Give me your guys and gals most unpopular opinions on diy e-juice related things . I'll start this off.
I think Cap Vanilla Custard is awful, I said it, it's shit. All capella creams taste like playdough mixed with a hint of ass.
Unpopular opinions?! I have plenty of those, but this one should be the most controversial:
99% of posts highlighting new 10+ flavor recipes are just masturbatory posturing by pretentious "mixologists."
In all fairness, the other 1% are delicious.
I think that the DIY community can be hostile and unwelcoming. I really hate when questions are answered with, "Been asked before, use the search." It stifles new ideas and answers, the search tool sucks, and usually the question hasn't been answered well before. And the answers can be years old. Flavors change, new flavors come out.
Yeah this sub is too strict. I mean the mods are doing everything right, but this isn't a gigantic sub. It needs those few off topic posts or questions that have been asked before just to pad out the subreddit. Because the more people see this sub, the more discussions happen, the more visibility it gets, the more it'll attract people. Subreddit rules are useful when there's a lot of posts, but it needs to grow 'naturally' before it starts to clamp down on rules. It's like pruning a tiny bush before it's even had a chance to flourish. You wait for it to get bigger and unkempt first, then you trim it to how you want. Just my opinion!
The community is straightforward and strict on following the rules.
I hate the ModeratorMod, it's on every post so it's like 99% of the time wrong. And it's confusing for a new user to be threatened to be banned. Then at the last part of it's message, it's like "oh by the way I'm just a bot, watch your self."
That's not the community, that's the rules of this subreddit. I have found the community very welcoming and helpful. If people post where the rules say to post, they'll likely have a similar experience.
Whether the rules are needed is another matter but you can't blame them on the community.
Absolutely. I often forget or don't have time to read the new mixers thread but when i do i'm always very surprised to see the quality answers to most questions on there, mostly by the same people who i'm sure many people think they are being unhelpful by telling people that's where their questions belong. People who i often see accused of being unhelpful are the most prolific responders in that thread.
I found the most useful part of this sub was the sidebar links, most of the time when I have asked questions they were responded with "there is already a thread for that" or they attack my decision of how I want to do things. I understand there may be "better" ways but everyone has their own ways and I was just looking for like minded people to solicit their experience. It is a shame, because this was my first place to go to and I almost felt unwelcomed because I didn't follow the general ideals already in place here.
TFA Strawberry Ripe is like vaping a strawberry plant. Stem, leaves, and a hint of under-ripe fruit.
I agree it's awful. I can't stand them taste of strawberry ripe, thankfully I don't get the taste all too often cause I usually can't taste it.
I think TFA dragonfruit with strawberry flavors is the worst combo out there.
So many people use it to make the strawberry "pop" but it ruins everything for me. I've tried a few other people's recipes with that and it's seriously something I hate and would never suggest to anyone.
If the strawberry doesn't pop, either you can't taste strawberry well or you need to do something different.
This subject drives me close to rage. I'm getting angry just writing this.
That is all.
I agree. Strawberry IS one of the worst flavors ever.
A recipe is not a "Tobacco" or "RY4" just because you put 3% TFA RY4 Double in it.
Been on a tobacco binge lately. If it doesn't have a FLV tobacco, INW tobacco or just a strong tobacco, I wont even bother mixing it. Disappointed too many times mixing double ry4 with a bunch of creams. However sad panda's apple bacco, with increased ry4,, decrease in creams is good and some FA SOHO is great
Agreed. I think you, and most people, get what I'm saying but just to go into a bit more detail in case anyone's confused:
I'm not saying you can't use RY4 Double in your recipe. I am mostly ranting about the plethora of recipes that are labeled "RY4" and they turn out to be 90% creams and bakery flavors with a bit of RY4 Double thrown in there. This isn't an RY4, it's a dessert recipe that uses RY4D as the caramel note. It's always funny when their flavor notes say something like "light/subtle tobacco flavor." Damn right it's subtle. So subtle in fact that it's not even there. Just look at the MSDS for it. There is literally no tobacco.
