So the title says most, but not all. Ive been a part of the ECR sub for quite sometime now, but ive never really considered DIY up until now. I truly want to save money on liquid since getting into mesh tanks and more rebuildables and noticing how they destroy juice at pretty high rates. I read through the sidebar and although its laid out there, its still a lot to take in to which seems really overwhelming. I already have a hard time when it comes to picking devices that will work for me, so im not entirely sure if DIYing would be the best option, especially since I can get stressed out very easily.
Im very different with juice as well in my favor profile. I like sweeter, desserty type juice with my favorite being a French toast juice (holy cannoli) which is probably loaded with sweetener. To me its fantastic, yet other juices can be way to much for me, such as The One by Beard. Thats one is way too much for my senses. Ive tried no added sweetener juice too such as blue dot , and ive hated it, which made me want to steer away from DIY since I felt many other DIYers preferred that style of juice which doesn't seem to fit me (this might be a bad generalization so please forgive me. its just my intent though to correlate no sweetener flavors from a vendor with DIY). So right off the bat, Id want to mix something like this right away so I have something good on hand to free up experimenting time. In all this though, it sounds like the cost and the amount of places Id have to order from would be way more than Id like. I typically only like to order from a handful of companies for my gear, but if one place has it all id much prefer that. Also, would less than 80 dollars be a good starting point? I would like to spend as little as possible, but Id also like to be able to get 400+ mls of juice if spending that much.
Im sorry if this is a common post for here, which I know it probably is. Im just concerned because it is an investment, and I do have other things I tend to daily which can interfere and worry me about starting. I really thank everyone in advance for the help too and it would mean a lot to me.
You no doubt can make way over 400ml of juice with your preferred 80$. Your problem is going to be finding the right recipe for you. It’s going to be trial and error and there really isn’t any way around it. You’re new so you can’t have a specific taste in your mind when buying a flavor, but have to result to people reviews and opinions on that matter. We all know taste is subjective, but individual flavor reviews always seem to be almost spot on IMO.
What you can do, is go through recipes for the flavor that you are looking for. Your flavor description of what you want is pretty popular so you should find a few tried and true recipes that have lots of positive feedback. Find a few that have good comments and then look at reviews on the individual flavors that are needed for the recipe. Once you’ve dialed into the recipe you want to make, order it, make it! You may have to play with it to get it to how you like it, sense taste is subjective. It may be good for the creator, but lacking or too much of something for your pallet. Side note, when flavors blend they change, so each flavor won’t taste as the review states once mixed with others.
It’s going to be just like going to try flavors at a vape shop with your preferred flavor in mind. A lot of them you won’t like. But in this instance it is a longer process and you have to do the work to get what you want lol.
Haha yeah well I figured hard work would have to go into this to get some good results. Whats a good ml to test drive something that wont break the bank for me? For example say I want to try 4 french toast recipes, would 30ml be good or should I go even less than that to say maybe 10ml?
I’d go with the 30ml. I may seem like a lot from being a juice buyer, but from a mixers stand point it’s basically nothing. Plus, it’s kinda hard to mix accurately when it’s only 10 ml. You’re not putting that much flavoring in, so at 10 it’s very small amounts that can be thrown off with the slightest of errors
That makes sense. I figure thats the best way to go and while waiting for them to steep I do have tons of brand name juice to hold me over in the meantime. Now is there a one stop shop place online for all the supplies, or is everything kind of separate to purchase? I notice that flavors can come from multiple vendors, but its hard to figure out how many places I might be ordering from. I guess thats also the trade off now, since instead of finding cheap vendors for bulk juice it would now be different places for different flavors, right?
When I started out with DIY, everybody told me to use 10ml bottles to test recipes, and for single flavor testing as well. If you are looking to really learn DIY ejuice, there's probably nothing you can learn as much from as what you will learn SFTing all of your flavors. Also, when trying out recipes for the first time, there's no need to waste your flavors,etc. on large amounts. 10mls will give you plenty to see if it's a recipe you like. If you buy a decent scale there should be no problem with weighing accurately.
There is a lot of info around but don't let that cloud how easy it can be. VG; PG; Nicotine; Flavouring and something to measure quantity (I use digital scales). That's all you need. Look for simple 2-3 flavour recipes and use a site that calculates the volume based on the % for you. I use E-Liquid Recipes site for calculations. Almost all flavourings are PG as is most base Nicotine (VG Nic tends to be thicker), which means you can just make max VG and not need to buy extra PG.
