Don't randomly buy flavors. Fill out your collection by finding recipies you think you'll enjoy, and buy the flavors you need for that recipie.

The beginners guide is worth reading.

Use a scale. Mixing by weight is far better than volume.

This applies more to custards/desserts more than fruits. But steeping is important and there is NO substitution for time. Hot water baths microwave, in the oven at 350F for 10 minutes, none of it works. Mix it, shake it, store it in a dark cool place.

Store your excess nicotine in the freezer and only expose it to air when needed.

Tips:

1. don’t buy nic from eBay if you can avoid it.

2. Never buy a flavor based on its name

3. Read/research

4. Always buy 10ml bottles and restock with larger.

5. Mix small.

6. Only mix by weight. Buy a scale.

7. Find simple recipes. Try them. Ask yourself what you didn’t find satisfying about them. What’s missing for you? That drives the do it yourself part. It teaches you to develop your palette but also to learn what you want. All the while you can still pinpoint what one flavor is doing in a two flavor recipe sometimes avoiding the single flavor tests that new folks usually avoid.

8. I found it better to build a collection by going one profile at a time. Start with fruits and drinks. They’re easy and quick. Layer in custards and bakeries. Explore tobaccos. Etc. by year’s end you have had the experience with all of them. With each order you can pick up one or two of the next topic’s finest to try out so you can start to get an idea of what you like.

Ex: fruits - your favorites you watch noted, read fotw, search elr/atf for recipes. You add a few custards: inw custard, Fa marshmallow, fresh cream, vanilla swirl, tfa vbic. Next order: watch custards and creams noteds, fotw, search recipes, save posts on reddit. Buy all the creams. Throw in dark for pipe, red burley, native, gold for pipe, tatanka, holy ry4, stuff for abuela. And a few fruits you missed the first go round. Etc. ad infinitum.

Single flavor test at different percentages is my best advice. Also don’t assume you will always like a flavor (or vice versa) because the majority doesn’t as your palate is unique.

Pretty much all the rules are written.

The only real challenge is if your preferences don't match up to the cabal that runs things in this sub. Then you're sorta on your own generating recipes.

Don't be afraid to reach out, this is a warm and welcoming place. Just gonna share some honest stuff i experienced when starting out in the hope it will help you.

If there's any confusion, or walls you're hitting, do a quick search here, if you're still drawing blanks, pop up your Q's here and i guarantee people in this community will help you. I still really don't know what the fuck im doing mate...winging a lot of it. But whenever I've hit a wall, or something has turned out totally wrong, I've asked here and received helpful info and guidance.

Buy yourself a set of scales if you can, no need to be anything fancy, as long as the resolution is 0.01g - thats absolutely fine. It will make everything so much easier.

I just wanna talk about Sweeteners ..... i think this is really overlooked by others when someone is having a shot at DIY for the first time.

There's a prevailing culture in DIY, scratch that fanaticism against using sweeteners in your juice. If you're anything like me, and have been vaping on shop bought stuff then you may want to add sweeteners. I've been mixing for around a year (mainly others peoples stuff mind you) and i still by far prefer adding sweeteners to my juice. Its sorta like a Mcdonalds milkshake... i love the fact its disgustingly sweet, full of fat and cream, tastes artificially sweet and makes you feel fucked up after a large one...i like that. Im not bothered about a sugar free milkshake, with bits of fresh fruit floating about in semi skimmed low fat milk.......because im not a connoisseur.

For me, thats what sweeteners do. When i first started i was mixing stuff posted up here... i was mixing recipes that were popular, and respected heads on here commented on how great they are. Yet to me they didnt taste great... one after another tasted mediocre. So i naturally thought...whats wrong with me? Everyone else enjoys these mixes so much, it must be something off with. I though to myself It tastes....flat...boring, yet everyone here loves it. I then added sweetener..and BAM! things i'd mixed in the past...that once felt mediocre, flat...tasted bright, full, and better than stuff i'd been buying in shops.

Get yourself some sweetener (Cap supersweet) when you first mix, make two. One with sweetner, one without. See which one you prefer, maybe you prefer the juice without sweetener.

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Oh yeah, steeping, thats another one that threw me off. I'd mix something up, be so excited and i try it at once...yeah i thought..of course it needs to blend first. Next day...this tastes like kissing a birds neck whos wearing perfume. I'd dismiss the mix, throw it in my drawer and forget about it thinking it was no good. A couple of week later i'd stumble across it again...and WOW. Ok. This is fucking great....

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Try to let stuff sit around for a couple of week.... try it, vape it every other day, but dont dismiss it until its had a couple of week to steep.

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well, you can get bad concentrates.

And also what might happen is that although you done everything by the book the juice comes out bad.

Do small batches, so the wastage is not so bad.

Recommended procentage doesn't mean it will work for you.

Less is more.

......

Like others have said. Use a scale save yourself a huge headache there. Choose recipes from all the flavours or somewhere like that and order your flavours based off that. When I started I just bought flavours I thought I’d like...big no no. Be smart and do research first. Not dumb and just wing it like me

There are a lot of "premium" eliquids coming into the marketplace now which I have been dabbling in a lot recently like Ethos, Dinner Lady, Halo, Milkshake Man/Donut Man, just too name a few. If you find buying and mixing from scratch a bit daunting then these are a great alternative. It won't work out as cost effective but I'm actually surprised at how fast these are coming too market and its only a win win for diy mixers.

Read the sidebar.