I know maybe you guys get this all the time, but I gotta ask. Did any of you guy/gals go DIY because 90% of store bought juices taste watered down, with barely enough flavor to claim that they taste like "this or that"? I'm so freaking sick of spending money on flavorless juice! So that being said, where do I begin to join the illustrious ranks of the DIY juicers? any help would be greatly appreciated.
Thank you
I went DIY because what I wanted wasn't reliably on the market at a fair price, so I decided to make it myself.
Everything tasting like an actual thing rather than like I had 6 splenda packets on my tongue along with a single bite of the thing it's supposed to be was at best secondary motivation, I usually bought juice that either explicitly stated it didn't include additional sweeteners or was minimally sweetened.
Would definitely recommend buying flavours for recipes you like the sound of from ELR or ATF rather than buying flavours you think will be good. Then take it from there with more recipes and trying your own stuff.
As others have said, get a scale, I tried mixing by volume to start with and by weight is so much easier!
I'm lazy so my adv's are a rotation of custard recipes I like, but it does mean I don't need tons of flavours.
DIY is so much cheaper once you get setup, I've been making my own for about 9 months and my average cost is £0.13 per ml (I have a spreadsheet to keep track of all my recipes and costs) which is about half what I was spending before, and that's including cost of flavours to try recipes which I didn't like and now have full bottles of flavours I don't use
>Would definitely recommend buying flavours for recipes you like the sound of from ELR or ATF rather than buying flavours you think will be good.
I know what you describe is the (classic) way that usually gets recommended to start out with, but I just can't agree, at all. I kinda wish people would get off this old mantra. This method is nearly the same as shopping for eliquids or flavors you think you like the sound of, except you are adding more steps by making it yourself. You can argue that you still are cutting costs, but this is questionable since you still have the same chance that you won't like the mix or any of the flavors used, which would increase cost in the end. Beside that, there are so many recipes out there its hard to find something half decent unless you are already familiar with mixing and fairly invested. You could ask someone who is familiar for recipes that are well received, but that still wouldn't be that much different from shopping for eliquids as it's all incredibly subjective.
I'd recommend to search for the top 3 flavors within a profile you already know you like. Not only is this more efficient, but also much more rewarding in the end. Test them individually and then find a recipe with the ones you like best. Good chance there are a whole lot of recipes to try with those 3 flavors, because a lot of people invest time, money and effort in finding something they really enjoy. Worst case scenario you are left with some of the best flavors within a profile. More likely however you will find a mix you truly enjoy as well as gain valuable experience and maybe even inspiration to make your own recipe. It's not hard. Everything you need is available to you out there.
What atomizer are you using? Most commercial juices have way too much sweetener for me but I wouldn’t call them watered down at all. If anything they are usually pretty saturated.
I experience the same thing and I believe it’s because they use too much flavor actually. With high amounts of flavor and sweetener (and probably a healthy dose of EM), the flavor gets ridiculously muted
Heavily sweetened juices are a sign of a careless recipe cover-up. What i mean is a good blend of flavors, at the right strength should be enough. Yes, some recipes benefit from some EM but using so much of it is an attempt to cover a flawed recipe.
This is interesting, never considered this
EM is really muting.
If you want a nice sweetener, I like using Capella - Super Sweet (sucralose) up to %1 in some of my fruity pod juice recipes (and up to %0.5 in their sub-ohm versions).
It adds a texture I like. Also, this brand of sweetener adds a nice throat hit when used benzoic acid based salt nic (which can be a pro or con, depending on what you are looking for).
I dabbled in diy when I started vaping 11 yrs ago.. Picked it back up again to save money about 6 yrs ago.... Vaping became an expensive hobby for me . So I learned to make coils and diy juice to save money... Diy saved my coils too..lol..
All of this is alot to take in trying to get started. Could you suggest a good vendor/site for the US?
I'm actually starting DIY because there is too much flavor and sweetener in commercial juice lol
Hmmmm, what juices would you say have too much flavor? Ya know, for research... lol
I went DIY because it became illegal for me to order commercial juice online. But, I should have done it earlier. With commercial juice, it all tastes like generic fruity sugar. But with DIY, it can be whatever flavor you want. Plus, it’s like half as expensive if you don’t buy 10 million flavors. But, a lot of people (me included) see this as a hobby, and spend way too much to “chase the dragon”.
I started mixing because my brother passed away and he was mixing for over 10 years so we never tried any other juices. I love coming up with new recipes and sharing with friends and family.
Welcome to my world. I have never had a commercial juice. I have been DIY from the get go. I do not taste strawberry at all and peach is nothing but a smell of a concrete parking lot after a rain on a hot day. Google "VSO Flavorings" and get some strawberry mute and mix it at 1% with some sweetener, you will like it. My favorite is a mix of RY4 Double by TFA and Vanilla Bean Ice Cream along with some banana and coconut around 25% total flavoring. PM me for the recipe if you are interested.
Crappy, flavorless commercial eLiquid was definitely one of the main reasons I started to DiY. You’re gonna love doing it yerself. If you want a List of recipes with LOTS of flavor, just ask & I’ll shoot one over to ya’.
Yes please! The only juice I can vape all day every day is Pearamel by Teardrip Juice Co. Its not too sweet and my coils last longer than with most other juices and it has flavour, great delicious flavour. If you have any recipes like that please send them my way. Thank you.