Thats what i figured. Coming to this sub, I see sooo much information which really drove my worries high. But breaking it down, it seems otherwise simple. Now I do like a bit of throat hit, so I would prefer a little PG in the mixes I would do but not much. Maybe 70/30 ratios or 80/20, which I feel would make the PG I would require much less than VG. And when reading the calculations, I never see vg or pg listed. Its typically just flavoring percentages, but im assuming if i read more id find that info correct?
That's found in your juice calculator. Not factored into recipes you see listed here. Recipes are just flavor amounts.
So worth it. I'm really picky about my kind of juice (read: used to be) and I've found a lot of recipes from our members and on ATF,ELR are just outstanding. There is a slight learning curve but I was in your position 2 months ago, now I have more than I need to sustain myself for 6+ months (thanks LD sales)
It's basically what you make it, it can be as simple as vaping 2-3 flavor mixes, or going deep and trying 8-10 flavor recipes and striking gold every once in a while (many recipes reveal that a great juice can vary greatly in the amount of flavors). The only thing I will relate as being "hard/difficult" is never having all the flavors / pokemon style gotta catch 'em all flavor-hunting going on.
I wouldn't change it for the world. It's easily one of the more rewarding hobbies to get involved in if you plan on vaping for a good while, and you get the satisfaction of knowing where it came from, and being fully customizable.
We have a great community who are very helpful but also dont expect them to hold your hand the whole time. I say do it.
Ive been vaping for I want to say over 4+ years now and this would be the only realm ive never venutred into. Firs I used budget juice vendors and then when freebase juice started to lower less and less, it made me go that route. Though now i keep tossing DIY around because I just feel Id get more of what I want and less cost and hassle in the end. I kind of see it like food where you could go out to eat and get a great meal for a set amount, or make massive amounts of what you like to order at home for the same price. The key is time and patience, which I could definitely use improvements in each.
I really appreciate the advice too and I feel im sold on it. It would eliminate testing juice by buying online, which I thoroughly hate for all the misses ive ordered large amounts of (circus cookie was a recent purchase which was utterly disgusting to me and triggered the DIY thought once more). Now quick question: is there a one stop shop for supplies around, or is it multiple vendors for things? I dont mind placing many orders, but id like to lay out the online map of what to get before going into it
What I would do, is research and pick out maybe 4-5 recipes you'll definitely wanna try off the bat. My first order I ordered juices from the "my first order" link in the sidebar, but didn't look at specific recipes beforehand to realize I was missing this or that flavor.
A way to take out the stress so you don't get overwhelmed would be to plan ahead. Sweeter dessert juices will probably be using a lot of creams, custards, cookie/biscuit, berries, cheesecakes, danishes, cakes, brulees, the list goes on. But a handful of very basic key ingredients (FA cream fresh, meringue, cookie, CAP NY cheesecake, sugar cookie[edited in], vanilla custard v1, vanilla bean ice cream, super sweet, cinnamon danish swirl, maybe some cereal 27, Flavor West hazelnut, blueberry, TFA vanilla swirl, bavarian cream, cheesecake graham crust, ripe strawberry, sweet raspberry, Liquid Barn cream cheese icing, vanilla ice cream, INW biscuit, custard, creme brulee, yes we cheesecake.....) will certainly get you started going in that direction.
The food analogy of eating out vs eating in is quite applicable. Going out = overspending on sometimes delicious food. You cook your own food, you're eventually going to be able to appreciate the craft of doing so and likely enjoy it because you know what you're getting, not being sold a bill of false goods (edit: and cleanup is a breeze - virtually no mess). This past couple weeks I finally started making some recipes that I MUCH prefer over store-bought juice, so I'm very thankful to the DIY gods for lookin out.
I've used Bull City Flavors and ECigXpress without issue, those are the likely candidates. You can also get nicotine and bottles from ECX so that would be the better one stop shop.
Wow. I seriously cant thank you enough for this list, especially since you hit the nail on the head with the flavors Id need and well as the type. Im going to make a list now of recipes I find I want to try and then ill go for the order. I know there mixing by weight and volume as well, and quickly on that, which is preferred for most mixers? I think I heard weight is, which I assume id need a scale of sorts (think there was a mention on one down to the .00 decimal) and then some mixing containers. I saw a mention also of Nicotine River which their site seemed pretty good, but Bull City ive heard mentioned more I think. Either way, this is really moving in a better light for me now.
Where are you located? There's a number of such vendors, but if you aren't from murica, then naming vaperstek.org or nic river isn't gonna help you.
As for your requirements... 30ml of 100mg/ml nic is good for making a liter of finished juice, assuming you DTL subohm, and thus vape 3mg/ml or less. If you're a masochist, or if you MTL, even 6mg/ml will only require the same 30ml to make 500ml of juice.
