So, I read the rules and I hope I'm not breaking any of them. Where to begin- well, I live in Italy (less choice compared to other countries) started vaping two weeks ago and I purchased various flavours with the help of some friends of mine who have been vapers for a longer time. What I got: From TPA:
- Double Chocolate Clear
- French Vanilla Deluxe
- Banana Cream
- Cinnamon Sugar Cookies
- Cheesecake (I've been told it sucked a few days after I got the package)
From Flavour Art:
- White Peach
- Watermelon
From Revolute Les Duos
- Pop-corn marshmallow
From DKS Plus:
- Coffee
I know these flavours are very unbalanced but I didn't know some of them were also pretty outdated. I started mixing two juices:
- 60 ml 70/30, 0.3% nicotine, fruity 10% flavour (2,5% watermelon, 7,5% white peach)
- 60 ml 70/30, 0.3% nicotine, creamy 10% flavour (5% cheesecake, 2,5% vanilla, 2,5% chocolate)
Didn't expose nicotine to sun at all. They're safe in my closet. I'm waiting for them to be perfectly ripen then I'll try 'em out. I was hoping for you to highlight what I did wrong, advices, and most importantly: how do I step up the bland flavours I chose? What should I buy? Hope I didn't do a mess and didn't break any rule.
You should order either based on recipes, or based on research you do. Never order flavors blindly because they sound good to you. You have lots of choices in Italy. You can order from any of the UK vendors if you want.
I think you mean 0.3% nicotine. 3% is 30mg/ml. Express your flavors as a percentage too. I have no idea what you mean by the ratios you listed. 1/4 of what? If you mean 1/4 of the bottle, you have made a colossol error.
Sorry! I meant 0.3% nicotine and definitely not 1/4 of the bottle. I'll learn technical terms to be more precise. I'm still at the beginning and I have lots to learn!
Hey you’re already on a pretty good track. I agree with edible do not buy flavors blindly. Please go watch DIYORDIE on YouTube. He does a series called noted, where they tear apart every single flavor and tell you their uses, and how good they are overall. I have 180 flavors, and I’d have 4 times that it I just bought blindly instead of just going with the best options from my research. Congrats on getting into mixing because it’s intimidating at first but it’s the best thing I’ve ever done. Very cool to see people in here from Italy too. Feel free to message me if you need any help!!
With most flavors unless it’s a main note in a profile, always, ALWAYS start low and work your way up if you want more. Some flavors legit do not need more to taste more of it.
Almost everything I start at 1% in a mix where I know what most of it tastes like so I know how it’ll blend with them, then go up if needed. For example I have something called a layer shot I made where it’s three flavors I love and I use a lot, so when I get a new flavor (if applicable) I’ll just throw it in my later shot at 1% to see what it does. Or I just throw it in a recipe at 1% that I’ve vaped a lot of so again, I know how it blends. There are only a handful of flavors that you’ll use over 3-5%, I promise you. Last little thing, I never use more than .5% sweetener. Unless you’re used to commercial juice and you need it that sweet, just trust me .5% is more than enough for almost any recipe. Especially ones with already sweet flavors.
Here is a website that might help, https://e-liquid-recipes.com/ I have used it for quite some time, there are others available if you dont like it but it should give you a good place to start. It allows you to not only look up and alter other peoples recipes and create your own, but you can also put all your flavors in and it will tell you which recipes you have the right ingredients for. Let me know if you need any help I would be glad to do anything I can to help out. Hope you enjoy making your juice, and Happy Vaping!! :)
Hey, here’s some resources that hopefully help you out,
Noted, they do a show every week on a different flavour profile. They go through as many flavours as they can get, good and bad. It really helped me to learn how to critically think about the flavours I was using. Also which flavours to buy and which to avoid.
Here’s a link to a playlist, https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLRP3MfkHmZ1_2-Z3W-Nh0qpidD4JyvJVD
Developed did a couple of videos answering questions most beginners have. There is also a list of flavours they recommend for starting out in the description of the videos. They explain you don’t need to get all of them. But they are easier to use flavours, used often in recipes etc.
https://youtu.be/CT4ZKUn0lXM
https://youtu.be/zrTpgDPrFeA
DIYorDIE has a lot of shorter videos on specific topics, as well as longer streams. But he’s done a lot on the basics for beginners.
Here’s the beginner playlist, https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLRP3MfkHmZ19gUVsM8xAnYUZLmsU5iSt-
Another piece of advice I would definitely give you is to test the flavours you buy individually and write down as much as you can about them. I found I hit a wall in my mixing because I wasn’t single flavour testing. As soon as I started doing that my mixes got sooo much better and my success rate shot up. Start early. Don’t wait until you have 400+ flavours like I did! It seems a very daunting task then. Now I don’t put new flavours I’ve bought away with the rest until I’ve tested them. I write all my testing notes on Evernote, but there’s loads of other note taking programmes.
