Giving up DIY

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solantis

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I've been DIYing for over a year now and compared to many of the "premium" juices out there I don't come close.

When DIYing my primary goal is flavour rich juice. I've tried various recipes and with maybe 2 or 3 exceptions most of them come out fairly week.

So I'm thinking of giving up because it's feeling like a waste of time but before doing that I thought I'd take a final throw of the side and ask you guys to give me a few tried and tested recipes that are rich in flavour to give me some motivation to continue.
 
solantis said:
I've been DIYing for over a year now and compared to many of the "premium" juices out there I don't come close.

When DIYing my primary goal is flavour rich juice. I've tried various recipes and with maybe 2 or 3 exceptions most of them come out fairly week.

So I'm thinking of giving up because it's feeling like a waste of time but before doing that I thought I'd take a final throw of the side and ask you guys to give me a few tried and tested recipes that are rich in flavour to give me some motivation to continue.
Click to expand...

What recipes have you tried before? Maybe a few adjustments might change your mind.
 
+1, same experience as you. Moved to one shots and premium juice. I still have many concentrates which I think I will probably pif to someone on need soon.

Sent from my WAS-LX1 using Tapatalk
 
solantis said:
I've been DIYing for over a year now and compared to many of the "premium" juices out there I don't come close.

When DIYing my primary goal is flavour rich juice. I've tried various recipes and with maybe 2 or 3 exceptions most of them come out fairly week.

So I'm thinking of giving up because it's feeling like a waste of time but before doing that I thought I'd take a final throw of the side and ask you guys to give me a few tried and tested recipes that are rich in flavour to give me some motivation to continue.
Click to expand...
Persistence is the secret ingredient.
 
@solantis - Sorry to hear about your dissatisfaction with DIY e-liquid... :wasntme:

First and foremost, did you use sweetener when you mixed DIY recipes? Many DIY mixers exclude sweetener from their recipes for various reasons; some for health concerns, some people don't like sweet juice etc.

I can pretty much guarantee that most "premium" juice is using sucralose as its primary sweetener. Some use monk fruit or stevia extract but the vast majority are using CAP Super Sweet or a similar product like FW Sweetener, FLV Sweetness etc. Of those, FLV Sweetness is the best in terms of quality but it's also the most expensive. CAP Super Sweet is definitely the most common...

If you've previously mixed without sweetener, try adding 0.5% of the sweetener of your choice. It will be sweet but probably not as sweet as some commercial juice which could be as high as 2% sweetener :sick:

You can also add to existing mixes of you have any on hand... Adding about 1 drop per 6ml would equate to about 0.5% sweetener...

If you need more help or recipe recommendations, then just let us know what flavour profile you enjoy ;)
 
@solantis, maybe post the recipe of one of your "best" efforts here and we can tell you where you can improve on it. :)

I cannot even imagine not making my own juice. I do buy juice once in a while, but I've been making my own for so long now that it's become part of my normal household rituals. If I stop doing it, I'll probably go into withdrawal.......lol
 
I really enjoy the craft of making eLiquid but with unsatisfying results.

I've tried various sweeteners and yes it does sweeten the juice up but does bring out the flavour profiles in a vivid way as desired.

I've tried one shots and they are amazing. Guess that would be my next best option then.

But if anyone has any guaranteed flavour rich recipe please post it.
 
I also found that most off these recipes suck. They have all these nice discriptions, but they suck. Then went to one shots. Yes some of them suck too, but hey many commercial juice suck aswell. So once I got one shots that I like, I could start playing around with making my own recipes and play around with them till they dont suck, and you always have your oneshots as backup
 
I think the secret to rich flavour is too much flavor. I DIY and occasionally use nasty one shots. The recommended flavor ratio is 25% ! None of my DIY has 25% flavoring. also, most commercial juices are filled with sweeteners to fill your mouth.
No one knows what actually goes into premium juices. I would say its safer to stick to DIY.
Maybe you can meet up with some of the DIYers and try their mixes. if you are in cape town, you can come to the monthly vape meets.
 
What flavour profiles do you like?
I buy some one shots for ease of use but have several recipes that are part of my staple.

I have to agree that a lot of DIY recipes are terrible. Which recipes have you tried?
 
Faiyaz Cheulkar said:
I think the secret to rich flavour is too much flavor. I DIY and occasionally use nasty one shots. The recommended flavor ratio is 25% ! None of my DIY has 25% flavoring. also, most commercial juices are filled with sweeteners to fill your mouth.
No one knows what actually goes into premium juices. I would say its safer to stick to DIY.
Maybe you can meet up with some of the DIYers and try their mixes. if you are in cape town, you can come to the monthly vape meets.
Click to expand...
I dont think that its 25% flavour. Red pill oneshot is 22%, but my guess will be its normal 3-5% concentrates and they just fill the oneshot bottle with PG and give you a higher % to mix at
 
Jean claude Vaaldamme said:
I dont think that its 25% flavour. Red pill oneshot is 22%, but my guess will be its normal 3-5% concentrates and they just fill the oneshot bottle with PG and give you a higher % to mix at
Click to expand...
very much possible, i dont trust them to give me 100% value for my money. but when most of my mixes at even 15% dont give as much flavour as the nasty juice range or some commercial juices you start thinking that the flavour percentages are much higher in them. This or the DIY flavours I am buying are diluted with PG too.
 
