Hey everyone.
I am completely new, completely green and definitely inexperienced when it comes to mixing, but oh boy it’s a sinkhole. I bought my diy kit from makemyvape, granting me 10 different flavours of my choice. As you can imagine, after following this reddit for weeks, I know that I need to get more than just 10 flavours, so I went ahead and bought another 20.
Now, that is not an issue. I’m about to go home after work today, unpack the delivery of the Kit and liquids, and begin my first mixing session.
Someone suggested to me, that in order to design my own recipes from scratch (and that’s exactly what I want to do since I want to start my own brand), I need to make a batch of each and every flavour separately. I am aware that this is a good idea - I get to try every flavour and see how they taste like, take notes and steep them to take even more notes in the future.
Now, what the same person told me is that by no means I shouldn’t test it in a tank. I get that, I don’t want to change the coil after every flavour to get the pure experience with each bottle. I will test it all on my RDA.
Now, what was also suggested to me is to not put any cotton on it - this way I drip directly on the coils, get the clean flavour, then drip another flavour and get the clean result again. What do you guys think about it?
Additionally, before designing the recipes, I could potentially drip a couple of different flavours on the coils and see how they behave together - this way if something tastes bad, I can scratch it off my list and not waste a whole 10ml bottle on a combination of flavours that I know will taste bad.
Any suggestions are welcome.
>I want to start my own brand
Put this way way in the back of your mind for awhile. I see a lot of new mixers jump in with this mindset, get a few ok mixes, dump some money in, and fall hard. Definitely focus on learning your flavors and making good juice that you like before considering sales. You wouldn't buy all the ingredients to cook for the first time and try and open a restaurant. Not that it's not a great goal - I started a few years ago and now do it for work, but you'll make better juice if you keep an eye on flavor over all other goals.
Awesome! Thanks for the advice! The plan is to start small anyway, got my own vape shop opened with a friend, I will try selling it here on the shelfs. I will see how it works out. But I will only do it once I get the flavours on point and after I receive a lot of positive feedback both online and from the samples in the shop.
You need to speak with your lawyers about all this; not Reddit. You're way past the dates to do this in the US and could easily find yourself fined into homelessness.
Instead of thinking in terms of good and bad flavors, you need to think in terms of ratios--how they play together and complement each other. Much like in cooking, there are a lot of flavors that would not taste good on their own but are necessary in a small quantities to round out the desired flavor. They are like salt and pepper in cooking. You don't want to taste the salt and pepper, but without it, you sure will miss it.
But be careful to not draw too much of similarity between cooking and mixing--they are very different in the way flavors combine.
I think a smaller amount of cotton is better than none because ultimately that’s how it’s going to be vaped and you can either put plain base in between flavors or get several of the same rda for testing is ideal,( clones of a Dillinger or whatever your preferred rda/ clone might be Fast Tech and 3F have great deals as do many sites but these 2 have maybe the largest selection) and if you need to change cottons it’s not a big deal... you’re a smart guy, so be smart and do the best thing to know your business like you need to, imo, and read the sidebar then read what the sidebar suggests then read some more and watch YT videos and read the comments, come back here and read some more. This isn’t like anything I’ve ever done, there’s soooo much to learn but it’s not a chore and I really enjoy it as does the rest of the community I’m sure you’ve noticed. It’s a lot of work yes but nothing worth having comes easy and I would think you’d want more than your friends second hand knowledge for what will pay your bills in the future. I certainly don’t want to buy juice from a guy that knows little more than what his buddy told him...I get it’s not exactly that way but it’s not far off. Everyone wants that quick fix and if there ever was a place that is not that, haaa THIS IS THAT PLACE! I don’t want to discourage you, definitely just the opposite, but I want to let you really know what I think you already suspect anyway and then invite you to do as you’ve done and if you need help there’s no better place to find it! First, there is everything you could possibly need in the sidebar so buckle up and get comfy and get started...welcome and enjoy!....;)
/r/DIY_eJuice/wiki/diy_beginners_guide
I don't know why you want to drip right on the coils, people who will be vaping your flavors will prob be using cotton in their coils.
AND, don't buy anymore flavors, try first researching SF% for what you have bought, try them and search for good recipes, then buy just those flavors you need. That will be necessary before you have the experience to create your own recipe. Believe me, making e-liquid is not just throwing flavors together and having a vape-able juice. Your making a common DIY mistake buying random flavors because they sound good. They are all prob completely incompatible.
Another site you can look at is http://e-liquid-recipes.com and http://forum.e-liquid-recipes.com their you can find additional help mixing and research what % to make all your SF testers.
What scale did you buy?
Thanks for all the feedback! I got a simple jewellery scale from eBay, worth £10. I know, it’s probably nothing good or nothing to brag about, but should do to begin with, am I right?
That will work fine, as long as it reads to 0.01 grams
I have a small scale like that as a emergency backup, and an AWS LB-501 Size: 500x0.01g
I haven't been able to try this myself (My RDA's well is too deep, needs to be quite shallow in order to position the coil properly) but this video on how to make a wickless coil might be useful for you. Seems to use capillary action to draw liquid off the base of the dripper. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C3P6bUoD3uA