I highly recommend the
eJuiceMeUp Calc also, and use the heck out of it for a while till you understand how it all comes together. And Ask Questions.
I make a Brandy Cotton Candy that I like a lot.
The attached file, save and rename it !My-Brandy
.rec and put in the eJuiceMeUp Calc folder and open it in the calc.
I also steep my juices in a water bath (not a boil) (only bring the water to a temp around 120* to 140* in a mug or bowl then put my 10ml or 15ml bottle in there (careful about using glass, some glass might crack at those temps) also, you don't ahve to maintain that temp, just let it sit, the temp will drop gradually, but that is ok, might still be hot when you go to remove it, so be careful) let it sit for about 20min to 30min, then take out and shake like crazy, I then let it sit and cool on it's own, or for a day or so. But I have found that some do need at minimum a week to get really good. Then vape it. The brandy cotton candy doesn't really need that long to steep. But an RY4 I make does need at minimum a week+.
Also, I never go by drops. Never use drops for recipes unless you figure out exactly how many drops are equal to 1ml for that particular flavoring with a specific syringe. Drops are extremely inaccurate method of measuring. Especially when measuring NIC Juice, always go by the ml's never drops.
However, you can use a guesstimate using drops when tweaking or adding flavor to something you have already created or something you buy that you want to make better. This is where it is ok to use drops. And generally, you may not have to let it steep again, but I would still give it a day or so. This is all the very artsy side of flavoring, and depends largely on what you like.
So, why do I steep in a water bath? ,, because the juice will thin out at those temps and then when you shake the hell out of it, will help it mix better.
Everyone has their own ways of doing things, and steeping is no exception.
My water bath may be completely unnecessary, but I do it anyway cause it seems logical to me to get things mixed well and possibly speed things along a bit. But I could be wrong.
Just remember to shake everything before using it. Flavoring and especially NIC Juice.
There are a ton of threads on everything I have mentioned here and I recommend reading through them.
just keep in mind that a lot of this is magic theory with a lot of trial and error, and a whole lot of opinions.
The only major constant (Basic General Rules) is the use of NIC juice in general with mg per ml, and the over all percentage of flavor per ml (which is generally 20% to 25% unless it is a super concentrate or double flavoring, but even that will be subjective to your personal taste), never go astray from that, and you should be fine.
Hope this was helpful.
PS: Also play around with the NIC Combine feature of the calc, it will help a lot understanding ratios of no flavor NIC juice and PG/VG adding,, you can leave out the NIC level on lines 2 and 3 to play around with what you will get by adding PG or VG by itself.
The last note is, some flavors are stronger than others and some flavors will not taste right if too little or too much. Trial and Error will make a difference, and if you are going to start, try making them with no NIC juice and see what they taste like to save wasting NIC juice. You can always compensate if needed after adding NIC juice when the flavor is right.
there are methods for shortening the steeping process like setting the bottle in a cup of real warm water for a little while but I've never done that. I can't Imagine it would steep the same but I dunno. I make a 60 ml bottle of my main juice and when I get down to 30 ml of it, I make another 60 ml to steep.
I've got my grocery list started & think that I'm going to start off with a 36mg nic base. That way I can continue to cut it down if I need too. My only question now is why does the ejuice calculator give a % for pg/vg without nic & a % for VG or alcohol?
