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DIY eJuice thread

chipfox

Hey all, new user here. Nice to see a big Irish vaping community!

Anybody else make their own juices? Been at it about 6 weeks and saving so much money.

I've only tried out The Flavour Apprentice and Capella so far but I'm happy with most of the concentrates.

I figured I'd make a megathread to help everybody vape cheaper and try offer my experiences!

I've been buying VG and PG from Irish vendors (that I found on here) but the postage seems to be the big killer. Any good brick and mortar places that sell vape-grade stuff?

It's made how much you can save at the end of the day. Since I got my Kangertech Subox Mini I've been using the RBA they include to make my own coils and I love it. Every little helps

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jno547

Thecageyone wrote: »

What concentrates are the best to try out? how do you know if a concentrate is best at 10, or 15%? Are all concentrates inter-mixable? Do you need sweetener also?

noob questions, I know.

I've tried various recipes using Capella,Flavorart and Flavorapprentice concentrates which are very good but the end result just didn't appeal to me except one,The Milk,which is in the recipe thread and one that was a very nice vape.
Now I use the T juice concentrate from ezsmoke and Vampirevape from Pickandmix,I add 15% to the base so one 30 ml concentrate gives me 200ml juice. There is a good selection to choose from in each of those concentrates and a steep for about 5 days leaves them ready to vape.
Cloudhouse also do a big range of MBV concentrate and some of them are very nice but they also can require a 6/8 week steep for the flavour to come through but well worth a look. The MBV range is good for me with about a 20% mix.

Thecageyone

jno547 wrote: »

I've tried various recipes using Capella,Flavorart and Flavorapprentice concentrates which are very good but the end result just didn't appeal to me except one,The Milk,which is in the recipe thread and one that was a very nice vape.
Now I use the T juice concentrate from ezsmoke and Vampvape from Pickandmix,I add 15% to the base so one 30 ml concentrate gives me 200ml juice. There is a good selection to choose from in each of those concentrates and a steep for about 5 days leaves them ready to vape.
Cloudhouse also do a big range of MBV concentrate and some of them are very nice but they also can require a 6/8 week steep for the flavour to come through but well worth a look. The MBV range is good for me with about a 20% mix.

Nice, I hadn't seen the recipe thread, will have to sift through that one. To start off my plan was to make a strawberry cheesecake, similar to Beard Vape's #05 - one where I could then simply substitute the strawberry for banana. So the ingredients will be the exact same pretty much bar those flavours. And maybe even a mix of both.

So looks like I need Graham cracker, cheesecake, a milky/cream like Bavarian cream, a good strawberry and banana and probably some vanilla. If I could get them all from the one source it would be sweet [hur]

jno547

There are some very good diy recipe sites available,I can't post links at the moment but 'youdipstick' linked some in another post here I think recently.
I can recommend Vampirevape Strawberry Milkshake as a good alternative to Beard 05..

Thecageyone

Here's one I found on the site youdipstick posted:

Cheesecake Graham Crust (TPA): 4%
Cheesecake (OoO): 4%
Malted Milk (TPA or OoO): 5%
Sweet Strawberry (TPA): 12%
Vanilla Custard (TFA):6%

12% sweet strawberry? wow ... that's quite a lot

I'm not sure what "OoO" is, but if I just substitute these for TFA I'll get close enough

chipfox

Not noob questions at all, the information out there isn't so clear. I tend to just try individual flavours to figure out what % I like and them mix them after I have an idea. Sometimes they're ****, sometimes I find something I'd vape every day.

TFA is The Flavour (Perfumer's) Apprentice, sometimes called TPA. They're my favourite but I've only tried about 20 concentrates. They have some bad flavours too... Flavour Art and Capella are up there too.

On websites I've seen people make blanket statements like use 10-15% concentrate. If you used 10% Banana Ripe from TFA if wouldn't matter how much cream or custard you added, all you'd taste is banana, and terrible banana at that. I would strongly, strongly recommend never touching TFA's Banana Ripe. Even 1% overpowers anything and it still tastes like garbage. Don't waste your money. Flavour Arts banana is what you want. Haven't tried any others yet but I'm sure other companies do good banana. I think TFA actually do a Banana Cream but I haven't tried it, and if they use Banana Ripe to make it, I personally wouldn't go near it. I'd start with TFA's Bavarian Cream and Flavor Art Banana.

