Recreate my favorite juice

[uthinkofsomething]

We’ll see. If this goes well (eg if I can mix something I like) there’s not much incentive to going back to store-bought juices, that’s true...

I've been mixing since last September, and it has gone very well. Did a lot of research here in forum, decided on four recipes to start with that were well rated by other mixers, made sure I had a solid list of supplies I wanted, and bit the bullet. I dove in pretty far pretty quickly because I like a lot of variety of different flavors, and I have to admit I have around 120 flavorings right now. But it's still costing me a fraction of what I spent on commercial e-liquids. 2$ for a bottle that I would have paid 25$ for? Nope, never buying pre-made e-liquid again.
Start small. Find some recipes. Try to be consistent so you can get the same result again. Experiment with leftover flavorings. Find a few you want to make repeatedly and can enjoy while trying a new mix (in case you don't like it).
I have made a couple that did not work out, but so many that are very good.
Good luck!

 

[KurtVD]

I've been mixing since last September, and it has gone very well. Did a lot of research here in forum, decided on four recipes to start with that were well rated by other mixers, made sure I had a solid list of supplies I wanted, and bit the bullet. I dove in pretty far pretty quickly because I like a lot of variety of different flavors, and I have to admit I have around 120 flavorings right now. But it's still costing me a fraction of what I spent on commercial e-liquids. 2$ for a bottle that I would have paid 25$ for? Nope, never buying pre-made e-liquid again.
Start small. Find some recipes. Try to be consistent so you can get the same result again. Experiment with leftover flavorings. Find a few you want to make repeatedly and can enjoy while trying a new mix (in case you don't like it).
I have made a couple that did not work out, but so many that are very good.
Good luck!

My case is a little bit different: Most juices give me headaches and/or other adverse side effects. Besides vaping unflavoured VG, which I find a bit boring, so far I have found two juices that don't give me any problems at all, one of these is Toasted Marshmallow. The recipe on 99juices looks as if it could be the right one, so hopefully, even if I don't get it exactly right, I will create something that I like and that isn't problematic for me in any way.

 

[KurtVD]

Thanks to the advice of all of you, I have ordered all 4 ingredients on vapable. I hope there are no problems with the shipping (they have a disclaimer that they can’t ship nicotine abroad, but flavors don’t contain nic, so I should be fine...). I’ll let you know...

 

[KurtVD]

Amazing! I have just received a message that I'll get a parcel today (it's the one from vapable). Now that I'm used to waiting at least two weeks for orders from China, just one week was completely unexpected. I don't even have the mixing accessories yet (vapable doesn't ship them abroad), so I won't beginning to make my own juice right away, today. But this week I'll get everything I need and then it should be a breeze, it's a simple recipe.

If it says (on the recipe page on 99juices.com) that 'this recipe doesn't need steeping', does this mean that I can literally just mix the ingredients, shake it and that will be it, i.e. if I don't like at that moment, I have to modify the recipe, waiting a few days won't make it better?

 

[uthinkofsomething]

@KurtVD steeping is more of a preference. Steeping will almost always change the liquid at least a little. Some flavors really benefit from a good sit, like creams, custards, cheesecakes. The flavors intensify, sweetness becomes more present, sometimes chemically or perfumey notes will decrease.
Big difference from a shake and vape (SNV) or a steeper is often how much flavoring you are using. MTL shake and vapes are usually pretty high in flavor %.
Best advice is to make a bottle and try some right away, then try it again in 3 days, 7 days, 2 weeks, etc. See how it changes and how you like it.
I find that most liquids vape more smoothly and have a better mouth feel after at least 3 weeks.
Most people would say as a rule of thumb: fruit flavors do not need to steep, cream flavors steep a little, custards steep a lot (4 weeks) and tobaccos often want steeping to really bring out a full rich flavor.
Some flavors will fade in a short time, which has pros and cons in a mix.
And then there is breathing. Breathing helps release things like alcohol or the chemically perfumey notes. Some leave a top off a bottle and let it get as much air as possible for up to 12 hours. More than that and you are exposing your nic and flavorings to too much oxygen and they will degrade. You can breathe a plastic bottle easily by taking off the cap and squeezing out all the air a couple times, then shake it up. Generally this is only done a few times in the first week of steeping.

 

[uthinkofsomething]

There's nothing stopping you from SNVing Custards and flavors that could use a steep.... But it could make the difference from a homemade e-juice to a professional high quality premium e-liquid.

 

[KurtVD]

SNVing

What’s SNVing?

 

[uthinkofsomething]

What’s SNVing?

Shake and Vaping

 

[KurtVD]

Great, I'm vaping my first tank of DIY juice ! It doesn't taste at all like the juice I wanted to copy, but I don't care, because a) I only made 20ml b) it's not too bad, I'll probably vape it anyway and c) with the concentrates that I have, I think it's possible to mix something very similar to what I want

 

[Letitia]

Great, I'm vaping my first tank of DIY juice ! It doesn't taste at all like the juice I wanted to copy, but I don't care, because a) I only made 20ml b) it's not too bad, I'll probably vape it anyway and c) with the concentrates that I have, I think it's possible to mix something very similar to what I want

Congrats!
Be sure to not vape the whole 20ml so you can learn how it steeps. How a juice steeps will determine how much and how often you'll mix it to keep up with usage.

 

[KurtVD]

Congrats!
Be sure to not vape the whole 20ml so you can learn how it steeps. How a juice steeps will determine how much and how often you'll mix it to keep up with usage.

Thank you. I'm having a really hard time with keeping track of things like that in my home (I'm just a messy person), so this will be a real challenge. Right now I realise I should have labelled my first bottle of juice, and instead of doing it now, I'm writing this post...

 

[Letitia]

Thank you. I'm having a really hard time with keeping track of things like that in my home (I'm just a messy person), so this will be a real challenge. Right now I realise I should have labelled my first bottle of juice, and instead of doing it now, I'm writing this post...

I'm the same way, still don't keep notes but do label my juices with the mix date. ELR recipes has good tools for people like us. If you don't want to be mixing weekly you need to know if any flavors you are using fade ot if any need a long steep to shine. Enter your recipes into elr, good calculator imo, and jot anything that you'll want to remember in the note section. Also you can adapt a recipe rather than edit. Adapting let's you keep the original mix to compare against.

 

[Skeebo]

I'm the same way, still don't keep notes but do label my juices with the mix date. ELR recipes has good tools for people like us. If you don't want to be mixing weekly you need to know if any flavors you are using fade ot if any need a long steep to shine. Enter your recipes into elr, good calculator imo, and jot anything that you'll want to remember in the note section. Also you can adapt a recipe rather than edit. Adapting let's you keep the original mix to compare against.

I wasn't aware of this adaptation feature, GAME CHANGER!