Regular eLiquids vs DIY Liquid

[Blueser]

Oooh what a bold claim... I have personally made a liquid that would make you vomit... Liqourice, aniseed and orange... It had an artificial chemical like taste that i can best describe as evil in a bottle

It was kinda an exaggeration of sorts but not really because I really don't care to vape cheap French perfume.You see I smoked cigarettes and started vaping to quit smoking and in my case/taste...vaping a pineapple upside-down cake W/ a banana on top wasn't something that was going to suffice for a cigarette, nor did I have any desire to do so. If those were my only options, I'd still be smoking two packs a day.

People say taste is subjective but psychological may be the more appropriate term and then you have to factor in that some people are just void of good taste...no one here mind you (take Justin Bieber fans...joke inserted, kinda)....the ravers have a propensity to throw around such accolades as incredible, awesome, amazing, great, etc with impunity...they get all caught up in the vendor/reviewer hype that alters their perception.

I've had very few things in life I considered as awesome and as far as making my own juice is concerned, I look at each mix as something that I personally can vape, taste pretty good and doesn't make me want to gag...but awesome?...by no means...more like acceptable for my taste.

 

[MD_Boater]

I am still working on getting the basics down, but I have made 3 very nice juices so far. Butterscotch, watermelon, and apple sweet tart.

All 3 of them tasted better after 2 days of steeping. The butterscotch was horrible right after I mixed it (using TFA butterscotch and TFA sweetener). I thought I did something wrong. By day 3, it was delicious. The sweetener takes a bit of time to bond with the butterscotch. I used TFA apple candy with some TFA sweet and tart, and even though it tasted good right out of the graduated cylinder, two days later it was even more awesome! I vaped all of it. I think I am going to add some blueberry to that mix next time. And the watermelon... Wow. It is a nice, clean, fresh vape. I had bought some at a local B&M a few weeks ago, and I loved it. Mine tastes exactly the same. I am going to bump it from 15% to 16 or 18% flavor next time, but I am happy, happy, happy.

Nothing beats running out of juice and being able to whip up a fresh batch at home in 10 minutes.

 

[RocketPuppy]

Exactly what I've felt with other flavor (bakery, etc) eLiquids, not for me. I'll definitely contact you sir when I get my DIY. Thanks!

Would be kind of you to tell me what you order. Right now I'm preparing to place my order with RTSVapes

250 ml of 60 mg Nic in each PG/VG (500 ml total)
500 ml of each base PG/VG (1000 ml total)
Flavors: TFA (Coffee, Chocolate and Tobacco)

Not sure if I should be looking for EM (Ethyl Maltol), sweeteners, etc. What's your suggestion to me? Appreciate the advise

For price and quality, Wizard Labs' nicotine is superior to RTS, imo and many others here. Their TPA/TFA 2 dram bottles are 1.49 (in glass), and their pg/vg is also cheaper. The owner is a chemist and is very stringent on quality. Free shipping over $65, and the packaging could fall from a plane and be unharmed.

One you find flavors you really like, you can order direct from TPA. You can sign up for bulk 4 oz plus sizes (with just your email) for around $6.50-10, depending on flavor.

Personally, I like sweeteners, and you'll play around with your favorite. I started with EM but gradually started trying the different cotton candies, marshmallows, among others for sweetness.

People usually refer to me as ms not sir since I'm female =). Hard to decipher since dogs are male and cats are female (or so I thought at 5).

 

[RocketPuppy]

Nothing beats running out of juice and being able to whip up a fresh batch at home in 10 minutes.

The best!!!

Slightly better than a fresh batch of chocolate chip cookies.

 

[AthensGa]

I am still working on getting the basics down, but I have made 3 very nice juices so far. Butterscotch, watermelon, and apple sweet tart.

All 3 of them tasted better after 2 days of steeping. The butterscotch was horrible right after I mixed it (using TFA butterscotch and TFA sweetener). I thought I did something wrong. By day 3, it was delicious. The sweetener takes a bit of time to bond with the butterscotch. I used TFA apple candy with some TFA sweet and tart, and even though it tasted good right out of the graduated cylinder, two days later it was even more awesome! I vaped all of it. I think I am going to add some blueberry to that mix next time. And the watermelon... Wow. It is a nice, clean, fresh vape. I had bought some at a local B&M a few weeks ago, and I loved it. Mine tastes exactly the same. I am going to bump it from 15% to 16 or 18% flavor next time, but I am happy, happy, happy.

Nothing beats running out of juice and being able to whip up a fresh batch at home in 10 minutes.

What were your ratios on the Apple Candy and Sweet Tart? Apple Candy has been driving me nuts. It just tastes awful to me, and I'd love to make it vapeable.

 

[MD_Boater]

It was 12% apple candy. I added 3 or 4 drops of TFA sweet & tart to.5ml of it. It was my first night trying DIY, so it was just an experiment at the time. My wife liked it, but would like more apple. I am going to try adding some TFA apple tart to it, maybe 3% to get to 15% total. You'll need between 4 and 8 drops of the sweet and tart. It had to steep for almost 2 days to fully develop.

 

[HeadInClouds]

Just wondering, what everyone thinks about regular eLiquids from different merchants vs the DIY stuff.

