Need Some Experienced DIY Juice Mixers

[Mr Vape]

Hi Everyone,
I’ve been vaping for years now and now I’m looking for some help to get me started Mixing my own E-liquid. I have purchased all my equipment and bottles and I bought 70/30 with 3% Nicotine already added because I didn’t want to handle raw nicotine.

No is all PG/VG the same in taste or is there a difference between manufacturers?
The same question for Nicotine,are they all created equal?
And what about when you buy PG/VG with Nicotine pre mixed is there any difference between manufacturers and if so has anyone narrowed down which brand is the Best?

Here is my most important question. Many of you have been mixing for years and have tried different flavorings over the years.
I’m hoping that I could ask those of you who have been mixing for a long time which Flavoring do you feel are the Best of the Best?

I’m trying to see if any of you would be so kind to give me your Top 30 flavors and which Brand you use.
I realize everyone has there only Favorites so I was hoping you would be willing to share them with me and others who read this thread.
I have a serious back injury and a doctor who was going to repair the tissue that surrounds the ball of your hip called the Labrum. Well it didn’t go as he said and he extracted all my tissue. It took me 6 months before I final asked him why I wasn’t getting better and that’s when I found out he removed it all.
So I quit smoking thanks to vaping and turned it in something I enjoy and I sell Mods,RDA’s etc on eBay.

So now I have turn to my next hobby and that is mixing my own e-liquid because it looks like fun and will give me something to do being stuck home all day.When you suffer multiple injuries and your everyday life has been taken you find something else to keep your mind busy to not think about the negatives in life but turn it into a positive.

This Forum has been Amazing learning New tips and tricks from all of you and how willing you all are to share your knowledge.
I now live on a fixed income like I was retired so I have to budget what I purchase.I knew that vape shops make a fortune on e-liquid so I said to keep vaping I need to mix my own e-liquid. I slow bought everything I need to make my own e-liquid except the Flavoring.

I’ve look at recipes to try and see what people use but for my pain medicated brain it makes my head spin and I get off the page and say forget it.
With winter hitting New York hard I need something to do before my Brain turns to “Mush”!

So if any of you have the time to share which are your reccomeded Top flavors I would be so Thankful. If you can only put together your Top 10 I would be very Grateful! I need to put together the Top flavors and which ones you think are a must have to start mixing.

I just want to say “Thank You” for reading this and hope you can understand why I’m asking you for your knowledge of mixing. I would hate to buy a Flavor that is terrible and have Nasty e-liquid and then have to save money to buy to better flavor.

Thanks in advanced to All of You!

 

[88ArDeN88]

No not all nicotine, pg/vg is created the same. Handling raw nicotine is not dangerous. I have gotten 100mg on my fingers and rinsed it off and nothing happens. As far as which is best, I'm really not sure and think it is a matter of opinion. I have been purchasing from Wizard Labs and have had a very good experience with their products. As far as flavorings go, that is a really difficult question to answer. It depends on what you like. Some people like Inawera fruits more than FA fruits or TFA fruits and some people like CAP sugar cookie more than they like WF sugar cookie. It is also much a matter of opinion, with that being said I will give you my TOP 5ish in each brands flavors that personally I like the best.

FA (Use anywhere from <1% to 3%)
Cocount
Cream Fresh
Marzipan
Caramel
Cinnamon Ceylon
Cookie
Zeppola
Almond

**FA is one of the more concentrated brands of flavoring compared to say TFA or CAP

INW (use anywhere from <1% to 3%)
Shortbread
Biscuit
Yes We Cheesecake
Raspberry

**INW is also pretty concentrated

TFA (use anywhere from 1% up to 7%)
Strawberry Ripe
Cheesecake Graham Crust
Peanut Butter
Bavarian Cream
Vanilla Bean Ice Cream
Banana Cream
Graham Cracker Clear

CAP (Use anywhere from <1% to 7%)
NY Cheesecake
Sugar Cookie
Vanilla Custard
Glazed Donut
Strawberry Sweet
Cinnamon Danish Swirl
Cereal 27
Vanilla Cupcake

WF (use anywhere from <1% to 3%)
Angel Cake
Brazillian Coffee

FW (use anywhere from <1% to 5%)
Blueberry
Yellow Cake
Hazelnut
Butter Cream

FLV (use anywhere from <1% to 2%)
Whipped Cream
Root Beer
Pineapple
Cranberry
Lemonade
Cookie Dough
Milk and Honey
Milk Chocolate
Peanut Butter

Flavorah is BY FAR the most concentrated of any flavorings I've tried and when starting out to test single flavors start below 1%

I've got some stuff coming in from DIY Flavor Shack and I'm putting in an order for some more WF, VT, OOO, and some RF flavors tomorrow to expand my collection. In 2 months I'm up to 100 concentrates.

