A lot of people here will steer you away from starting with a kit. And while I agree that they don’t offer you a complete DIY experience and are often missing components that you’ll find yourself wanting as you keep mixing,if you’re impatient and want to start right now without a ton of reading and researching…
You want to know the simplest, quickest and easiest way to start mixing? Buy a premixed base and a one shot--preferably from the same vendor. In one shipment you’ll have everything you need to make your first bottle of eliquid.
I only have one recommendations if you want to go that route: Liquid Barn.
In the past I’ve called them out on their prices, limited selection of flavors (many of them mediocre) and even the type of advertising they’ve done here in the sub. But at the end of the day, their Tastemaker Kit is the easiest way to get your feet wet in DIY. I’ll stand by my previous criticism of them but it’s hard to deny that they’re actually a solid company run by good people, who represent the community and industry well.
If you’re on the fence on making a full on investment of your time and cash, you can jump right in for about the price of one bottle of “premium” juice. For $16.99 you get 500ml of 80/20 VG/PG base @ either 3/6/12mg/ml along with what they call a Flavor Cartridge which is a 60ml One Shot, an empty 30ml bottle and a card that helps you measure the two ingredients you’ll be pouring into the 30ml bottle.
Once you have their kit and mix up your first batch you’ll start to see the limitations it presents; You won't be able to make exactly 3, 6, or 12mg eliquid for the same reason your final VG/PG ratio will be less than 80/20--whatever % of flavor recommended for the one shot will dilute both. But if you like the recipe (one shot) you picked, you’ll be able to make somewhere around 300-500ml of it for a total price of $25.48 with shipping.
If anyone can find a lower priced, easier method of mixing your first bottle, I’d love to know about it.
If you’re willing to invest some time and a bit more cash (about $25 more) in order to get more variety, options and equipment for mixing you can read my Vendor Price Comparison.
The TL;DR of that writeup: Nicotine River’s Kit is the cheapest, most complete way to start out.
At the end of the day I wouldn’t recommend a kit or the quick and easy method. I’d recommend that you read and familiarise yourself with how DIY works, make a list of the juices you’ve enjoyed most (or the profiles you enjoy most) and start looking at similar recipes that appeal to you on ELR, ATF, or the Monthly Recipe Threads.
Once you’ve invested your time you’ll be able to more wisely invest your money.
Check out the FAQ Friday Wiki for a list of previous topics.
The real problem with starter kits is most reinforce the mistake known as mixing by volume. If there was a vendor that sold a starter kit consisting of a quality scale, a shitload of bottles, a gallon of VG, 120ml of PG (or 500ml of PDO or PEG400), 60ml of 100mg/ml PG based nic, and a selection of flavors... I think everyone would suggest that kit in a nanosecond (if it was at all competitive in cost, the quality of the nic was there, etc). But kits including bullshit like syringes and GCs and other wastes of money, and including a premixed base so that your nic content fluctuates? Not worth recommending.
The problem is that the vendors (at least the ones I’ve chatted with) can’t seem to get the price of the scale low enough to make it profitable or they’re not willing to invest in the quantity they would need to at least be competitive with Amazon.
But I agree, if one of them makes that happen that would be the only kit worth recommending.
Honestly I think that starting out on a budget is easier than a kit. But you have to put the time in to research first what’s essential. Most diy people have a range of what they’re willing to do, think they can do, and actually can do. I was very good about buying small and working up, but I flailed on buying the concentrates. I didn’t really know about Reddit and just went off what I found at eliquidrecipes which led me to get a bunch of dx and v2’s I never liked.
I almost wish there had been a “these are the absolute minimum purchase to make these three profiles” post. Actually I might take a stab at writing a small version of that and see if it’s worth doing.
DIY e-liquid supplies offers a kit by weight, including a choice of scales. Since I don't think I can link it because of nic, here is a list of what's included.
$46.29 E-liquid Starter Kit includes:
– 5x 10ml flavor extracts of your choice – 3x 15ml Child Safe Dropper bottles – 2x 30ml Child Safe Dropper bottles – 120ml of PG or VG (60ml of PG and VG) – 60ml of Nicotine, 36mg or 0mg – Digital Scale (see below) – 5 Pairs of nitrile gloves Scales:
AWS-1KG: 1kg Max Weight, 0.1g accuracy, auto-off (1 min). Best used for 120ml – 1L. AWS-201: 200g Max Weight, 0.01g accuracy, auto-off (1 min). Best used for 5ml – 120ml. AWS-LB501: 500g max weight, 0.01g accuracy, batteries or AC. Best used for 5ml – 500ml
I agree with the mixing starting out but for a starter mixing by the gallon, i'm not sure the average joe who doesn't know better would want to invest in that quantity. A small scale that can measure in .00, maybe 500ml of vg, 120ml of PG and 60ml of nic, and then and options for starter kits with some bigger varities. Kind of like this:
lv 1 (beginner) with basic stuff, scale, 5 flavors, small quantities 500ml vg/ 120ml pg/ 100ml Nic
lv 2 (middle) 20 flavors, moderate quantites, 1000 ml vg/ 250ml pg/ 100ml nic
lv 3 (advanced) 50 flavors, in for the long haul, 2 gallon vg/ 1 gallon pg, etc etc
The starter kits are in the proto type phase to me, and I think the big price tags that would be required for a starter to get everything at once would be to intimidating for a "you gotta spend money to save money" DIY investment. Good notes though!