That would be fantastic! Thank you!
I believe Liquid Barn has beginner setups to get you started.. Start up can be expensive .. but in the long run save you alot.. Def get a scale if you can... And hit up YouTube and watch diyordie .. I caught one of his older vids for his top 5 or 10 from each vender... And you can make several recipes from the recommended flavors... Rugly is on yt as well for beginner recipes.. I'm sure others will chime in.. I buy mostly from Bull City and River..
Believe it or not, juices that have too much flavoring in them will actually taste like that. If you use too much flavoring it can lead to issues with muted flavor.
Because... using too much doesn't allow the flavoring to fully dilute to release the entire flavor range of the flavor. Using too much flavor effectively chops off the top notes which gets even worse when using multiple flavorings in a recipe. MOST flavors (or combinations) are great around 18-20% total flavoring with exceptions like 'heavy' flavors of mints, menthols & Tobacco's which if used by themselves would be much lower.
> 90% of store bought juices taste watered down, with barely enough flavor to claim that they taste like "this or that"
^^^This!!!
The hubs and I went to a local B&M shop and got a couple of bottles of house liquid and a one bottle of "premium" liquid, each. The house stuff was so tasteless!! I cracked one open, in the store and the chick, IMMEDIATELY, told me "if it's weak, you gotta let it steep for like a week..."
At the time, I hadn't even HEARD of DIY and had NO idea what "steeping" was.
Got home, tried them ALL... lightly flavored water is what we tasted! EVEN THE "PREMIUM" SHIT!! I couldn't believe it. I was so disappointed! I had FOUR bottles of garbage and a bottle of "PREMIUM" garbage that I didn't know what to do with!!
I started looking up ways to to improve the flavor and discovered the world of DIY!
Haven't looked back since! We are now over 100 flavors and 1 year in to DIY and so happy with the decision!!
My first suggestion would be to dive in to the recipe side of ELR and find recipes you like the look of, note the flavors and manufactorers.
Next order some PG, VG, nicotine (if you use it), syringes or a scale, bottles, and those flavors from one of the many available websites. BCF doesn't sell nicotine but most of the others do.
Wait (impatiently) for those to arrive.
Rip open your package, in desperate excitement.
Mix some "bomb ass" recipes.
Be disappointed...
Then ASK A LOT OF QUESTIONS about what you did wrong (be sure to post the recipe you used), and trial and error it.
Don't be afraid to ask for help and don't be afraid to mess up a mix. Because you will.
The price per millileter of DIY product is SO cheap, it won't hurt you, if you mess up 1 or 2 or hell 10 times in a 10 ml mess. You'll lose, maybe 6 cents per 10 ml of mess.
I went to DIY foremost for price and second sorta the opposite of you. I actually didn't like how sweet and overly flavored the juices I bought were (especially local stores blech). I honestly only put just a little flavoring in mine, I wouldn't say subtle but just less loud.
I started to diy because most german vape shops offer mostly made-in-Germany juices (most I don't like, or 80% of what they sell are too many fruits in one liquid and other sh#t) and not the international brands, and they are often overpriced (we have only sth. like Dinner-Lady and some standart international brands and that's it!). 50 ml cost a fortune. The state wants vapers to vape with 2 ml tanks and to use 10 ml liquids from the tank stop and vape shop owners want to make 500 % profit by large margins (even with juice, which is still sold with huge profit marges). Fortunately, we have the UK nearby and their vaping market is like 10 times bigger than ours, so there is some sort of price regulation and I can get most things from there. Then, came the Brexit.. :-(
I only buy in Germany when vape stores make their sales and it took me some time to find out the most-affordable bottles, needles, etc., and now I can start saving money. Look for the needle-prices, as one example on how vape-shop owners make a fortune here: In an online drug store you pay 0,08 € for a blunt cannula (very expensive needles). Only one of 100 german vape shops offers them for 0,18 € while other vape shops ask 0,4 up to 0,6 €uro (around 500 % profit, not calculating bulk prices -> than it's 800+ % profit). The same goes for simple bottles, you can get 50ml bottles for 0,14 pounds in the UK from a factory, or for 0,32 € in Germany, or for similar prices from China, while at the vape shop you will be charged 0,5 up to 2 €uro (600 % profit marge, not calculating bulk prices). Yes, some germans pay 10 € for 5 empty bottles and are happy with it :) That is how people "think" here.. And I know about how the economy works (storage costs, delivery costs, workforce, etc. - I just made a simple comparison - not into details), but that does not explain profit marges from 500 up to 1000 %! Of course, with juice it's a little bit less. I made just two examples, how you as a customer can save money with dye.
With dye flavors it's more complicated but just some comparisons: For the normal customer the full price for 10 ml CAP is about 4 up to 5 €, 4.80 up to 6 $ or 3,5 up to 4,40 pounds, 10 ml TPA cost you 2,70 up to 4,90 €uro, which is 3,25 up to 6 $... Can you imagine that!? (more than double the price). I'd be pleased, if some britisch / us-investor could come over here with a few millions of investment and open up sth. like Chef's flavors but it won't happen :-(( There is a huge demand for diy in Europe - ask british shop owners.. ! =)