When I first started vaping, people told me to steep the pre-made vendor juices. Over and over again, that's what people would tell me when I would complain about flavors, and I complained a lot. I basically refused for the first 3-4 months, then after not finding anything satisfying enough to quit analogs, I reluctantly started heat steeping in hot water, and just stockpiled juices and put them on a top book shelf and forgot about them. I still got impatient, PIF'ed many because I didn't want to wait long enough to see if a juice evolved. Then, I started testing the steeped juices, and some of them really shined for me. Others were finally vapeable, and a few were still not my forte. The biggest impression was letting my ADV flavor, Ahlusion's Smooth Criminal, sit for over 5 months. This juice transformed into something awesome. I would not have believed it if I didn't do it myself. This is when I became a steeping believer. I started out on this forum in the tobacco flavor threads, and tobaccos are known to take quite a bit of time to steep. This was very frustrating for me. So, I get your frustration. The only thing I can say to that is, steep anyway. I won't be deceptive, I had to spend a lot to stockpile enough pre-made to both vape immediately and steep for later. I have no idea what the dollar amount was, but it wouldn't surprise me if it was around $800+. This wasn't all at one time, it was over the course of a few months. If you want to accelerate steeping, which is questionable in my mind, heat steep as well as just let your juices sit.
And, yes, that is what people are saying with DIY. You will have to go through the whole ordeal with no guarantee that in the end, you will like it. It' a frustrating reality, but a reality nonetheless. Some people love this aspect of DIY. They enjoy the hobby of it. Just like some people enjoy cooking, trying different recipes, tweaking them, until they are perfect. Others of us just want decent juice without all the hoopla.
My theory is that tastes vary so much in vaping liquids because people are trying to substitute a habit, and addiction, and that intensifies the need for specificity in taste and satisfaction. You can compare it to a burger restaurant that serves 10 different types of burgers with different toppings, or pizza. Granted, drinks like soft drinks or even alcoholic beverages don't vary, they aren't customizable usually, but I would bet that if they were, people would order across the entire flavor spectrum.
There is little information. And that has annoyed me as well. And still does for that matter. That's why I started a thread of my DIY progress so that maybe others can have at least some template or idea to guide them, and not have to search threads and websites for hours on end just trying to get started. But, there are some who have taken the time to provide information in the form of blogs here, google docs, thread posts, etc. It just takes a LOT of time researching. And I know and understand that not everyone has that time.
Yes, you will. I wish I could say otherwise, but I can't. If you read enough of the available threads, you will get enough information to omit some of the effort.
Some vendors do provide recipes on their websites. There are also other websites that provide recipes. So, you don't necessarily have to come up with your own.
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