This subreddit is mostly untalented jackoffs in a circlejerk.
There are a few people that actually write incredible notes and have come up with some good recipes. However, 99% of you have trash palates. The aversion to sweeteners is hilarious. Some of you will never actually make a good juice because of that concept. Rules are arbitrary and some of you consider them gospel.
I'm not overly bothered by anything you said except for the "trash palates" bit.
(example) Some people like liver & onions. If you don't, great. More for us. If you hate Grack Juice, awesome. I'll be able to buy INW Cactus, Grape, and Raspberry next time I need some.
Everyone prefers different tastes when it comes to ejuice just like some people only like to eat certain foods/sauces.
The fact that you think you're a special snowflake despite all this, calling people untalented jerkoffs in a circlejerk because our taste buds don't align perfectly with yours... Well, that's absolutely comical. We all hate the recipes you've shared here too.
Oh, wait....
Grack Juice is just ok.
After vaping 300+ ml of it, I agree. However, it's what the community needed at the time. It was groundbreaking back when all I knew was fruit, custard, and tobacco.
Using a sonic cleaner is just as good as letting it sit in a dark cabinet for a week but you get results in hours. Not sure why the hatred towards it, but aside from the noise, it has been nothing but a positive experience for me.
Ok, maybe this is a stupid question, but is there a reason to use a sonic cleaner instead of a vortexer?
What's a vortexor?
Specialized piece of lab equipment for mixing. Usually used to speed dissolving crystals into a solution... press vial to rubber surface of vortexer, and the liquid inside starts spinning at a high rate of speed (sort of like putting it in a blender, only there's no moving parts exposed to the solution).
I agree with you on the VC Cap -- it tastes cheesy to me, especially at higher wattages.
Here's my against-the-grain opinion:
Ain't nothin' holy about Holy Vanilla.
I dig it, flavor is super duper subjective of course, but man, :O to the jab at Holy Vanilla. That shit is like my pope or something.
I've been using it in almost every recipe lately. After my initial experiments I blew through my initial 10ml tester almost instantly. I have a 4oz bottle arriving tomorrow.
Holy Vanilla is one of the non-dairy vanilla flavors I truly enjoy.
Single flavour blends are vapable.
Uh, when has that been disputed? Case in point: LA lemonade.
Here's one opinion: No one mixes. People read recepies, imagine how it tastes and votes for recipe based on it's good look. And no one actually mix your (or mine) recipes. DIY-mixing is a mental chess with aromas, mostly.
That seems more like a conspiracy theory.
As someone who mixes plenty of other people's recipes and takes time to give all of them a thoughtful, honest critique, that seems like an offensive, insulting conspiracy theory.
Well for each you and me there is like 1000 ppl in outer internet browsing atf, elr and local diy-ejuice sites never going farther then mental mixology. I didn't want to insult anyone, but the amount of people talking of mixing instead of mixing I meet is fantastic.
I don't really get on with their Vanilla Custard either, way too woody and smoky for me.
Heat steeping is bullshit, all it will do is degrade your nicotine and get rid of most of your volatiles. Ultrasonic cleaners don't do shit either. I still don't get why the myth about it persists.
Your second point isn’t a popular opinion. A small minority believe in it. It’s also not even a matter of opinion.
Here’s my unpopular opinion:
>There is no such thing as an ADV. Once you begin to DIY, the amount of flavours that are out there and the insane amount of ways you can mix them and create new and never thought of before recipes means your never going to be truly satisfied and find “the one” juice. There’s always going to be something new to add to the cart.
E: it’s an unpopular opinion for a reason folks
Then there's me who has vaped the same flavor for coming up on 3 years straight. No other flavor has even touched my cotton besides testing when I'm mixing.
What flavor?
There's nothing wrong with mixing a flavor that has 20-25% total flavoring. Just depends what the brand and actual flavors are. Some recipes actually NEED high percentages to be as full bodied as they can be.
Probably.
