# Newbie looking for help (Fruity all day vape)



## mikrouwel (4/2/16)

Hey guys,

(Long vape story ahead, you can skip the long intro)

So I am newbie to the whole vaping scene, never mind the mixing scene. I started mixing due to vaping on a student budget and not being able to buy pre-made juices all the time - as much as id love to 

Anyways my first juices I brought where juices from Vape King (Gummy Berry, VK4 and Menthol). They where pretty good, I personally enjoyed mixing either one of the Gummy Berry or VK4 with some menthol. I then purchased some PG, VG, nic and vanilla flavor from Just B vapes when I was in Durban. I ended up making a vanilla flavor and adding some of the same menthol for a kick.

Whilst in Durban I was getting dry hit issues with my iJust 2 so I went through to Sir Vapes to seek advice and they told me that they are unsure where Just B source their nic from and I shouldn't use their stuff (very unprofessional I thought- but besides the point). Being a noob I took their advice and bought some Hazeworks sunset (I believe their house brand?). Quite a nice flavor, but I wasn't crazy impressed. Turns out the dry hit issue with the iJust 2 was easily fixable by taking a pin and poking a tiny whole in the cotton to increase wicking  (Only found that out much later on)

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So to skip ahead abit...

I finally managed to save up the cash to get myself a RX200 with a Crius. I have been vaping away all the juice I have (mixing and matching the Vape King juices with my Vanilla mix to make it last longer) since I completely blew my budget on the set up, but now I finally have some money to invest in some more DIY goodies. I am now in Cape Town and have been advised that Vape Mountain and Valley Vapor sell flavor.

My first question is can I trust the stuff I brought from Just B? Secondly I want to make a strawberry, vanilla, menthol/fruity kind of all day vape, what other flavors should I look at buying?

I have read great things about Vape Mountains products so I assume their in house flavors will be good too? Alternately Valley Vapor sells the branded flavors that I can also purchase to mix.

Thanks for reading though my whole vape story and I hope you can help, all advice is welcome even if its just a small tip

Reactions: Like 2


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## shaunnadan (5/2/16)

Hi 

So a bit shocked when reading through all of this and at best I can say is no comment. In regards to the nic I'm very picky and only use 1 supplier locally and if the stars align properly I sometimes find a deal to import nude nic which I really prefer.

When looking for fruity mixes perhaps consider getting a variety of fruits and not just strawberry. Cherry and vanilla pair very well, so does apple and mint. 

To round off the fruity without it being so harsh a bit of cream can go a long way. Fresh cream is magic with strawberry 

I'd also recommend getting some concentrates to make "something else" like a dessert or coffee. After a while you get so used to the Flavour of your own diy that it tastes mute. Mix up your own juices so that your tastebuds get a decent refresh

Best of luck With the diy and do keep us informed on your progress

Reactions: Like 3


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## Lingogrey (5/2/16)

mikrouwel said:


> Hey guys,
> 
> (Long vape story ahead, you can skip the long intro)
> 
> ...


Hi again @mikrouwel 

As far as the source of Just B's nicotine are concerned, you have absolutely nothing to worry about. I just checked and they source their nic from Prime Nic, which is the source of many, if not most, of the reputable local e-liquid brands and is also what Valley Vapour sells:




Different vendors and mixologists might have different ways in which they store their nicotine though (e.g. some keep it refrigerated / in a freezer whilst others store it in a dark space at coolish room temperature. None should store it in direct light or heat, but I guess it's possible that some do. Also, some buy in larger batches whilst other prefer smaller batches to keep it 'fresh'). The nic available from DIY vendors are also diluted from the 100 mg nic that they get from Prime Nic and I would guess that they _might_ have different standards in dilution. That being said, I would think that it's more than likely that Just B uses proper storage and dilution methods and, in any case, you should be able to tell the relative condition of your nicotine to some extent by the appearance and the smell. If it is from a good source, clear and just has a very slight peppery smell, it should be OK. If it's started darkening / yellowing and has any kind of unusual smell (the latter not always apparent), it's not.