 

[Just Frank]

The same question for Nicotine,are they all created equal?
And what about when you buy PG/VG with Nicotine pre mixed is there any difference between manufacturers and if so has anyone narrowed down which brand is the Best?

No, all nic isn't created equal. There are different brands and sites that sell those brands. You have to find a site that is trustworthy. Vaperstek is such a site. I've gotten Chemnovatic nic from them several times. It's pretty flawless IMO. My first nic order (From a different company) tasted peppery and smelled like an ash tray.

There's too many great flavors to list. I suggest you browse recipes. Get the flavors for a few of those recipes and make them. It's HARD to try make something from scratch when you're not familiar with how the flavors taste. You can sidestep this by buying "One-shots". They are recipes with multiple flavors already blended. You just add the one shot to your mix.

Sites for recipes-
E-Liquid-Recipes.com
All The Flavors
Here- DIY Recipes section

Good sites for Flavors-
Bullcity Flavors
Nicotine River
EcigExpress

The flavors used in most recipes on ELR-
http://e-liquid-recipes.com/flavors?sort=num_recipes&direction=desc

The best selling flavors at Bullcity-
https://www.bullcityflavors.com/concentrated-flavoring/?sort=bestselling

Looking at those links you can see what people are using, and what people are buying.They either taste really good, or are useful in recipes.

 

[JuicyLucy]

No is all PG/VG the same in taste or is there a difference between manufacturers?
The same question for Nicotine,are they all created equal?

VG, most of us prefer Palm over soy based. I've never noticed much difference with PG.

Nic brands vary a great deal

I’m hoping that I could ask those of you who have been mixing for a long time which Flavoring do you feel are the Best of the Best?

Flavor Art (FA) - with that in mind, it doesn't apply to all flavors, but generally I personally like FA best. It costs more but you use significantly less

Here is my best advice for buying flavors though: find a few recipes you think you will like, then buy the flavorings AND MAKE SURE YOU BUY THE BRAND RECOMMENDED IN THE RECIPE

Flavorings are not created equal. Cap Caramel is different from TFA Caramel and FA caramel is also different from both: All three taste like caramel, just not the same caramel

This same concept applies to most flavors and brands.

I'm not sharing my list, because the second most important piece of advice (IME) is that just buying a bunch of flavors, then deciding what to mix is a very big mistake - a lot will be missed doing that

 

[The Cromwell]

I'm not sharing my list, because the second most important piece of advice (IME) is that just buying a bunch of flavors, then deciding what to mix is a very big mistake

Yep many of us have fallen down that rabbit hole...
And never tried the Soy based VG but reports are that is is not as good for vaping as the Palm Based.
I have always used Essential Depot PG/VG. If you are a Prime member at amazon it can be cheaper to get there than direct from Essential Depot.

Me? I use My freedom Smokes NIc and have no complaints. However I got mine a couple of years ago and have no idea if it is the same now or not.

My main flavoring brands are CAP and FA with a few from Flavor West.
For all natural flavorings (fruit) I like flavorconcentrates.com.

 

[SteveS45]

Welcome @Mr Vape and I hope you enjoy your stay~!

 

[SteveS45]

Best advice I can offer is to use the KISS Method when starting out. Keep it simple and just make some stand alone flavors to perfect them. Once you have some confidence and made some single flavors that you like start to experiment in small quantities with the finished perfected flavors you made. I mix right in a tank to see how stuff works together. Good luck

 

[The Cromwell]

Probably just my peculiar tastes but I found most of the TFA and Inawera flavorings to be overly chemically tasting.

 

[wildgypsy70]

Late to this party! But I agree with everything said so far.

Good luck and welcome to the rabbit hole!

My only piece of advice is don’t give up. You’re gonna screw up, especially in the beginning. We all did and still do. I just washed out 20+ testers that just didn’t work....but I got one great one outta the deal! Also, cloning is hard. Don’t try it out of the gate.