I bought sweetener (ethyl maltol) a few weeks back and haven't gotten around to using it. I got it with the intention of trying to make TFA's Rapsberry and TFA's Banana Ripe less terrible but I've too much other stuff to mess around with. I'm still learning but having fun, and it's pretty cheap so.

A good rule of thumb, make 5% solutions of any concentrate you make. You'll quickly know what's too strong and what's too weak.

Reddits /r/DIY_ejuice is a good resource, I think it was linked earlier.

Haven't tried TFA's sweet strawberry but I flew through their Ripe Strawberry. You need a lot of it (10%+ for me) but it's a really nice strawberry. Capella's Sweet Strawberry and Flavor Art's Strawberry are very very sweet by comparison.

I've tried TFA's graham cracker too, kind of a nice warm biscuity taste. I always mix it with their Cinnamon Danish Swirl and it tastes a bit like ginger snaps. Not sure what graham cracker is to be honest I think it's an American thing but it's nice stuff. Never really use more than 3%

Thecageyone

Some good tips there, cheers.

Graham cracker is an american thing yeah, I always think of it like a harder, more biscuity version of the wafers we'd use here for ice cream. A bit like the wafer on a cornetto. I can see why it's used for cheesecake and ice cream juices.

It was the banana cream from TFA I was going to try, I'll switch that to FA banana so. I thought banana would be the strongest flavouring alright, just a nice hint of it is all I need.

chipfox

Maybe it's just me but honestly it tastes like some really weird banana vodka or something. You can see why they call it Banana Ripe just because you can kind of get that really old brown banana taste off it but it's such god awful stuff. Might be nice to mix with other banana concentrates but I'm not quite there yet. Ruined a good few mixes even using as low as 2%. If you exhale through your nose it smell/tastes all right but it's not nice in the mouth.

Still learning about the creams for the moment. I find Bavarian Cream kind of mild but I never really use it over 3%. Seems to take a few days to mix properly. Sweet cream is fairly strong even at 3%. This is why I hate when sites say use 5-15% of everything. Everyone is so different. I mix all my creams with Greek Yoghurt anyway. I'm probably not the best mixer but I feel like you don't learn anything unless you mess around and make some crap mixes. You'll never find the right ones for you if you don't

Thecageyone

I guess using 15% say, as where you want to be round-about, then break the individual flavours down within that mark, is where people pull that number from. But already looking around I've seen mixes ranging from 9% to well over 20%. Trial and error is something I never mind, I do that when cooking all the time

I'll make pancakes tomorrow and I won't measure a thing, I just know my mix. It's the same type thing right?

Looks like my starting set will consist of Bavarian cream, graham cracker, strawberry, banana, maybe vanilla custard or cheesecake, and now you have me thinking on yogurt! what yogurt do you use?

Thecageyone

double post central here tonight!

AngryDiMaria

Thecageyone wrote: »

I guess using 15% say, as where you want to be round-about, then break the individual flavours down within that mark, is where people pull that number from. But already looking around I've seen mixes ranging from 9% to well over 20%. Trial and error is something I never mind, I do that when cooking all the time I'll make pancakes tomorrow and I won't measure a thing, I just know my mix. It's the same type thing right?

Looks like my starting set will consist of Bavarian cream, graham cracker, strawberry, banana, maybe vanilla custard or cheesecake, and now you have me thinking on yogurt! what yogurt do you use?

Fookin starving after reading your post

jno547

Thecageyone wrote: »

Here's one I found on the site youdipstick posted:

Cheesecake Graham Crust (TPA): 4%
Cheesecake (OoO): 4%
Malted Milk (TPA or OoO): 5%
Sweet Strawberry (TPA): 12%
Vanilla Custard (TFA):6%

12% sweet strawberry? wow ... that's quite a lot

I'm not sure what "OoO" is, but if I just substitute these for TFA I'll get close enough

If you want something very good and an easy mix try this from JH

Irish Cream with a hint of French Vanilla
Concentrates:
Capella French Vanilla 1%
Capella Irish cream 9%
and mix with:
PG/VG/Nic 90% ( obviously you vary this to your desired nic. strenght and PG/VG ratio

Steeping/shaking/airing takes 2-3 weeks

bd2012

Thecageyone wrote: »

I guess using 15% say, as where you want to be round-about, then break the individual flavours down within that mark, is where people pull that number from. But already looking around I've seen mixes ranging from 9% to well over 20%. Trial and error is something I never mind, I do that when cooking all the time I'll make pancakes tomorrow and I won't measure a thing, I just know my mix. It's the same type thing right?