As far as the flavorings are concerned - I am not sure if Vapour Mountain use the same flavorings in their juices as those they stock, but it would make sense that they do. If that's the case, I am sure that they are of high quality (I have only used their Rooibos which is good, but has to be mixed at high percentages). However, one thing to consider when buying other brands than that of the big flavor brands commonly used for e-liquids (TFA, Cap, FA, FW, Inw, Flv and LA) is that it would be hard for you to find out what flavor percentages to use at first and a lot of trial and error (and, inevitability then, wastage) would have to be involved. With the bigger brands you could check on a site such as e-liquid-recipes.com (a number of others as well) what the median mixing / single flavor percentages for specific flavors are and see how they are used in other recipes as well. Most of the recipes on this forum's DIY section would also predominantly use the 'big brands'.

I think @shaunnadan 's advice to get a number of concentrates are wise words. I realise that you're on a student budget, but if you can make a few proper mixes (and not just one that you'll get tired of), you'll be saving money on juices almost immediately.

All the best with the mixing!

Reactions: Like 2 | Informative 2 | Useful 1


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## blujeenz (5/2/16)

mikrouwel said:


> I am now in Cape Town and have been advised that Vape Mountain and Valley Vapor sell flavor.
> 
> Secondly I want to make a strawberry, vanilla, menthol/fruity kind of all day vape, what other flavors should I look at buying?
> 
> ...



While Im a big fan of Vapour Mountain inhouse juices, I wouldnt buy their flavour concentrates, because being a noob I work off a recipe, which usually only talks about TFA TPA ie international flavours.

Ive been looking for french vanilla, ripe strawberry, whipped cream and vanilla swirl.( Huehuehue - Lap Dance V2)
Those flavours are only at http://valleyvapour.co.za(locally)

I find that VM's Legends Dean is an excellent coffee for 1 tank and rotate that with their Peach2rooibos in another, the two complement each other well.

Reactions: Agree 1


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## rogue zombie (5/2/16)

One of the best, and simplest Strawberry Vanilla is still Mustard Milk:

TFA Strawberry 6%
TFA Vanilla Bean Ice Cream 8%

TFA I.e The Flavour Apprentice are available from Valley Vapour.

I always recommend this recipe because it's so damn good, while only using 2 ingredients. And I still vape this every month after a year of DIY'ing.

Reactions: Like 2 | Winner 2 | Creative 1


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## Silver (5/2/16)

Hi @mikrouwel

I am no DIY expert but can fully vouch for Supporting Vendors Vapour Mountain and Valley Vapour.
@Oupa from Vapour Mountain and @drew from Valley Vapour are top class guys and will help you out. Their products are good.

From Vapour Mountain, i can vouch for their ready made juices. Check out their latest 3 for 2 special on 100ml quantitites they are running till 12 Feb.

As far as DIY goes, if you want to use recipes that use TFA, Capella etc, then go to Valley Vapour. They have a great selection and Drew can also offer you help and advice. I have also used his Nic and PG and VG and its all good to my taste.

Vapour Mountain's concentrates are also good. But you wont find recipes online for them. I use Lime occasionally for my Lime Ice and I use their menthol daily in many of my juices or as an additive to ready made juices.

All the best. Let us know how it goes

Reactions: Like 1


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## blujeenz (5/2/16)

rogue zombie said:


> One of the best, and simplest Strawberry Vanilla is still Mustard Milk:
> 
> TFA Strawberry 6%
> TFA Vanilla Bean Ice Cream 8%
> ...



Nice to know who the culprit is.

Reactions: Like 1 | Funny 3


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## rogue zombie (5/2/16)

blujeenz said:


> Nice to know who the culprit is.
> 
> View attachment 44960



Lol...

I've actually never tried the CAP one, which I think I should.


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## Robert Howes (5/2/16)

are the locally ready made juices not competitive in price to DIY. I know i pay R310 for 100ml ADV from VM. It is locally made but stands up to the best international juices IMO. I did try the DIY route and found with all the failures that it was more expensive in the long run.