I’ll find the article ConcreteRiver did on single flavour testing. It’s very useful and interesting to read.
Hope some of that is useful. If I think of any more I’ll let you know.
Hey I can’t link that article on single flavour testing but if you type ‘single part 1’ into the DIY_ejuice search bar it’ll be the first result. It is by ConcreteRiver. Sorry, I can’t work out how to link it on my phone.
Definitely worth reading and he doesn’t make it boring!
If I was you I'd take the time to watch several videos on YouTube. For example the channel called "Developed" and "thefogvlog" (two series called easy does it and bangers), also a mixer named Fresh03 (watch some of his older videos, for example the "recipes for beginners" series, really interesting because he explains why he uses certain flavors and what they do in a mix, also his flavor videos, blueberries, raspberries, cheesecakes, etc., where he compares the flavors and talks about the pros and cons of flavors from different brands) and last but not least the already mentioned series "Noted" (very informative but can be a little overwhelming for a beginner). You may hear descriptions like "flavor tastes sour, cardboard, burnt popcorn, play dough, baby puke" etc. (read that, Dave? 😉) but don't let that discourage you. Everyones palate is different. Get as much information as possible before you waste money on flavors.
I'm Austrian and not an experienced mixer myself. Today I own about 200 flavors - many of them I will never use (FA pineapple). I bought them without doing the things I recommended to you. Big mistake!
Addendum: if you haven't checked it out yet, also helpful here on Reddit: the "flavor reviews wiki", the "flavor % wiki" and the "weekly flavors wiki". Cheers
What flavor percentages did you mix at? Could be between a drop and 8%.
10% in total. Edit: I used a calculator my friends linked me to mix my first juice. They felt so confident about their skills I went a long with them.
1/4
Dude, really, I'm just a silly girl trying to learn from people who are definitely more skilled than me. I don't want to be laughed at just because I don't know something.
Seriously ignore that guy, he's the resident crotchety asshole around here. No one likes him. Honestly blocking him would probably be your best bet.
I think your questions and willingness to learn are really awesome, you're clearly engaging here and you're looking to learn more. I noticed that you've gotten some tips to mix by weight and also to check out DIYorDIE, both tips that I agree with!!
Check out this video: https://youtu.be/VnqKrlSgQO8 , it was very helpful to me. And while a nicer (more expensive) scale can be a huge benefit, I personally mixed on a cheapo weed scale from Amazon, like the cheapest one possible, for years before getting a nice one
Edit: also don't mess around with any software downloads like he does in the video, just head over to alltheflavors.com , it's my personal favorite calculator after trying several. Very simple and straightforward.
He’s trying to learn
If you think that you can just mix flavors together just going by their names, that they sound like they will go good together, it will not work. Believe me, this is the first thing that I discovered in DIY. If you are not using a recipe from an established mixer, whatever you come up with is not going to taste good if you have no mixing experience. If you are trying to create a recipe with flavors that are new to you, you need to understand the flavor. The only way to do this is by single flavor testing (SFT). I can guarantee that you will not come up with a good mix just by dumb luck. If you have no idea how the components taste to you, how can you expect to put them together and end up with something that tastes good?
I do agree with you since I stated the same thing, however I have come up with SOME decent things out of throwing things together haha just being honest.
Well then you got lucky. But I didn't get in to DIY to vape something that tastes decent. I was constantly disappointed by the commercial juices I was getting and wanted something better.
That's not what I want to do! I'm here to learn how to build a well structured juice, following advices from skilled people, tutorials and recipes. My friends just mix stuff together and they go all like "yeah, I'm a pro mixer" so I thought things could be done that way. But I want to learn and be super skilled. For instance, let's imagine that any of you were interested in my main fields of knowledge: science and makeup. Probably things will look easy from the outside (especially makeup) but they're so deep and complicated. You gotta study, you got to learn that primers are useful only under certain circumstances, where to put concealer, the wheel of colour correcting, how to correctly choose, apply and set a foundation. That's what I want to do. Learn, step by step, and grow under your guide.
When I first started out I thought that I could just put some flavors together and it would taste good but I quickly learned that it's just not that easy. I think that we all have big ideas when we come into this, and the concept sounds really easy, but when you try to put it into practice you discover that you have much to learn. The best piece of advice that I can give is to understand your flavors. First read flavor reviews before buying any flavors, then SFT them before beginning to combine them. This is a time consuming process but it is the only way to be able to achieve consistent results. In the meantime, find some highly rated recipes created by established mixers for your ADV. Also, your flavor selection may not be as limited as you think. The was a time when NotCharlesManson used only Flavourart. Check out chefsflavors and Nomnomz in the UK, they ship worldwide and should have just about every flavor that you will need.
I edited the post using the exact percentages as advised by u/EdibleMalfunction 🙂