Then again, with the flavors I usually use, a 20% total would cause most to run screaming, since it would mean I had ~30+ flavors in the recipe.
I think he's saying that too many people block all the flavors into one little bubble. Since theres some flavorings that can be pushed normally to 4-10%, while theres other companies that almost all their flavors stay 0.25 - 2%.
So a step up for the first kind would be a 2% jump. While a step up for the other flavoring would be a .25% jump.
And people set their theoretical max at somewhere in between saying juices SHOULD NEVER go above x%.
Maybe... but certain flavors start tasting bad (like cherry flavors turning into white rum) when they go over a certain amount. Others take over a blend and pretty much block put anything else when they get too high (TFA Cinnamon Spice, FA Cocoa, etc) and that's what I'm getting at. Some other flavors can be used much more concentrated, but many of the flavors I use are the types I'm talking about.
My son and I basically approximate, we don’t care about getting it “perfect”, I use a syringe, my son uses a fucking graduated cylinder. We laugh at the you must measure by weight etc. so what if one batch tastes slightly different than another, a foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of a small mind.
Try using some of the flavors I use. When concentrations in the recipe are below 1%, accuracy kind of matters.
And if you're trying to develop a 'perfect' recipe, you need to be able to perfectly adjust levels.
I weigh religiously but that's my personalality. But some of people weigh their flavorings, pg and nic to the dot but then just "top of the vg" makes zero sense to me. Why be that precise to just fuck up the percentages?
I weigh everything to .01g including VG, store my recipes on ELR, and print labels for everything I mix. Overkill for some maybe, but I love being able to quickly reference everything, and if I like something, mix it 100% the same as what I enjoyed before.
Because some flavourings are so concentrated you can get from hero to zero in a matter of 0,2%. Like MF flavourings, some INW flavourings, some FA flavourings and so on.
I don't think you understood his point.
Enyawreklaw frequently in his old videos would say to finish every recipe by filling the bottle to the tippy top with your vg.
Oldguynotthumb's sentiment is that that will throw off all your percentages and it makes all the previous accurate weighing unnecessary.
I think it's a matter of accurate vs precise though.
There are few popular DIY recipes that are truly excellent, while there are countless truly excellent commercial juices. Thus it seems to follow that people that are actually very good at making juices are doing it commercially and DIY'ers, as a group, suck by comparison.
Well it's someone who chose making juice as a career path, vs. the average vaper making juice for themselves and maybe friends. I can also choose to add 3 different kinds of sweetener to my juice to make it "premium", but I don't because I like it when coils last 3 weeks.
Good commercial juices? Never saw one.
They are all like a hammer in the stomach. Too much flavor, too much sweetener.
CAP sugar cookie makes me gag, even at 1%. Blech.
Vanilla Bean Ice Cream from any vendor tastes like pepper in any mix. Not sure if this is controversial or just a tasters issue but I have tried 3-4 of them I think and I don’t care, they all taste like someone shook pepper in my mouth.
That's not even an opinion popular or unpopular. It's way more of a black and white issue. You either can or cannot taste pepper in VBIC concentrates.
Now whether or not someone likes VBIC, or substitutes for VBIC for people who taste pepper is another issue entirely. Probably significantly more opinion-driven than the pepper issue.
TFA RY4 Double tastes like dirty caramel. Like caramel with literal dirt on it. If I dropped my caramel on the ground, I'd either throw it away or wash it off, not just pop it in my mouth. I don't understand the love this flavor gets.
Would you recommend any good substitutes?
Substitute like to use instead of TFA RY4 Dub in someone's recipe? Or just to enjoy a lovely caramel tobacco?
You want unpopular? Watch how fast the negative karma piles up on this:
Baked goods have no business in a ejuice.
Neither do Strawberry, Peach/Nectarine/Mango, Vanilla, Custard, Cream, or Licorice flavors.
What do you vape? Grape tobacco?
Care to elaborate? I'm not trying to be a smart ass, but I'm genuinely curious as to why you feel this way.