I wish there were some affordable lab tests available for us to analyze and compare commercial juices with our DIY. This would once and for all solve the arguments like Flavour percentages and why some nicotine is harsher than the other etc.
 
Also need to consider the PG, VG and Nic that is being used. Or is it a premixed base that you are using? I have heard that there have been some issues around the flavour and harshness when using some of these.
 
Fact is many, many commercial juices and one shots started off as DIY juices.

To make a successful DIY juice takes a lot of effort and time. For me, after about 2 years I felt like I was making headway to satisfy my personal taste. Now, about 4 years down the line, I have more than enough ADVs to keep me going and more.

Yes, at first glance it might seem as if your DIY efforts do not compare to premium commercial juices, but take into consideration that to bring that commercial juice to market also takes a lot of effort and time. You are tasting a commercial juice, which might have taken more than a year to develop and perfect. Or have taken countless iterations, which most DIyers do not have time for. Still, not every commercial juice or one shot you taste is going to suit you. For me, most are too sweet, but sweeter is the general preference out there and the sweet makes the flavours more pronounced. Unfortunately the less sweet commercial juices struggle in the market place.

Once you understand your personal preferences and individual concentrates, DIY starts to pay off. You can see at a glance if a DIY recipe will suit your taste and if it needs tweaking for your taste. For example, Orango Passion by our own TVF I immediately knew is up my alley, but that the CAP Jelly Candy would make it too sweet for me. So I decreased same from 0.75 % to 0.25 % and added 0.25 % TFA Sour as an added insurance and more pop. And a touch of WS-23 for cool. As tweaked, it is perfect for my taste. Just the other day, @X-Calibre786 gave feedback on a recipe I reported and developed further. And he added sweetener and a coolant for his personal taste.

After some years, developing your own DIY recipes also becomes a lot easier.

So, 3 ADVs after a year is good. After 2 years, with the added experience, it could be 10 and so on...

All is not lost, as @GSM500 says above "Persistence is the secret ingredient"!

PS: For more flavour rich juices have you considered using more PG? Being a MTL vaper I mix at 40PG/60VG, for some tobacco juices even at 50PG/50VG, some NET tobaccos with distilled water added.
 
The other thing to remember is that 99% of DIY recipes aren't fully batched and refined as recipes. Even Wayne admits that most of the recipes he publishes are only "90% there". It's the last 10% that will separate a really good commercial juice from a DIY recipe. That is accepted, commercial developers have the time and resources to put into that last 10%. They can make a hundred different batches of a recipe and test what the minor tweaks add to the juice. A DIYer will make maybe three batches, one of them is quite tasty and they'll release the recipe.

Of course there are also many DIY recipes that are horrible. It's an open field, anybody can post any recipe. People are desperate for recognition so they've been mixing for two weeks and they post their 10% FA Dark Bean 15% TFA Bavarian Cream recipe in the hope that the world will laud them for cracking the espresso code and giving us a recipe for the ages. It's the same reason why people who are tone deaf and can't sing a note will line up to audition for American Idol.

Juice is also like food. You can make your own hamburgers or pizza at home but it will never taste like a Big Mac or a Debonair's pizza. There are proprietary additives which they put into their sauces and which your home-made food won't have. Again, they have the time and the resources to develop these things. The fettucine alfredo I make at home will be nowhere near the same dish served by a Michelin star restaurant. But... so what? Am I now going to eat out every night at Michelin star restaurants, simply because it's more tasty? Food is more important than vapour, yet we often are satisfied with just a bowl of cornflakes or a peanut butter sandwich. You don't need everything you consume to be a delicious work of art prepared by a professional.

I choose DIY not just for cost factors but for the creative pleasure. Yes, a lot of juices will suck. But none of them have killed me. Sure, I've finished some of my own juices with "lang tande", and I've flushed many others. But I'm still here. My life hasn't been ruined by them. I don't lie awake at night agonising "if only I'd vaped a commercial juice rather than my own DIY juice this time last year, my life would be so much more complete".

And then you get that moment when you mix up a recipe and you think hey, this is actually pretty good. That's the reward I keep coming back for.

There are many areas where I am more than happy to live with commercial products. I don't have a coffee grinder and I don't buy and blend my own coffee beans from some exclusive importer, I just buy whatever comes in a packet at the supermarket. I never miss not being able to create and tweak and fine-tune my cup of coffee. There are only so many hours in the day so you have to pick and choose what aspects of your life you will do on your own, and which you will pay others to do for you. If making juice is too much PT and you would rather have professionally guaranteed results, buy commercial. Find a juice you like off the shelf and vape it. Boom, done. Don't feel bad if you can't make DIY work for you.
 