Have you tried many of these Tastemaker one-shots though?
I’ve only tried three of them so far. Obviously taste is subjective and one man’s trash is another man’s treasure when it comes to flavors, but I found one of them to be terrible. Like, I’m not even sure I want to go on living in a world where this is being sold to people, that level of terrible. I also thought one was outstanding and one was slightly above average so I guess 2 out of 3 ain’t bad, but that one was the stuff of nightmares. What if there are more like that?
I bought 3 of the oneshots by the muffin/rocket/milk-man, and DIYORDIE's quik. I find quik to be the most delicious out of them all, more delicious than my standard mix of strawberries and cream (I suspect it's the malted milk which gives it an extra kick). The milkman is terrible. But you might like it, coz I tasted a lot of dragonfruit there. The rocketman was surprisingly very accurate though just ok. The muffin man is good but over time you get fatigued easily.
I plan to try them at some point but honestly I haven’t placed an order from LB in years.
Oddly enough after you talked about the one you thought was so terrible (which we’re apparently not naming) I wanted to try it just to see if it could be that bad. It’s hard to believe anyone would produce something so terrible.
But that’s the downside to one shots in general, the same as buying commercial juice—never know until you try (or rely on reviews, I guess)
I’ve made loads of juices that were just that bad! But I guess I’m not selling them. Wait, no, no ones buying them.
But more seriously, reviews are important and I’m going to use much more of my idle time this summer to try different recipes and rate/review them. Diy is a fun, but time consuming hobby for me. Reviews and learning which profiles match my tastes as I get more experience allows me to choose what to try more successfully. Plus I get to justify buying $10-20 worth of concentrates every few months when I restock supplies and it scratched that flavor fatigue itch.
I think I could have a talent for mixing but I’m not willing to invest all the time needed to be an expert when there’s already so much easier avenues to try. I knew a kit wasn’t for me, but I could totally see why it would be a great place to start and realize that it’s easy enough to make something vapable if not great juice.
Liquid Barn's Tastemaker Kits and their 10 pack samplers is how I got started which has quickly spiraled out of control. I too recommend them though I have some regrets.
Immediately after using their premixed bases I realized buying nic/pg/vg separately was superior. But it was SO easy. So I went through 3 more 500ml bottles of the premixed until I couldn't handle the lack of control and started buying separately. I still buy all that from Liquid Barn. I haven't compared, but if their prices are higher, I don't care. I am very happy with the quality and I love those giant bottles. My biggest problem with the premixes was that I couldn't just make half a bottle of something unless it was in a 30ml Gorilla bottle their Tastermaker Card was designed for. Ejuice calculators (as far as I know) don't account for premixed bases making calculations difficult and have to resort to eyeballing.
/u/ediblemalfunction told me in a thread that I created about Liquid Barn that starting with their flavorings would be a mistake. Some people argued with him that made me feel better about my decisions at the time, but ultimately I agree with him. Their flavors are mediocre to bad. I have 25 or so flavors from them and well... Not only are they not that good, their spectrum isn't broad enough and many of their flavors have overlapping notes. Like fucking cinnamon is in 7 of their shit. You can have their entire lineup and there is just nothing to make. Cinnamon Roll + Sour Gummy recipe. Yeah doesn't that sound delightful? Like many say, they are better served as one shots, but if that's the case they are pretty terrible one shots. But if anyone still insists on mixing multi ingredient, it brings me to:
Their Tastemaker Card. Easy to learn and start with but a total pain in the urethra. Using the card for one shots are okay, but mixing muli ingredients is a nightmare. You have to crouch down and get level with not only the bottle, but the card too while holding both awkwardly because the bottle is round and the card is flat. Remember from 6th grade science we learned we measure liquid levels at it's lowest point. Liquids dip in the center. That means holding the card in front of the bottle lining up the lines to the center of the bottle while your neck is bent into a Z, shoulders up to your ears. It's awkward.
Drip drip drip. Crouch. Drip drip. Crouch. Drip drip. Crouch. Yell "FUCK". Drip drip drip drip drip drip drip drip drip. Crouch. Realize over dripped. Yell "FUCK".
Just buy 1 Tastemaker Kit, and a pack of bottles to start. Then get a scale ASAP. I tolerated the card for way too long. Which Tastemaker Kit do I recommend? Probably Quik. It's the only one I kind of like, but Rose Milk is far superior as far as Strawberry Cream goes from Diyordie. I do not like King's overly excessive maple Custard or Water hamster cage Malone. I hate Moon Sugar. Have not and will not purchase any of One Shit Wonder's one shits. Their stuff is regurgitated shit and I'm sure their one shits are just the same in concentrated shit form.