Reactions: Winner 1


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## rogue zombie (5/2/16)

Robert Howes said:


> are the locally ready made juices not competitive in price to DIY. I know i pay R310 for 100ml ADV from VM. It is locally made but stands up to the best international juices IMO. I did try the DIY route and found with all the failures that it was more expensive in the long run.


Local pricing is good for sure per mil. I mean they cant be in business making R10 or R20 a bottle of coarse.

But DIY is definitely cheaper.

And what normally happens is you develop taste for your own style of mixing.

I personally don't use sweeteners and the recipes I enjoy are generally not mainstream sort of stuff.

Reactions: Agree 1


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## rogue zombie (5/2/16)

@Robert Howes but yes that is a good point - if you don't at some stage start getting it right, there's plenty waste, and therefore can be more expensive.

But like me for example, for the lasts 6 months, I always ask the friend that got me into vaping how much he spent on juice that month. He couldn't be bothered with DIY. And it's always more than me in DIY. He vapes about as much as me, and only buys local lately.

And if I stopped buying concentrates now, I'd probably still have enough to get by six months or more.

Reactions: Like 1


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## Silver (5/2/16)

Just to add to what @rogue zombie is saying and to the question of @Robert Howes 
Also may help the OP (@mikrouwel)

I think it is good to try get one or two cost effective vapes for your "run of the mill" vaping. Something you can vape all day that you like a lot that wont cost an arm and a leg.

This could be

a well priced local juice or 
an 18mg that you "double up" in volume by adding PG/VG or 
a simple DIY mix. 
Then you get other ready made more expensive juices for the occasional vape and taste as budget allows.

Another way of saving a bit is to up the nic level slightly because you will likely vape less.

Reactions: Like 2 | Informative 1


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## mikrouwel (5/2/16)

Wow, thanks everybody for all the comments.

@shaunnadan I will definitely try adding some cream to my fruit mixes, it sounds delicious. I will keep posting my findings as I progress through my vaping journey  

@Lingogrey thanks for all the info regarding nic and putting my mind at ease. I agree that having a variety of flavors will be necessary, I guess its just like eating. You get tired of the same dish if over eaten. As my budget allows I will expand my flavor collection (by then hopefully my mixing skills would improve) and start making more complex juices.

@blujeenz and @Lingogrey I think I will start off with the branded flavors due the recipes already out their and less of a chance of failure.

@rogue zombie thank you so much for the recipe, I see there are two different strawberries on the Valley Vapor website. One is the ripe on and one is the normal one. What is the difference? Also have you tried the TFA Strawberries & Cream Flavour? (perhaps @shaunnadan has tried this?) Last question, do you think I could add a tiny bit of menthol to your recipe for a sort of a cool kick?

Thanks @Silver, for the amount I would like to vape my budget only really allows for DIY at the moment, but as that changes I am excited to try out many of the competitive local juices 

It looks like I will be able to get two flavors next week to start messing around with and probably another 3/maybe 4 next month.

Reactions: Like 4


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## mikrouwel (5/2/16)

Completely off topic question, but would anybody know why the vanilla flavor I have from Just B settles in the tank if left to stand for a few hours? No matter how much I tilt the tank it doesn't seem to ever mix back in :/

In that pic it is mixed with a little berry from vape king but it does it with just pg/vg and nic as well.


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## rogue zombie (5/2/16)

mikrouwel said:


> Wow, thanks everybody for all the comments.
> 
> @shaunnadan I will definitely try adding some cream to my fruit mixes, it sounds delicious. I will keep posting my findings as I progress through my vaping journey
> 
> ...


Mustard Milk is normal Strawberry (not Ripe). 

Strawberry Ripe is great too, and others I've seen use it for this recipe. But it's not as strong and you need to up the percentage to 10%.

Ripe is more natural strawberry but very light. I normally use it with other strawberries, to give them more dimension.

Strawbbery and Cream was okay for me, but I never bought it again. I also could never mix it with anything else.

Reactions: Like 1


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## mikrouwel (5/2/16)

Thanks for clearing that up!


