Getting Started with DIY Liquid

[CryoGen]

I made my first attempts at DIY over the last 2 weeks. I started with the DIY Kit from DIY Flavor Shack. It came with 60mg VG Nicotine Base, Cranberry, Pear, Orange, Lemon, Tangerine, Banana, Lemonade, Lemon-Lime, Bar(not sure what this is), Ethyl Malto, and Sweetness Sweetener(not sure what this is either), plus a wide assortment of hardware, PG/VG 50/50, VG, and PG. I did not get my hopes up that I would make something great. This was just an attempt to get my hands dirty and try to figure out what the process is.

This forum is absolutely marvelous and I love it. However, I’m suffering from information overload and feeling pretty lost. I read quite a few threads from the DIY e-liquid Forum including the Guide to DIY Flavoring by Nikhil. His short primer helped get me going. I read through quite a bit of the Nicotine Comparisons thread by Cyrus Vap


This is a list of what I will have on hand within the next week or so. I’m quite serious about getting this process going and I’m determined to make it work. I’m just having a hard time understanding the subtleties of the art.

Extreme Vaping
100mg VG Xtreme Nicotine Liquid 125ml
PG (Propylene Glycol) 500ml
VG VG (Vegetable Glycerin) 500ml

32 Lorann’s Flavorings – safe ones from Mistress_of_Design’s list

2 Mount Baker Flavorings and some Sour Flavoring

8 Capella Flavors

8 Flavour Arts Flavors

2 Hangsen Flavors

DIY Kit from DIY Flavor Shack

1 oz and 16 oz cobalt blue bottles from Specialty Bottles

Nicotine Testing Kit

Eye Protection

Latex Gloves

I like fruit flavors and tend to stay away from tobacco flavors as I have only been vaping since January and don’t want to be reminded of the tobacco taste.

My first batch was a combination of two fruit flavors. I know, not the best thing to do for a total noob. It turned out ok but really not much flavor. I’m letting it steep for a while and see how it goes. I then made 7 batches of single flavors all with 100% VG.

Should I have added distilled water or PGA and/or PG to these batches? I have not tried any of these yet as they are only 3 days olds.

What about sweeteners? Do they help flavors come out?

I did not expect the flavorings from DIY Flavor Shack to be high end. I used 10% total flavor in my first batch. I used 25% total flavor for the following 7 batches. I’ll soon know if that makes a difference.

I’m using Scubadantan’s ejuice calculator to get my percentages correct.

I’m in the process of compiling information which I will place in a 3 ring binder for reference. It will include things like a ml to oz conversion chart, Nikhils primer, recipes, tidbits of information gathered from the ECF forum, and anything else I find relevant as I go along.

There is just so much information on these forums that I’m having a hard time sorting out what is relevant and useful. I try searching for things but I always get so many threads back that it is daunting to go through all of them.

If some of you seasoned DIY veterans could give me a few key tips to get me on the right track I would really appreciate it.

 

[dannyv45]

Well your on the right track.

First of all remember your a recent ex-smoker so your taste is off and needs time to recover so it's not uncommon for flavors to taste weak. Give your taste buts time to recover. It took me a good 2 months to only begin to get my taste back. This is a source of lots of fustration for most. A mix may taste weak to you but to the non-smoker it will taste great or to strong. So keep that in mind when mixing. It may not always be something your doing wrong it just may be your taste buds.

You will need to steep these mixes as follows

Candies and fruits 1 - 2 days
Candies, fruits and deserts made with creams 2 - 3 weeks
tobaccos 3 - 5 weeks

You can speed up the steeping process by using a crock pot or ultrasonic cleaner so read my blog on steeping.

Flavorwise

loranne start with 12% but not a great flavor choice.
start Capella 7%, better choice in flavor
flavor art 5 - 7% very good choice in flavor
Hangsen 5 - 7%. excellent choice in flavoring (My favorate)
Inawera 5 - 7 DROPS excellent choice in flavoring (another one of my favorate)

Stay away from TFA flavorings until you get the hang of mixing. You can get good results but they are hard to get right.

Do not add sweeteners or additives until you've mixed, tasted, steeped then tasted again. You will find most mixes don't need it. If you decide to use sweeteners or EM add no more .5% (Point 5%). If you want to enhance a mix read my blog on additives and enhancers before attempting so you know what they do.