In conclusion I still highly recommend Liquid Barn. I see them as just the first few deep and wide steps of a giant spiral staircase that is DIY. You won't fall as long as you don't linger. Their nic/pg/vg is fantastic and their bottle prices are good.
Can you enlighten me on what a tastemaker card is? I cannot picture this.
I bought the nic river kit a few weeks back and added some additional mixing tools in it because I have experience with chemistry and knew I’d prefer some different items/sizes. I’m really excited to start trying it, but I promised myself I’d finish off some of my unnecessarily large pre-made juice collection before I started mixing. I did unpackage everything and it seems like a solid purchase. I already own a quality kitchen scale (baking by weight is almost flawlessly predictable over baking by volume), so I’ll definitely be going weight over volume. I’ve been brainstorming and researching recipes while I wait. I think my first attempt will be to make a flavor similar to a lemon-blueberry-basil martini that I love.
A 'quality kitchen scale' can be one that only measures to a tenth of a gram. For diy you want hundredth gram (or maybe milligram) measurements. (If you plan on making really small test batches and you don't want to prepare dilutions of flavors used below a quarter percent, that's where you'd want the milligram accuracy. Or if you plan to dual-purpose your scale for both diy and drug dealing, I guess.) As for your recipe... I'm fairly sure you're looking at FLV basil, the Blueberry trinity, some WS-23, and flavor monks gin... not sure about the vermouth...
What are you guys using for mixing beakers? I was using the ones from Nude Nicotine but the caps break easily. I would like some that the caps screw on and seal so I can shake them up, but I am having minimal luck finding them.
Mix directly into the unicorn bottle on the scale.
But... if you insist... get the little mason jars. They're as cheap as you'll find for glass bottles, and durable.
So, I'm trying to get more granular and precise with my measuring.
I've actually been thinking of getting a full on titration rig to really dial it in, but if anyone has an easier (and less bulky) method I would love to hear it.
I'm currently using a 10^-4 scale and dropper bottles, which I am accurate to ~.3g
No special equipment needed, a simple scale will do, they're not expensive. The LB-501 is the usual recommendation, but if you want to go cheap, a $15 Chinese generic scale works too. Just make sure it has a .01 gram accuracy (10^-2 ) and get one without auto shutoff if you can.
No need for titration unless you really don't trust the source of your nicotine.
Diye-liquidsupplies.com offers starter kits by volume or weight. The weight kit includes a choice of scales.
$46.29 E-liquid Starter Kit includes:
– 5x 10ml flavor extracts of your choice – 3x 15ml Child Safe Dropper bottles – 2x 30ml Child Safe Dropper bottles – 120ml of PG or VG (60ml of PG and VG) – 60ml of Nicotine, 36mg or 0mg – Digital Scale (see below) – 5 Pairs of nitrile gloves Scales:
AWS-1KG: 1kg Max Weight, 0.1g accuracy, auto-off (1 min). Best used for 120ml – 1L. AWS-201: 200g Max Weight, 0.01g accuracy, auto-off (1 min). Best used for 5ml – 120ml. AWS-LB501: 500g max weight, 0.01g accuracy, batteries or AC. Best used for 5ml – 500ml
Found this vendor listed on e-liquid-recipes, but don't know how good they are.
The quantity leaves a bit to be desired but with the premise being "get started simply, quickly, cheaply, and (in this case) the "right way" their kit is looking like a pretty solid choice for someone starting out.
All their flavors and bases are a bit more expensive than their competitors but the kit is still competitive.
The "mix by weight" kit that u/graystorm01 references at diy eliquid supplies is actually the first really good kit I've seen at the price. Just pick the LB-501 scale and the flavors for a recipe. You will probably need larger amounts of nic/pg/vg very soon but it looks like a great kit.
Truth is it's not hard to do, what you wanna do is this
Get your PG/VG/Nic from a Vape retailer (range from $15-$75 depending Do not ever buy your flavors from them they are over priced and you get a few flavors in a kit so not worth it either. Get your flavors from Amazon there is a flavor kit that has 35 flavors for $18 get some gloves $2 and some safety glasses $5
Get 1 30mg syringe (only cause most have 5,10,15,20,25,30 MG marks on them) you can not really tell the difference between 5mg and 6mg of Nic get a dozen 30ml glass bottles with eye dropper can get these for 40 cents a pop.
You do not need beakers, or scales, or any of that non sense your not cooking meth here, I would advise getting one 300 ml plastic mixing bottle $1.
Take your 30mg syringe for the 300 ml bottle do 2 full shots of nic and part out your VG/PG how you like then mix mix mix, 1 10 mg shot of your nic mix and 2 of your flavor and mix it up good to go.
All of this you could do for about $55 it's about what I spend sometime more if I just want the extra on hand to try new flavors. If you can even find a pre made kit (95% of the time they are all out of stock) you will spend the same amount for far less and get a bunch of junk you do not need. So IMO best to just buy it all separate and from different stores to maximize your bang for your buck. And for longevity (vape a lot) This all lasts me about 7-8 months before I have to restock. If I was just buying premade juice I would spend about 10x what I do and my flavors are better then anything I buy from a Vape shop.