I just can't stand them, at all. It makes no sense that so many juices/recipes include one or more of them.
I've been mixing recipes from here for the past few years and very few of them are actually good(even tried adding sweetener). One really good one that a few of my friends like is a milk and honey clone (posted maybe 2 years ago) that I tweaked. I haven't posted anything spectacular so I shouldn't be complaining.
I love cap v1 it just requires other flavours to make it work properly. Try it with TFA sweet cream and cheesecake graham
After around 80~ recipes I've given up on Cap V1, the roadkill possum taste can't be masked away.
I am so with you on this. I tried so hard to like it, but it just ruins every mix for me! All I can taste is skunked, rancid eggs with sour vanilla extract. It's obviously dependent on preferences, but I think TFA's is much more palatable.
Wait a second, I hate Cap V1 but not necessarily all custard recipes that use other custard bases? I always thought it was the "eggy" note in V1 that turned me off. Skunked, rancid eggs with sour vanilla extract is a great description for Cap V1, but it's nice to hear that that isn't what some others may taste like.
I believe you're being unfair to playdough mixed with a hint of ass.
DIY sucks.
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Ingredients you order from BCV, ECX, etc. are different than what someone else ordered so when you mix their recipe it will never be the same.
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Your new and interesting recipe is shit. You added 10 flavors together for a hint of this and a hint of that, but a 2 ingredient recipe is better.
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DIY is not quick and easy. How long did it take you to find a recipe, then all of your ingredients, then setup your scale, then an empty bottle, then how long did you shake it for?
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Commercial juice tastes better. Not all, but it's like a sandwich, if someone else makes it, it just tastes better.
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DIY is not as cheap as people make it out to be. Yeah, the used ingredients might only be worth $1.27. But, you have a ton of flavors you'll never use again sitting in your drawer, collecting dust and going bad.
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DIY should only be seen as a hobby. Just mix 2-3 recipes for your bulk of vaping at 240ml or higher, but buy the rest retail. The expense and clutter isn't worth making crappy 30ml recipes that suck.
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Non DIY unpopular opinion. The difference between a flavor RDA/RTA and something that "sucks" for flavor is miniscule. Don't hunt that dragon. It's not there. There isn't something that will blow something else away in terms of flavor. Placebo. That's all.
You put it out there, and I respect that. I disagree with almost everything you said, but that's the nature of a thread like this already. Still, the value of DIY will never be the same to everyone. For some it's just another money sink, for others it's legitimately an affordable and enjoyable hobby, and for others still it's a good source of income. That's what DIY is like in any category really, whether it's e-juice, home renovation, computer programming, or anything else.
I agree on the CAP Vanilla Custard. I bought it because I hate TFA Vanilla Custard but it tastes exactly the same to me. Like I wouldn't be able to tell the difference in a blind test. I only use it with TFA Vanilla Swirl in miniscule amounts to round it out some. But every flavor I've used it in that uses it as the main custard note is awful.
Same here with the Cap VC. I have TFA VC as well but haven't tried it yet. Your comment does not inspire hope. I'm starting to think that maybe I just don't like custard bases.
I obviously know that it would fundamentally alter various recipes, but I need to find a great cream base to use in place of custards for a bunch of recipes I had saved. I find I enjoy creams, custards not so much.
Have you tried FLV's VC?
Nope is it any better? I was starting to get disappointed I really want to like Vanilla Custard
It's different than cap vc. Less rich and overpowering. I tend to use it at around 3.5% when a recipe calls for cap.
I tend to vape it right away (like most mixes for me, even custard/cream ones) as it loses potency over time.
Menthol is trash and cake/cream/custard liquid is even worse.
EDIT: By "trash" I mean not good by my tastes, sickening and ruins coils. I never believed the hype and haven't bought anything like this since after I 1st started and was seeing what's right for me. The amount of cake/tart/cream recipes is ridiculous and lines my stomach just thinking about it... Each to their own though no thank you from me.
Pussy. Stand by your original post.