twenty 240ml bottles that I use for mixing and mix more when I get down to a minimum of 5 left so never have to worry about running out.
I buy very little and for only two reasons.
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To support a specific local shop that is doing things right regarding service and fighting the good fight.
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My wife is the ultimate lazy vaper who doesn't know what flavors she likes, she just doesn't like what I mix. Help me out, woman. Tell me what type of flavors you like and I will work on making them. Nope, she prefers if I'll just go spend $100 to stop the complaining for a week.
Every time their is a good sale I buy my self some good ejuice from Adirondack TBD Gremlin and some others usually like 300 worth that I put in the fridge for storage over the time!
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I try out a random new juice every couple of months. Mostly for inspiration. It's never planned. Might hear some hype, see some reviews, be looking around for successful versions of my bad recipes, or a juice might just sound good. Last month I got the 5 pack of old/retired flavors from Blue Dot. A couple were really good. All of them gave me ideas for recipes. The Chocolate Old Fashioned is fucking wild. It's excellent. I don't know how they did it.
Only Bluebird. Because Bluebird is love. Bluebird is life.
> Bluebird
I'm about to buy a bottle just because of this comment. (also because $40 for a 120 is nice)
recommendations?
The juice is just called Bluebird, it has like a Bluebird on the front that looks drawn on. It's the best juice I have ever had, subtle, unique, and alot of different flavor notes. It's the only juice I can Vape for weeks without vapor tongue and every drag is just bliss. I Vape it all quick when I have it though.
I subscribed to ZampleBox for a couple of months but soon found that mixing some recipes from here or ATF are just as good if not better than what they shipped as premium. In my experience the only thing really making them premium is the price.
Zamplebox has some deadly delicious flavours, but that's like one per box.....sometimes.
I used it at one point and they sent me two loads of lemon juice flavors that all tasted almost exactly the same with different little hints of this or that. And I was incredibly anal about getting all my likes/dislikes accurate. Their algorithms must have not been designed for my specific usage.
At least at that time, I don't know if they improved their algorithm, I'm sure they had to.
I buy a few bottles of Indigo Thanksgiving weekend and try to make them last a couple months.
As the resident tobacco specialist, have you managed to come up with any DIY resembling Indigo? I have a couple tobacco recipes I really like, but every now and then I still get a craving for Eastwood or Captain Ron.
I'd be happy to buy from Indigo when they do sales, but money is tight and int'l shipping is a bitch.
The only thing I've been able to figure out with them is that Oohrah most likely uses ECX Black Mile Plus. I've read through just about every comment or thread I could find to get ideas for The Duke, and all the suggested flavors just didn't work out for me. I've seen all sorts of things suggested for it. It's led me to some great flavors, but not to The Duke.
I buy commercial eliquid occasionally just to see what the latest hype on the market is, but that is done only once or twice a year if that.
One eliquid that I do have to order, because cloning it seems like a bitch, is Milk of the Poppy by Blue Dot Vapors. Its a beautiful fruity custard that just gets better and better with age. Plus, with the name, I absolutely have to have it while watching Game of Thrones. The show wouldn't feel the same without vaping on my MotP.
Rarely...but when I do it's usually for one of the of the following reasons:
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A brand I previously enjoyed has introduced a new flavor and I want to check it out
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In the mood for a change of pace and/or just want to try something different
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I'm looking for inspiration and/or a baseline for a flavor I'm trying to create on my own
And to be honest, in most cases it's a combination of all 3 of these that play a role in my decision to by OTS.
I've also started buying Juul pods for use strictly when I need something highly discrete. They're pricey, yes, but I only use them occasionally and the pods last me for a while, so it's easier to justify the extra cost from time to time.
Only if I win a giveaway on /r/electronic_cigarette. I really like trying new things and reviewing stuff on JuiceDB, as you can see from my JuiceDB profile. So I get excited when I win stuff. But I haven't paid full price for anything since starting DIY maybe 5 months ago, give or take a month. I just have to pay the nominal price vendors are forced to make you pay thanks to the FDA regs. I'd feel bad about entering these giveaways and probably wouldn't enter the giveaways if I didn't review everything I try. But since I do review them I feel it is a win/win for myself and the vendors as I get name brand stuff for pennies on the dollar and they get exposure from my reviews. I've currently got a couple of juices from an Apothecary Elixir giveaway I won on the way.
I dont remember the last time me or my girlfriend bought juice from a store. The only reason we go into a b&m anymore is to buy batteries, new RDA's or Mods. Sometimes my friends give me bottles with like 2-3mL's left in them and ask me to clone them and most just taste like they're loaded with Sucralose.
Yep, I usually place a large order for Cereal fiend v1&2 from TBD liquids every month or two. It has such a unique savory/sweet/tart flavour that I cannot for the life of me replicate so I'm more than happy to give them my money. Plus they have the best customer service ever.
I would also buy ANML looper if it wasn't so expensive in the UK - again no DIY recipe has come close imo.
I rarely do, but I'll buy the occasional bottle when I'm up at my favorite shop and they get something new in that they're really hype on.
A shop just opened next door to my work and they carry R&D Trickz- been super tempted to grab a bottle because a) I still haven't nailed down a good DIY Trix flavor and b) it's now $25/60ml where it used to be $25/30ml, but I'm scared it won't be as good as I remember it.