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## Lingogrey (5/2/16)

rogue zombie said:


> Mustard Milk is normal Strawberry (not Ripe).
> 
> Strawberry Ripe is great too, and others I've seen use it for this recipe. But it's not as strong and you need to up the percentage to 10%.
> 
> ...


@mikrouwel - Related to what @rogue zombie said on having to up the Strawberry Ripe as sub for the normal Strawberry - Seeing that your budget to buy concentrates are a bit limited, it's also important to take the 'potency' of specific concentrates into account. If you buy Strawberry Ripe (and as you saw in the other thread, personally I like that one), you would only be able to make 100 ml of the Mustard Milk (variation), whereas with the 'normal' you would be able to make 160 ml (not taking into account that your VBIC will run out at 130 ml). 

I haven't really tried much FA, but apparently their flavorings are generally quite a bit more 'potent' (simply meaning that you would use them in lower percentages than TFA / Cap / FW / LA (Inawera and most especially Flavorah can be used in very low percentages, but they are a bit more expensive than FA, TFA & FW at R 60 and Cap and LA at R 65 from Valley Vapour)

For your first two puchases, I think that the ingredients for @rogue zombie 's recipe would be spot on. The FA might be something to consider for next month's 3 / 4 concentrates though - just a suggestion.

Reactions: Like 4


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## mikrouwel (7/2/16)

Lingogrey said:


> @mikrouwel - Related to what @rogue zombie said on having to up the Strawberry Ripe as sub for the normal Strawberry - Seeing that your budget to buy concentrates are a bit limited, it's also important to take the 'potency' of specific concentrates into account. If you buy Strawberry Ripe (and as you saw in the other thread, personally I like that one), you would only be able to make 100 ml of the Mustard Milk (variation), whereas with the 'normal' you would be able to make 160 ml (not taking into account that your VBIC will run out at 130 ml).
> 
> I haven't really tried much FA, but apparently their flavorings are generally quite a bit more 'potent' (simply meaning that you would use them in lower percentages than TFA / Cap / FW / LA (Inawera and most especially Flavorah can be used in very low percentages, but they are a bit more expensive than FA, TFA & FW at R 60 and Cap and LA at R 65 from Valley Vapour)
> 
> For your first two puchases, I think that the ingredients for @rogue zombie 's recipe would be spot on. The FA might be something to consider for next month's 3 / 4 concentrates though - just a suggestion.



Thanks again @Lingogrey. I am going to do an order for TFA Strawberry and TFA Vanilla Bean Ice Cream sometime this week from Valley Vapor and will post an update on how the mixing goes 

If all is successful, my next order after this I would like to try a "Fruit Loops" kind of flavor

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## rogue zombie (7/2/16)

mikrouwel said:


> Thanks again @Lingogrey. I am going to do an order for TFA Strawberry and TFA Vanilla Bean Ice Cream sometime this week from Valley Vapor and will post an update on how the mixing goes
> 
> If all is successful, my next order after this I would like to try a "Fruit Loops" kind of flavor


Fruit Loops vapes are pretty easy. As in they generally come out well

Reactions: Like 1


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## NewOobY (7/2/16)

@mikrouwel - I remember you from another forum, we traded some PC parts a very long time ago. I think you were still very young back then, seems you have grown up .

In terms of being on a budget, I'd suggest you look at @Vapeowave (www.vapeowave.co.za), they are by far the cheapest DIY concentrate vendor - yes they don't stock all brands, but they do have some very good brands available.

I think you should get some
TFA: Sweet cream
TFA: Bavarian Cream
CAP: Vanilla Custard V1 preferably if you not worried about popcorn lung, if you are then V2.

For a nice creamy base for a strawberry shake. The recipe that @rogue zombie posted is a definite winner, that was my very first DIY i made. The best thing about DIY-ing is that you can try different things, just keep concentrates low and you should be fine.

Good luck bro


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## mikrouwel (7/2/16)

Thanks @rogue zombie, I really appreciate all your help!