Looks like my starting set will consist of Bavarian cream, graham cracker, strawberry, banana, maybe vanilla custard or cheesecake, and now you have me thinking on yogurt! what yogurt do you use?

I've a nice strawberry cheesecake recipe here. All TFA I think bar the NY cheesecake (Capella) I think. Haven't made it in a while and I'm away from my recipe notebook

NY Cheesecake 8%
Graham cracker 3%
Bavarian cream 2%
Strawberry ripe 8%
Might need tweaking to taste and definitely gets better after 3-4 weeks steeping. I've given it to others to try too and the reaction has been very good. Very similar to beard. 5

Thecageyone

Yeah something like that sounds good to me, I'd also like to mix up what they call a shake and vape one. Like a banana custard.

But strawberry cheesecake/milkshake is definitely one I will try.

bd2012

Thecageyone wrote: »

Yeah something like that sounds good to me, I'd also like to mix up what they call a shake and vape one. Like a banana custard.

But strawberry cheesecake/milkshake is definitely one I will try.

I've found (now others may disagree) that anything with custard or cream in it really does need a good steep, custards particularly benefit from at least 3-4 weeks unless you're speed steeping them

jno547

bd2012 wrote: »

I've found (now others may disagree) that anything with custard or cream in it really does need a good steep, custards particularly benefit from at least 3-4 weeks unless you're speed steeping them

Very true,the longer steep the better the quality for these flavours.

Thecageyone

What is good to go for in a quick steep juice? I'd like to do a couple of custard types and let them steep, but have one ready to go to start off.

bd2012

Thecageyone wrote: »

What is good to go for in a quick steep juice? I'd like to do a couple of custard types and let them steep, but have one ready to go to start off.

Most fruit mixes seem to be shake n Vape. As is menthol I think. Just the creams and the custards (and tobaccos) really benefit from steeping. All of this just my experience though. Others may vary!

chipfox

Same experience as me mostly. I will note that once I believe the Ripe Strawberry tastes a bit stronger after a few weeks, but I mean realistically you can add 2% for a few cents extra and save the wait.

There are so many different concentrates you can't really be a pro with all of them. TFA's Sweet Cream doesn't need a steep in my opinion, but TFA's Vanilla Custard gets noticeably better after a week. Bavarian Cream seems to work like that too.

You'll also notice that the juices start to turn brown which is a rough indicator of how the taste is progressing. This browning is NOT nicotine oxidising. Wherever this idea came from, it's a straight up lie. Have a passionfruit / blueberry mix sitting beside me that I made 6 weeks ago. Kind of went of it. Lots of concentrates in this one, 12mg nic, clear as water, not a tinge of yellow. All my strawberry custard mixes have a tiny hint of yellow the day I mix, and after about a week they change very noticeably.

Just bought myself a pocket jewellery scales and I'm about to do my first mix by weight. No more syringes for me lads, just drip drip drip drip, got the weight I want. Shake it up, job done. This could not be easier. Anybody still using syringes and painfully cleaning them each time does not know what they're missing!

Thecageyone

On the creams, bavarian, sweet, whipped etc ... I'm guessing when I see recipes with one or other used, I can just sub another that I may have in? I'm sure there's differences, but they do the same type of job really. Especially when they're not the main ingredient, more a sweetener.

chipfox

I don't see any reason you couldn't but really they do taste fairly different. I only have Sweet and Bavarian and they're not really similar at all. I just got Bavarian because it seems like every single mixer in the world uses it, but it's rarely a main flavour by itself, always added to something else.

Oh and yeah I use TFA's Greek Yoghurt (I think you asked about it earlier). I'd say it tastes exactly like the name says. I use it a lot in creamy mixes just because that's what I was expecting. You'll get there!

Thecageyone

chipfox wrote: »

edit: Why is this constantly happening to me? I'm definitely only clicking once and leaving it.

It was happening to me last night too, had to keep deleting the second posts.

I'll get whipped and bavarian for now, as they appear across a few recipes I'm eyeing up, if all goes well I'll try the yogurt

8mm

I emailed the guys at Everything Liquid a while back about nicotine supplies and the TPD:

A quick question on the TPD - will there be any changes to the supply of
small bulk quantities (1 to 5 litre) of nicotine for diy mixers next year?

