I'm getting ready for my first go around at DIY. I've read through most of the stuff in the side bar and faq section. I've picked out a few recipes, mostly from the Trinity stuff. Looking at ordering from bull city flavors. I'm planning on going with 1 liter bottles of pg and vg. My question is, and I've been unable to find the answer, or I've overlooked it, but what size bottles of the flavoring should I go with? I was originally thinking 10ml, but wondering if I should go with 30 ml? Also, how much nicotine if I don't have the room to freeze it? Thanks.
Usually 10ml of flavors you've never used, but it also depends on usage percentages. If it's higher (TFA Blueberry Extra, LB VIC, etc) go with 30
The way that I do it; if it's a concentrate that I don't know,I get 10ML. If I like it then 30ML+ forward from that (depending on the concentrates - some are super potent and 10ML will last you ages).
Don't make the mistake of randomly buying 30ML. Even when someone says a flavor is really good! Done that mistake one time too many.
I generally get 10mL the first time and then, I kind of judge based on how long I've had something before it runs out after that. FA, INW, FLV, the flavors I generally just use 1-2%, I hardly ever run out. Most of my 30mL bottles are CAP or TFA, or something I know I'll use eventually. It doesn't hurt to have more than you need right now, if you have the space for it.
People seem to like VG nic, I prefer PG nic and never have to buy a bottle of PG. I gave the one bottle of PG in my starter kit away, because I never touched it. If all of your diluents are PG and you like higher VG, you may not need to add PG.
What would be the advantage of a vg nic over pg? I haven't decided on what nic to use yet, still researching it. I normally vape a 3 nic in premade stuff. I don't like a while lot of throat hit, if any.
I'm not sure if it makes any difference, honestly. I've only bought PG-based nic and I've never had any issues with it. Some people seem to prefer VG-based, but no one has ever given me a reason not to use PG. I store my extra nic in a freezer. My thinking is the density of nicotine and PG are almost identical, they also both have lower freezing points than any conventional freezer will provide. Theoretically, nic and PG could form a better solution to store in a freezer due to those attributes. Makes sense to me, like I said, I honestly don't know if it makes a difference.
It doesn't matter to me anymore, but when I've purchased 48mg nic solution or lower, I've run into issues mixing recipes with higher flavoring percentages and getting to the nic level I want. The amount of PG based nic I'd need to add would put me over the overall PG/VG ratio I was aiming for, so I'd either need to drop the VG, lower the overall flavoring %s, or settle for less nicotene. Works for some recipes and not for others. The deciding factor would be what final mg/ml you're aiming for in your mix, as well as PG/VG ratio. I switched to VG based nic to solve the problem, but now that I've dropped my nic level to 1-1.5mg, I would be able to use PG based nic for every recipe with no issues!
Like everyone else said 10ml or 13ml (For Capella) is the way to go. That way you aren't stuck with a big bottle of flavoring you dont like.
.
I mix for three people. I go through alot of TFA Strawberry & Strawberry Ripe, Vanilla Bean Ice Cream, & Bavarian Cream. There's others too but I get big bottles of them because I know it'll be used. You'll notice what your going through a lot of and can order accordingly.
Most flavors, 10ml.
If you're getting any of the following, 30ml: LA Lemonade, WS-23, FA Polar Blast, GL Cherry, INW cactus, INW Pineapple (basically, either weak flavors you'll use a lot of, or workhorses that will go in many of your mixes, or both.)
And unless you're mixing for a pod, don't buy much PG. Nic and flavors should provide (almost) all of the pg you need.
I just wanted to thank all you guys for the help and advice. I wrote out all the recipes I want to try first (6 total) and then ordered all my flavors. I placed all my orders last night and look forward to mixing my first bottle of e juice. I ordered most of my flavors (10ml) and my pg and vg from bull city, along with some pipettes, 10ml and 30ml bottles and a scale from Amazon, some other flavors, syringes and a nic test kit from ecigexpress, and I got some 100mg CNT nic coming from liquid barn. I've already got gloves. Only thing I would like to get yet are some dark glass bottles to store the nic in. I think I have my bases covered, but please let me know if you think I'm missing anything.
I usually buy the 2oz bottles. That way if I like it I won’t be out of it in a couple days. If I don’t like it oh well. It’s a couple bucks. I don’t know what you plan on using for a ratio of vg to pg but I would recommend getting the next size up of vg and the next size down of pg. I go through a gallon of vg way before I go through a liter of pg. the flavors you add to your mix are usually pg based which helps you use less actual pg to achieve your ratio. 80/20,70/30,60/40