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I bought smaller bottles to make handling my VG, PG and Nic easier, except I didn't.

When I placed my first order it was suggested I get some smaller bottles to make handling my PG, VG and Nic from ... easier to handle smaller bottles then big bottles. Makes sense, so I ordered some bottles. The TOTALLY WRONG SIZE lol they're just about the same size as what my liquids came in. I don't even know what I'm going to do with these.

I washed out some unicorn bottles and use those. I just use a 5 ml bottle for nic because so little is required. This setup is working really well.

I poured VG exclusively from the unicorn dripper.

Because VG pours so slowly, and so much of it is required, pouring it exclusively from a unicorn dripper gets really old. Now I pour form the main bottle first, and then when I'm within say 1.5 grams of my weight I'll start topping it off with the unicorn dripper.

I mixed into a unicorn dripper bottle, but switched to a glass dropper bottle.

I like to reuse things so when I went to mix my first batch I selected a unicorn dripper bottle that I had previously washed and saved for reuse. . Popping the top on and off each time quickly got tedious, and washing plastic is a bit more difficult than glass, so I switched to a glass dropper bottle instead. I'm happier with that.

Some people will buy a large pack of small bottles to mix into instead, and you can usually get these without the dripper tops placed on them yet which makes mixing just as easy. I just don't like the idea of constantly replacing bottles. That's just me.

I bought a scale that's good to .01 grams, and can be calibrated ... except I can't calibrate it.

I had learned that I can test it's calibration with a dollar bill (1.00 g) or a nickel (5 g) and tested it. Great ... problem is, when I put it in calibration mode it only wants to be calibrated to 500g. It didn't come with a calibration weight. So despite having a scale that can be calibrated I can't actually calibrate it. Lesson: buy a scale that comes with a calibration weight.

I botched a batch because my scale doesn't read .01 - .04 grams.

I learned the hard way that my scale can only read .01 grams after there's about .05 grams on there already. I was adding flavoring and just kept on going, kept on going, and added a LOT more than I needed because of this. Didn't hurt the recipe, just gave more emphasis on a certain flavor but was still delish. It was a good learning point however.

Now I don't automatically hit tare: I look back to my calculator and if it's a small amount I just do the math and add that to my existing weight, and then add my flavor. So for instance, if I just added VG and my current weight is like 8.4 grams, and now I need to add .03 grams of a flavor, I do NOT hit tare, but I add flavor until my total weight becomes 8.43g.

I would overshoot my weight by not pausing for the scale to catch up.

My scale takes about a half to a full second to register the weight. I've now learned to really slow it down as I approach my target weight and go drop by drop, waiting for it to register in between drops.

I learned that even though my scale reads .01, my bottles won't drop .01 of anything, but it's Ok.

Because I mix 10cc tasters, some of the amounts I deal in are literally a few hundredths of a gram. Some fluids just don't weigh .01 g per drop with my drippers, so my recipes will never be dead on.

I've now learned to stop adding NIC just below my target weight. For flavoring I've learned to accept this as "within limits" for what I'm doing, and realize that at larger mixes it will be more precise. It means my mixes may have more emphasis on certain flavors than others, that's fine, I don't mind the happy surprises. Once I have my recipes nailed down and start making bigger batches for bottling, I don't see this as being an issue as I probably won't need .01 of any single ingredient.

I didn't buy sweetener.

Commercial juices put a TON of sweetener in their juice. I had no idea until I made my own batches but holy shit they add a TON of it. If you're new to DIY and just mixed up a batch, you probably already know what I mean. The sweetness is one of my biggest complaints about commercial juice, but it's really hard to go from commercial levels of sweetness to nothing but the inherent sweetness in the VG and some of the flavors.

Sweetener is bit more complex than "just buy some sweetener and add it". There's different types of sweeteners and each one has a different effect on different recipes. Many recipes don't include sweetener, which makes it even more of a challenge.

I wish I had known how big a difference there could be in sweetness, and had researched sweeteners are part of my first order and had a small amount on hand. I definitely don't want commercial levels of sweetness, but would like to add some as a middle ground to ween myself down from.

EDIT: I stood over my scale.

These scales are SUPER sensitive. A dollar bill weights a SINGLE GRAM, and these scales read to ONE HUNDREDTH of that. When I first got my scale I weight a dollar bill to test it ... and it didn't weight a gram. It weight more than a gram and further - the weight kept changing ! I was afraid my scale was a dud, so I sat down and read the manual to calibrated it ... and that's when I noticed it then showed the bill as exactly 1 gram. The difference this time ? I was seated. So I experimented and yes, in all seriousness, when I was leaning over the scale the exhaust from my nostrils was enough to change the reading. I'm talking naturally aspirated nostril exhaust, not even wide open throttle. So now I remind myself to sit back a bit from the scale and not put my face directly over it.

When weighing, be sure not to have a ceiling fan blowing, open window, window AC running, etc ... you scale may pick this up. My scale sits right next to a window AC and there's a ceiling with blades that stop just 6 inches from where I mix ... I just make sure this is all off and I'm not leaning over the scale.