I have been mixing juice since day 1 of vaping, but mostly just used other peoples recipes. For the lasts months I have pretty much only dealt with one shots. I haven't been too bothered with getting into mixing in terms of creating my own recipes. If I'm going to start making my own recipes, I want to be good at it. To be good, I feel like you really need to put in some work in terms of: testing each flavor, combining some flavors to see how they work with each other, standalone flavor notes, recipe notes and a bunch of other stuff to either write or test.
Personally I can't be bothered doing all that atm which doesn't really motivate me to create my own recipes because I don't like starting doing something but only putting 10% effort in. If I starting doing something, I want to be good at it and that requires time and effort that I don't have.
Do you feel the same when it comes to creating your own recipes, or are you fine with minimal effort? I feel like I'm going away from mixing my own recipes to using one shots. They are still extremely cheap and amazingly good.
This might be a competitive thing where I just have to be able to make good recipes if I ever want to start creating my own recipes. It needs to be good enough to the point where I wouldn't mind vaping it instead of just buying one shots.
I think you know yourself quite well, but it also sounds like you've got the bug. Get your feet wet, start by tweaking someone else's recipes. Take your favorite recipe, and adjust it to your liking. One thing I've found is that different atomizers produces flavors differently. So tinker with a recipe that works best for your hardware and your software (your sense of taste/smell). Don't get so caught up with what everyone else thinks, that's something for another time and place. Do it for yourself and no body else.
Don't overestimate how intense it has to be. You can spend an hour one day mixing up a couple dozen single flavor tests, then you literally just wait a week. Requires no intervention. Then you can vape on stuff while you're doing other things and take notes as it's convenient. A lot of the juice making process is waiting around for juice to mature. You can definitely make it a full time job if you get obsessed, but you can still put in a decent amount of effort passively during your day.
Depends on why people got into DIY. To save money, one shots are fine. I prefer a wide variety so I dont get bored or keep vape tongue.
Im fine if my recipes arent super premium. Im new to it and Im still enjoying myself and saving money.
I will keep getting better through trial and error....at my own pace. You can compete with yourself all you want....that is the best wsy to learn.
Making your own recipe is about the ability to get everything just the way you want it, that is the beauty but also the challenge of it. It's harder to know what flavors to adjust, add or replace if you don't know how they taste individually. But not impossible, just harder, resulting in more failures.
The very idea is daunting as hell if you have a lot of concentrates, so just pick a few you really like and stick to them. Have a profile in mind before you start, then try to get as close to it as possible. It will take some attempts, but you'll learn a lot in the process and find out if it's for you.
I generally wing it. I make 100ml every 2 or so weeks, and if I want to try something I might look it up on e-liquid and do some half assed math.
8/10 batches come out pretty good, the other 2, I usually have to add a little more flavor, or more Nic to get the throat hit.
I'm the same way. I know what flavor profiles I like, i know my ADVs that I need on hand constantly. Outside of that, I'm simply winging it and experimenting with new mixes. I've never made single flavor testers (it seems like a waste of bottles & ingredients to me) so I just experiment mostly with different variations of simple mixes to see how flavors interact, and adjust for the next mix. I follow the average % in mixes that shows up on ELR and ATF, unless I know I want a certain flavor to take front and center or another to be a little less present, and it hasnt really given me anything completely unvapeable... except anything with FA maple pecan, jesus it just fucking annihilates anything you mix it with no matter how little you use.
I've come up with some really really good mixes that I absolutely love but it's never felt like a chore or like I have to challenge myself. Sometimes it just takes a little extra brain power and time to prep the process and recipe.
Do you stick to any sorta guidelines? I'm about to do the same thing haha
Not really lol. I think about what I'm in the mood for, come up with an idea of how many ml's of flavor I would need.
Add usually 5-8mls of solo, or guess what's needed for a double recipe, add Nic, PG and VG usually ending up 50/50 since I like flavor over clouds, stir it, let it sit until my tank is close to empty, and fill.
Do a couple rips until I'm pretty sure the old flavor is gone, then add whatever is needed to the 100ml bottle if needed.
Yea, yea I don't let it steep, but it's usually really close to what I expected and gets better over the 2 weeks that I use it. I used to measure and calculate the exact recipes I found, but I got lazy.
Prime example- Tried to make raspberry cheesecake this week. Ended up tasting like muted graham cracker with a hint of raspberry. Added 3mls of strawberry (ripe) since rasp. was very weak considering the ratio I winged.
All flavors are TFA, Nic,pg,vg is Nude Nicotine for anyone who might be wondering (probably not).
I think I'm in the minority here, but when I 1st got into diy I made one recipe which I found on here. since then every juice I've made has been my own original recipe, and out of the 30+ recipes I've made, only one has been mediocre. the rest have been amazing.
I like to think that being a chef, I have an understanding of how flavours work together and can taste what needs altering (almost like a real dish). I've also sold a fair few of my liquids and have a client base that is growing by the month, to the point where I'm seriously considering turning it into a legit business.
EDIT: Shout out to the down voters! Big up yourselves!
That's how I am. I usually will come with what I consider killer names an try an fill those shoes. For example I knew my Berry Bonz was gonna have to be pretty good and possibly have steroids in it lol.
I find myself mixing like I cook, figuring out what works in my head and trying it. It helps having flavor reviews and elr flavor notes to steer me in the right direction. Unfortunately I never use recipes when I cook, I also will add a few drops of other flavors when I mix. Only problem with that is I'll forget to add them to my notes lol. Makes for an interesting journey trying to replicate the good ones.
With diy though even if it's not the greatest recipe I'm only out a few bucks in materials so experiment away.
I have close to 100 of my own recipes. There was 1, maybe 2 that were absolutely stellar the first attempt. Others took 3-5 reiterations before they got to where I wanted them. Others have been changed close to 10 times and take up multiple pages in my notebooks, and I'm still making changes because I'm not satisfied with them. It really becomes an endless process once you dive into developing your own recipes.
Bottom line is that it's a fun hobby and I can still vape pretty much anything I've made whether it's perfect to me or not. As always, it's still way better than smoking cigs even if my recipe sucks.
Lately, I have actually been mixing more of other people's recipes just because it's easier than working on my own, and I don't have as much time to tinker like I used to. If being somewhat of a mad scientist doesn't fit well into your current lifestyle, mixing tried and true recipes/using one shots is definitely the way to go. It takes a lot of time, patience, and failed attempts (not to mention the cost) to test different recipes/flavors multiple times.
I'm in the same boat but I don't have nearly as many of my own recipes as you. Maybe 20-30. But then again, I just started in February. I honestly can't think of anything that I would want to vape that I don't have a recipe for. I probably mixed and tested stuff for 6hrs/night from March until mid-June. I think I may have burnt myself out. Now, I just lurk the DIY classifieds to see if I can come up with some of the weird profiles people request there.