It took me a while to get to the point where I can say I prefer my own recipes. I have a huge collection of flavorings and I've mixed more combinations than I can count. I figured I'd end up with one "best" of each flavor, but it turns out I find a use for nearly everything. This one in cocoa, that one for coffee, these two never go with fruit, the other never over 3%.... I really enjoy imagining a new flavor and making it reality. There's nothing like the first puff on a great recipe you made yourself!

I've bought liquids I liked very much, but even when I've managed to clone the flavor, I now prefer my own recipes. I can add or take away flavors as I see fit, make them as strong/weak as I like, any time I have the whim. Completely custom vapes, what a treat!

So it took a lot of experimenting to get here, but I definitely prefer my DIY to the liquids I originally bought. It was worth the time and effort (fun!) it took to get here.

 

[Steamix]

DIY juices have that one most important ingredient that's simply unavailable for ready-made e-liquids :

TLC

'Cuz you know who you're making it for...

Or did you ever hear of any shop capable of beating granny's home-made apple pie ?

 

[Mia11]

Hey PO, I, too, adore tobacco and coffee flavors, and it's not difficult to recreate and/or reinvent some sublime creations. Every fruity, minty, etc... I've tried or made is not for me. Let me know if you need suggestions for flavorings. I've narrowed it down to about 40 necessary flavorings in order to create limitless or singular recipes in the t/c categories.

I'm surely not an expert in any sense, but as someone who enjoys the same flavors as you, I spent too many wasted paychecks on stuff I may some day have use in baked goods.

I was hoping to be as flavor adventurous as the other diy-ers here, but to me, there's nothing better than a nice cup of joe (though I do have a personal quest to make every ry4 concoction available).

I don't know about anyone else, but I would love to get a look at that list. Please post it!

 

[vapero]

I started DIY when I was an exclusive tobacco vaper I had great luck with Vapingzones super concentrates the got hangsen's tobaccos and they are amazing, both brands are! then went into a fruit phase and love both vendors fruits also...
for me my tobaccos are much better from premixed as I can tweak them a lot.

here is my liquid making step by step breakdown
phase 1
I usually make a 5ml single flavor of each new flavoring to get an idea of the taste
phase 2
I figure out what I like of each 5ml mix and start mixing part of those first mixes by drops into a dripper
phase 3
once I get a good taste I mix say (1ml of one and .5ml of the other for example) into another small bottle and adjust the ratio
phase 4
make a recipe based on the previous results

I've gotten some really great and complex results of what I want like this and I KNOW I won't get that with a bought liquid.

here are two examples of this:

FOR A TOBACCO ONE
arabic indian parliament tobacco 18mg 50PG/50VG 10ml

Nicotine eJuice 1.8ml 63 Drops 18%
Target PG 50% 4.11ml 41.1%
Target VG 50% 3.2ml 32%
FOR A NUTTY TASTE HS arabic 0.2ml 7 Drops 2%
FOR A SWEET TOBACCO TASTE HS indian 0.25ml 9 Drops 2.5%
FOR A BIT MORE WET ROBUST TASTE VZ Parliament 0.06ml 2 Drops 0.6%
FOR A SWEET CREAMY TASTE EM 0.3ml 10 Drops 3%
A LITTLE BIT MORE NUTTY AP 0.08ml 3 Drops 0.8%



FOR A FRUITY ONE
cool fruits 20mg 35PG/65VG 5ml
Nicotine eJuice 0.9ml 32 Drops 18%
Target PG35% 1.2ml 42 Drops 24%
Target VG65% 2.35ml 82 Drops 47%
FOR THE TOP NOTE HS Juicy Peach 0.22ml 8 Drops 4.4%
UNDERTONE NOTE HS Black Cherry 0.05ml 2 Drops 1%
FOR THE TANGY-NESS HS Mango 0.025ml 1 Drops 0.5%
FOR TARTNES HS Granny Smith Apple 0.015ml 1 Drops 0.3%S
FOR A HINT OF MENTHOL TASTE Menthol 0.2ml 7 Drops 4%
TO ADD MORE COOLING WITHOUT MORE MENTHOL TASTE Koolada 0.035ml 1 Drops 0.7%

 

[RocketPuppy]

I don't know about anyone else, but I would love to get a look at that list. Please post it!

Well...we may have a problem Houston. I said 40, but by the time I typed it out, it came to about 80. I tried to cut it down to 40 but couldn't. These are my must haves. The flavors in blue are ones I absolutely, absolutely have to have.

 

[RocketPuppy]

View attachment RocketPuppyNecessities.xlsx This is an attachment test. I have no idea what I'm doing.


Oh. I think it worked =)

 

[jgoss]

This is a great thread. Personally, I started DIY because I got tired of buying a bottle of juice and saying to myself "Man this would be really good if it had a little more (fill in the blank) or a little less (fill in the blank). Now If I can adjust recipes at my whim. I was also getting tired of giving away juice. There were some that might have been good, but just weren't for me. There was at least one that nobody in my group of friends would touch after trying.

I liked vapero's breakdown of how he (or she) tests flavors. I do pretty much the same thing, but I make a bit more, because sometimes I don't like a flavor at first, but then I warm up to it. I also taste all my ingredients (excluding nicotine) by themselves. Just a tiny bit on my finger and I swish it around in my mouth a bit. I also do that with finished juices, as I vape very low nic now. I feel it gives me a bit more of an insight on the exact flavor profile, and I remember the flavor better.

 

[vapero]

I'm a he....