My juices have anything between 10 and 15% flavoring.
The secret lies in finding the right company for a specific flavor.

Let's take raspberry as an example. I have tried four different raspberry companies and even pushed up the flavor to 6% on certain ones and still did not get that boost. Comes along FW Raspberry Natural ans voila .... even at low percentages like 2% you get a great raspberry taste.
It is just overwhelming, time consuming and expensive to get to that "ONE" or two that delivers what you need for your recipe.
Mango probably has 30 different variants so exploring on your own could lead to your DIY mission to fall into disdain.

Best is alot of research ...... googling "best pineapple DIY flavoring" or things like that.
Watching DIY channels also helps shortcut out the tedious journey of finding the flavorings that are worthwhile.

You can make great tasting profiles with under 10% flavoring ..... you just need to find the correct ones. :)
 
RichJB said:
The other thing to remember is that 99% of DIY recipes aren't fully batched and refined as recipes. Even Wayne admits that most of the recipes he publishes are only "90% there". It's the last 10% that will separate a really good commercial juice from a DIY recipe. That is accepted, commercial developers have the time and resources to put into that last 10%. They can make a hundred different batches of a recipe and test what the minor tweaks add to the juice. A DIYer will make maybe three batches, one of them is quite tasty and they'll release the recipe.

Of course there are also many DIY recipes that are horrible. It's an open field, anybody can post any recipe. People are desperate for recognition so they've been mixing for two weeks and they post their 10% FA Dark Bean 15% TFA Bavarian Cream recipe in the hope that the world will laud them for cracking the espresso code and giving us a recipe for the ages. It's the same reason why people who are tone deaf and can't sing a note will line up to audition for American Idol.

Juice is also like food. You can make your own hamburgers or pizza at home but it will never taste like a Big Mac or a Debonair's pizza. There are proprietary additives which they put into their sauces and which your home-made food won't have. Again, they have the time and the resources to develop these things. The fettucine alfredo I make at home will be nowhere near the same dish served by a Michelin star restaurant. But... so what? Am I now going to eat out every night at Michelin star restaurants, simply because it's more tasty? Food is more important than vapour, yet we often are satisfied with just a bowl of cornflakes or a peanut butter sandwich. You don't need everything you consume to be a delicious work of art prepared by a professional.

I choose DIY not just for cost factors but for the creative pleasure. Yes, a lot of juices will suck. But none of them have killed me. Sure, I've finished some of my own juices with "lang tande", and I've flushed many others. But I'm still here. My life hasn't been ruined by them. I don't lie awake at night agonising "if only I'd vaped a commercial juice rather than my own DIY juice this time last year, my life would be so much more complete".

And then you get that moment when you mix up a recipe and you think hey, this is actually pretty good. That's the reward I keep coming back for.

There are many areas where I am more than happy to live with commercial products. I don't have a coffee grinder and I don't buy and blend my own coffee beans from some exclusive importer, I just buy whatever comes in a packet at the supermarket. I never miss not being able to create and tweak and fine-tune my cup of coffee. There are only so many hours in the day so you have to pick and choose what aspects of your life you will do on your own, and which you will pay others to do for you. If making juice is too much PT and you would rather have professionally guaranteed results, buy commercial. Find a juice you like off the shelf and vape it. Boom, done. Don't feel bad if you can't make DIY work for you.
Click to expand...

I retched at the thought of 10% FA Dark Ass, thanks @RichJB.
 
@solantis .

Don't forget that there is plenty of information available to you. I would recommend that you take some time to look at some of thefogvlog videos on YouTube. These forum members have a wealth of knowledge which they freely dispense to the DIY plebs. They are also willing to help if you have specific questions.

You should try some of the recipes they recommend.

Good luck and don't give up.

 
Whooo, stop the DIY is dead,, talk stop it right now I say.....

I love the juices I make. Firstly if anyone want to PIF PICK ME........

1. Start with a simple recipe (strawberry and Bavarian cream)
2. When making a recipe think of it as in actual food (if you make a cinnamon doughnut) take the ingredients for example.
A few shakes of cinnimon
Sugar
Dough (milk or cream, Graham crust)
You bake it don't ya so a add AP 5%

Your recipe should look something like this

Total Flav 10% to 15%
1% Cinimon sugar (pick a brand you like)
2% Fresh cream
4 % Graham crust
1% super sweet
1% AP 5%
2% Cereal 27 (it just for some reason tastes doughy)
I just came up with this out of my head
 
Last edited:
Smell your concentrates, taste them

Decide what you are making fruity or minty or desserty, plan pick your ingredients like you would at a store.
Remember salads are fast (steep 1 to 3 days)
Baking takes time (steep a week or three)

If you find that you need a little more of this or that add it during the steep time and keep on tasting the juice during that time it's like tasting your food while cooking to see if it needs salt

(steep until color is close to translucent yellow if you added nic)
 
Last edited:
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