No we will be skimming past the TPD. We’re ready for it as much as we could be given that not all the facts are set in stone. But part of our business model is to be over-ready for all eventualities, so we’ll be fine.

At present the TPD doesn’t seem to be directly correlated with DIY mixers. As far as we can tell, it won’t affect buying in 1-5 litres of nicotine. However, this isn’t necessarily going to be the case. We’ll know more in the New Year.

Feel free to come back in the new year and ask. We’re always happy to help in whatever way we can.

Kind regards,

Callum Alexander

Account Manager

chipfox

Nice. I order 500ml just to be safe, will see how long it lasts me. Still have 40ml of the 100ml 50mg/l stuff I bought at the start of December. The stuff goes a long long way...

Thecageyone

I was going to buy a starter pack something like they have on that site, the bronze pack would do me for a bit. But then I don't want PG at all, the only PG I will use will be in the flavourings. So my original idea of buying 100% VG with nic base from Cloudhouse probably works out about the same. Just buy the syringes and bottles separate.

I would be starting this week but ... heading away during next week for a few days and need all me pennies for now. Should be ordering a set up very soon though.

chipfox

I got the starter kit from picknmixdiy.com. I only ever really did 50/50 mixes but the flavours were all PG based so I ended up using more of the VG. Even after all this mixing I never changed the ratio, it just seems to work well for me. Might try a higher VG % though everybody seems to do 70/30 vg/pg now.

Ya can't really go wrong with the syringes, you can make really precise mixes. I'm done with them now after making my first mix with a scales though. I'd nearly recommend people just learn to mix by weight and never bother with syringes. Needing new syringes for each flavour and the constant cleaning gets old very fast and feels like it takes ten times longer. I made up a 30ml mix last night in literally 60 seconds. Dripper bottles for PG, VG, Nic, and 3 flavours just adding the exact weight I needed, shake it up and I was ready to go. I can see why people rave on about it now

moleyv

Where do you get the specific weights per ml from?

I just use a syringe with a narrow blunt needle, take out the 'pusher', pour in the liquid from the top to the measurement, then tip the syringe through a funnel into the bottle. The needle is so narrow nothing comes out.

I use a graduated beaker for anything over 20ml

chipfox

PG = 1.036g/ml
VG = 1.261g/ml

For PG based flavours I'm just assuming the PG weight. I have a 50/50 nicotine mix so I assume the mean of both which I have at about 1.15g/ml. If my nic was 100% PG based I would just assume 1.036g/ml exactly like I do with the flavours.

Nicotine's density is almost exactly the same as water and generally 5-10% of the base is actually nicotine and then as a % of the whole mix the nic is practically nothing. 6mg/ml juices are only 0.6% nicotine.

My first mix by weight filled right to my usual mark and even this cheap ass scales is accurate to 1% which is not bad for such a small investment.

I find bits of juices are always left in the syringes and if you're using a blunt needle you're potentially losing even more, and being less accurate than you think you are. At least my blunt needle always held a bit of juice in them as well as the syringe itself.

I think the margin of error is similar for both in the end, but there is absolutely no clean up with going by weight. Used syringes for months and they served me well, but absolutely never going back.

moleyv

Neither is going to be completely accurate. To be fair I really wouldn't assume all PG and VG will be the same weight.

For some of them they say their purity, 97% pure etc. So 3% possibly different. And flavour doesn't just appear inside 100% PG, it has its own weight and volume.

All manufacturers should release specific weights per quantity etc.

The reality is, if its for our own use it doesn't need to be so accurate.

I made some strawberry cheesecake, tastes great even after 1 day. 6% cheesecake graham crust TFA and ripe strawberry TFA 10%.

Thecageyone

Watching some vid's on DIY today, and came across a few 'tubers who mix up batches using just one flavouring. I wonder how many of you do this? Like igetcha69 has a vid up today of his 5 favourite juices, and one is simply his own DIY juice using just Capella' lemon meringue pie @15%. Which is something I would probably love!

Some of the recipes I've come across are very complex, with up to 9 flavourings! :O Maybe keeping it simple is the best way to go when starting out? What moleyv just posted there, for the cheesecake, sounds nice, simple, and tasty!

8mm

I only use syringes for VG,PG and NIC. Flavours are dripped straight from their bottles and I use 32 drips per ml. It's close enough for me and I keep notes so I can adjust as needed. Works out great, simple no fuss. I was going to go with using a scale but it felt like overkill for the amounts I make for personal use.