@NewOobY Yeah I did alot of PC deals back when I was into modding  I hadn't heard of @Vapeowave before so I will have a look at their stuff


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## mikrouwel (11/2/16)

I made the juice and although it still has to steep I did try it and its lovely. I am getting a slight bit of a peppery taste though, im guessing from the nic? I made a 6mg juice so it has quite alot of nic in it. My next DIY batch I will get nic from valley vapor 

As the juice steeps longer the peppery taste goes away, Im guessing as the flavors become stronger due to steeping they are overpowering the nic.

Reactions: Like 1


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## method1 (11/2/16)

mikrouwel said:


> I made the juice and although it still has to steep I did try it and its lovely. I am getting a slight bit of a peppery taste though, im guessing from the nic? I made a 6mg juice so it has quite alot of nic in it. My next DIY batch I will get nic from valley vapor
> 
> As the juice steeps longer the peppery taste goes away, Im guessing as the flavors become stronger due to steeping they are overpowering the nic.



Could be the nic.

But… lots of people get pepper from vanilla bean ice cream, I'm one of them 
If the pepper is coming from the VBIC - which for me it does at anything over 4% - try 4% VBIC and 4% TFA vanilla swirl.


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## mikrouwel (11/2/16)

method1 said:


> Could be the nic.
> 
> But… lots of people get pepper from vanilla bean ice cream, I'm one of them
> If the pepper is coming from the VBIC - which for me it does at anything over 4% - try 4% VBIC and 4% TFA vanilla swirl.



Thanks!


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## mikrouwel (21/2/16)

I made a new thread regarding making a fruit loop juice, everyone here was so helpful last time so if you're able to help again I would greatly appreciate it 

http://www.ecigssa.co.za/want-to-make-a-friut-loop-juice.t19842/


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## daniel craig (21/2/16)

method1 said:


> Could be the nic.
> 
> But… lots of people get pepper from vanilla bean ice cream, I'm one of themIf the pepper is coming from the VBIC - which for me it does at anything over 4% - try 4% VBIC and 4% TFA vanilla swirl.


Definitely the VBIC. I get that peppery note as well even though my nic is good because I use it in other mixes. I'll try what you suggested. You think 6% TFA strawberry and 4% FV and 4% VBIC will be the same as 6% strawberry and 8% VBIC ?


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## method1 (21/2/16)

daniel craig said:


> Definitely the VBIC. I get that peppery note as well even though my nic is good because I use it in other mixes. I'll try what you suggested. You think 6% TFA strawberry and 4% FV and 4% VBIC will be the same as 6% strawberry and 8% VBIC ?


 
FV?


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## daniel craig (22/2/16)

method1 said:


> FV?


Sorry about that. I meant French Vanilla.


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## method1 (22/2/16)

daniel craig said:


> Sorry about that. I meant French Vanilla.



Worth trying - I haven't used that exact combo before myself so I can't say for sure - vanilla swirl is more "ice creamy" and pairs well with VBIC for this purpose.

If you use French Vanilla, use it a little lower, say 2-3% and see how that works.

Another option is is 3-4% VBIC with 1% Fresh Cream and 0.5% meringue.

Alternatively use capella VBIC at 4-5% instead.

Good luck!

Reactions: Like 1 | Informative 2


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## daniel craig (22/2/16)

method1 said:


> Worth trying - I haven't used that exact combo before myself so I can't say for sure - vanilla swirl is more "ice creamy" and pairs well with VBIC for this purpose.
> 
> If you use French Vanilla, use it a little lower, say 2-3% and see how that works.
> 
> ...


Thanks, I'll give the sweet cream with meringue a try. It will add a better texture.


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## daniel craig (22/2/16)

It's weird that other people don't get that peppery note also.


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## method1 (22/2/16)

daniel craig said:


> Thanks, I'll give the sweet cream with meringue a try. It will add a better texture.



cap or tfa sweet cream?



daniel craig said:


> It's weird that other people don't get that peppery note also.



Lots of people do. I find it's even more pronounced with a strawberry combo

Reactions: Agree 1


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## daniel craig (22/2/16)

method1 said:


> cap or tfa sweet cream?



I have TFA at the moment


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