Im in the states, so those two mentions would help for sure. I also do subohm 6mg, but I would eventually like to make some 12mg for my MTL setups, but Id rather start with making subohm juices. eventually down the road id also like to do some nic salt mixes and maybe even try nic salts for subohm, but again just the 3mg mixes for now would be ideal
It's sometimes hard to get the right flavor to carry through. I have been solely max VG (only PG is a little from the 200mg nic base + flavorings) .. but ran into one new recipe that is muted and lacks range. Until I began testing with 30% PG .. then it was exactly what I was looking for.
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400ml of DIY juice is quite a small amount of nic and flavoring. Should be an extremely easy price-point to hit.
Interesting to hear that. I never really thought of vg and pg making a difference other than in throat hit and cloud production, so this is some good information. Have you noticed a trend in which type of flavors require a bit more on the PG, such as bakery or fruity flavors?
My fruit bases have always been 85+ VG
Some end up more subtle than I would like, but big smooth clouds have always been what I cared about more 😏
Wasn't sure if the PG thing was a myth or subjective for increasing the 'delivery potential' of flavorings.
The bakery recipe with two top notes seemed dull on my max VG test, and then remembered my first 60ml bottle used a ton of PG to get the Redhots flavoring to not be cloudy white... So I blended it down with 20% PG and noticed a difference immediately for distinct notes (even though it technically diluted the flav %s)
- Cinn Danish
- fuji apple
- tfa apple
- Redhots
Dragonfruit may have mucked with the mix. Added it after seeing it used in similar recipes
Everyone else has given you great info regarding the actual mixing technicalities, but I just wanted to mention something I've found regarding the anxiety/patience issue...
My 1st 10-20 mixes, esp the first handful, were a bit anxiety provoking, as is any new undertaking. But now, after having mixed over 300 recipes (54 seperate sessions)(I'm meticulous in my note taking, lol) it's so relaxing. In fact, when I get home after work, I love to head to my mixing station, put on some music and spend some decompression time futzing around. It's very relaxing. Also, recipe hunting, flavor organizing, note taking, it's all part of the hobby and, for me, all therapeutic. I'd say give it 2 months of concerted effort and I bet you will be sold. Now...saving $$? I haven't found that to be the case, there's this rabbit hole, see - a flavorful rabbit hole that's hard to avoid, always another flavor needed, another combo that seems interesting, a new recipe to try...
Good luck and let us know how it turns out!
You know, I figured it would get that way for me as well. One of my favorite aspects of vaping can be building coils and messing around with different juices, so down the road once I get it all going I feel this would really help relax me. I have a lot of anxiety issues (among other things such as manic depressive disorder) and honestly vaping has helped me the most through it all as a hobby. Smoking cigs was a stress relief, but it also came with that crazy craving for smokes after a few hours without one. Vaping has never given me that at all, but it actually allows me to zone into the moment of the day to day, rather than try to supress it and just get by. So im looking forward to that process of coming home from work/school and messing around with different mixtures. I cant wait to try my own as well!
I’m thinking maybe diy ejuice isn’t for you... it can be and is overwhelming and takes ALOT of time. $80 ok to start but no where near the end of your investment imo.. this hobby requires years to invest and hundreds, probably thousands of dollars and after a few years there’s still so much I need to learn. But, I enjoy it and I have the time, if you do not maybe you could buy from someone on here that will sell cheap so you can still save money. I understand the saving money part and would never want you not to vape because you couldn’t afford to buy juice. I’m not trying to solicit sales I’m just trying to help...;)
Hrm I mean I can see it being time consuming, but as for hundreds to thousands of dollars, I have my doubts on that. Judging on the price of supplies alone, it may run you a bit in the start but finding a recipie to follow would be the money saver. I dont vape many flavors to begin with, so id just need a little experimenting to find what I like. After that i can see it as smooth sailing. I appreciate the advice, i just think thousands is a push in estimation
I personally think that you're correct to discount their advice.
Ballpark figure, I've spent ~£250 on diy materials over the past 30 months. Haven't bought a single bottle of pre-made juice in that time, and mixed at least 2 litres (as an absolute low estimate) of perfectly vapeable juice.
They may be partly correct in that if you want to go all-out and create your own recipes, tweak them, go through 10 versions trying to perfect it, then yeah, it can cost you silly money.
That's not the definition of DIY though. Just can just follow others' recipes. There's some great recipes out there.
Yep, I agree with Junkies here...there's no need to spend crazy money on this. There's plenty of 2 and 3 flavor recipes around here that taste great-hell, you can single flavor lots of things that are vapable and enjoyable. As a hobby, this one can be as enjoyable and therapeutic as any. There's a whole spectrum of diying ejuice, from just using another's recipe to creating recipes to sell commercially. Find where you are happy and have fun!