Do more reading

Read my blogs before getting started

E-Cigarette Forum - dannyv45 - Blogs

then read hoosier's blogs.

E-Cigarette Forum - Hoosier - Blogs

this will explain a lot of the how's and why's.

 

[CryoGen]

Thanks very much Danny!!

 

[USRN2016]

Thanks for this! I'm just about to start buying things for DIY but have been (just as the above stated) overloaded with all the information here. I want to do 100%VG and 0 Nic (Allergic to liquid Nic) and was curious whats the better brands for flavoring. Would your recommendations above still be the same for the pure VG blends?

 

[dannyv45]

They will work equally as well in VG. My preference in this order

Hangsen 5 - 7%. excellent choice in flavoring (My favorate)
Inawera 5 - 7 DROPS excellent choice in flavoring (another one of my favorate)
flavorart/flavorwest 5 - 7% very good choice in flavor

To be fair as far as inawera goes I find many rave about it and I have to agree. The reason it's not my first choice is I have not worked with it as long as I have worked with hangsen so I have not drawn a final conclusion but my initial results thus far is it runs neck and neck with hangsen.

 

[SueandCootie]

There are all sorts of lists here for recommended percentages from different suppliers, and using those I take the cautious route often recommended here:

While I'm waiting for new flavorings to arrive I set up bottles of just 3ml of pg and/or vg for each new flavoring (I don't add nic right away so I don't waste it) and then when the flavors arrive I mix each individually at the commonly recommended %. I might try a sample after 2 days, wait and try again after 7, then 14 etc...it takes time and patience to do it this way, but then you have no doubt what each flavor tastes like TO YOU, and you'll begin to think "hmmm, this would go really well with....". You'll likely even find some single flavors you enjoy just as single flavors. Keep careful records of what you mix, always!!

 

[USRN2016]

Thanks for the Hangsen recommendation, found a website with loads of their flavors. I plan on using a fellow forum members idea of "micro batches" to try out the flavors first and then make 6 ml batches based off of my likes. I'm so excited to start making my own ejuice

 

[CryoGen]

Please share any sources you have for Hangsen and Inawera. Thanks.

 

[dannyv45]

Thanks for the Hangsen recommendation, found a website with loads of their flavors. I plan on using a fellow forum members idea of "micro batches" to try out the flavors first and then make 6 ml batches based off of my likes. I'm so excited to start making my own ejuice

A good place to get hangsen original flavors and not the rebottled garbage is BuyHangsen.com

 

[HeadInClouds]

I have a comment only about Flavour Art. I use those almost exclusively and recommend trying each as a single flavor at 3% (tobaccos, 1-2%). Flavour Art flavorings are very concentrated, with just a few exceptions.

 

[CryoGen]

If I'm using multiple Hangsen flavors should I be looking at 5% to 7% total flavoring? So, if I was using 2 flavors each would be 2.5% to 3.5%?

In reality I will be using multiple flavors from different manufacturers. So, a flavor from Loranns and a Hangsen. It seems people use 10%-15% with Loranns and 5%-7% with Hangsen. I could use some guidance on how to measure out these 2. Do I make the Loranns 15% of the total solution and the Hansen 5% of the total solution? The other way I can think of is to say that I want 10% total flavoring then figure out how much of each flavor to use to get to a total of 10%. I think the e-juice me up calculator has a tool to aid in that.

I'm looking to make Fruit and Creamy Fruit flavors. I've been reading through recipes on many different sites so I at least have something to go by.

 

[flowerpots]

Please share any sources you have for Hangsen and Inawera. Thanks.

Inawera:

Inawera Shop, The Best E-Liquids, Flavours, Bases And Many More!

Vapers Tek

Electronic Cigarette, Clearomizer, USA e-Liquid, e-Cig Juice, DIY Flavors, Wholesale Nicotine, Empty Bottles for E-Liquid - ecigExpress

Concentrated Flavoring - Brands - Inawera - Bull City Vapor



Hangsen:

Electronic Cigarette, Clearomizer, USA e-Liquid, e-Cig Juice, DIY Flavors, Wholesale Nicotine, Empty Bottles for E-Liquid - ecigExpress

http://www.buyhangsen.com/

 

[CryoGen]

Thanks very much for all your help everyone!!