 

[88ArDeN88]

got a great deal on some 50ml bottles. i keep trying to find 60ml but they are so darn expensive.

 

[gopher_byrd]

@Mr Vape what nicotine level do you vape at? The reason I ask is with the 3mg you bought by time you add flavors your finished juice will be less than 3mg depending on how much flavor you add. It's less expensive in the long run to mix with 100 mg/ml based nic and I haven't had a mishap yet. I only use gloves when decanting nic solution from larger bottles to smaller. If you spill some when mixing just wash it off and you will be fine.

As to where to purchase nic there are several threads where the different vendors are discussed. I last bought nic several years ago from Nicotine River and I have had good luck with it. However, they have since changed their raw nicotine vendors, but I haven't seen any complaints about the new sources. Others use nic from Carolina Extracts, Vaperstek, My Freedom Smokes, EcigExpress, Wizard Labs, Nude Nicotine, Heartland Vapes, and others. You will need to research and decide who gets your business.

For flavor concentrates, every manufacturer has good, so-so, and not well liked. Such is life. I would suggest finding several recipes that look interesting to you and buy the flavors to mix those recipes to start. That way you will start your journey mixing on a good note while trying your hand at creating your own. Bull City Flavors has a section called the Community Recipe Packs. This makes it easy to buy the flavors needed to mix those recipes.

Welcome to VU and welcome to the rabbit/gopher hole of DIY!

 

[dez]

Hi! I am waiting on my shipment from nicotine River, who also sells Chemnovatic nicotine.. (which someone much more knowledgeable about this than me mentioned towards the beginning of your thread, as one that they liked), and they sell VG and PG, some very inexpensive (like $0.49) "bullet bottles", where the top will screw off, and you can mix right into the bottle, and the tip will screw open or closed, so that you can pour out of it without needing a cap for your bottle tip. They also have some other supplies.. and free shipping over $50.

There are several companies that sell kits. You can find them doing a Google search for E-liquid starter kits or e-juice starter kits.

Liquid Barn is one of them, and for 10% off of your first order.. you can use code:
"1ST ORDER".. all in caps like that.. and I believe you can pick just the liquid starter kit (which I think comes with 20 flavors from variou vendors that you can pick, like a couple of other kits I found with Google), on top of getting PG and VG- (look for Palm-derived VG), and nicotine if you want it.
(100mg/100ml nicotine is most commonly used I understand, but if you use that website "E-liquid-recipes".. you can plug in whichever one you bought, and it will tell you how much to use.)

I did also see (in this DIY section I believe), a thread.. where someone had requested a link to a post where someone described a lot of different best flavors from different vendors, and the link got a response, so the conversation was linked where the person noted which ones they thought were the best ones, and a couple of others that are similar, but what the differences are, like if there are 3 different manufacturers that make a "strawberry", it had a description for each one.

-I will try to find that link and bring it here for you (and myself, as I am thinking of trying to mix a couple of different flavors, after I get down mixing just using a flavor concentrate- instead of trying to mix several flavors together into a recipe at once on my first try.) Plus, that just works for me because I am wanting to dupe a juice I was buying online- for a pretty penny- and they do sell that flavor in a concentrate, so it works for me.

There is a link that is stickied towards the top of this section also.. I believe, and it is directions on how to mix by weight, which requires much less supplies, it seems.

They tell you which scale to get (you can get it from Amazon Prime), how to use it, which seems very simple. There is only one button, apparently, that you need to zero out the scale after you put your container on it, before you add the next ingredient, and the next ingredient, and so on.

You can use the E-liquid-recipes app, or the website E-liquid-recipes..(most people here use the website, but for my purposes, I prefer the app for its simplicity and user-friendliness,) where you type in the % of VG / PG/ flavors, and the nicotine % you want (and which nic you are using..48 or 100), and it tells you how much.. (by weight and by milliliter).. of each ingredient to use.

You can save your recipes and you can search for other recipes to try, and you can make notes about your own recipes - if they worked out or not, or what you would change for next time.

This is what I have learned from others here and from this website the last few days, and hope it helps.

I will look for that link with the descriptions of different flavors from different vendors, and post it here as an edit.. if I can find it again. I think it was on the main screen for this DIY section yesterday.