Advice before starting diy needed.

[Mike H.]

My near future includes trying my hand at diy juices.

My first question is, is RTS a a quality supplier for all the liquids ill need?...Ive heard vapertek is the best nicotine but i need this to be as low cost as possible without it being a very low quality crap tasting e juice.

I vape with simple kanger tanks on an mvp 20w and purchase e juice at a 50 50 blend with 12mg nicotine levels and usually find flavor i like with a 20 to 30 percent flavor boost option.

My second question is, can i find simple single flavor concentrate that give an honest flavor without needing to buy 5 different flavors to make it work?...It seems based on the toddmuller calculator i need 3 bottles of 10ml flavoring to get a 30 percent flavor boost with a 100ml batch of e liquid....thats a bit costly for me with the highest quality flavorings ...Im wanting to lower my cost for e juice in general...I pay anywhere from 18.00 to 21 dollars shipped for 102ml bottles of e juice now from an online source.

Im not opposed to having different flavoring just not 3 bottles of each costing 5 dollars per bottle.

Any guidance in making it as least expensive but make it a somewhat quality juice would be appreciated.

 

[Graham Bradley]

DIY mixing can be fun and frustrating at the same time! It mostly just takes patience and experimentation to find the mixes and flavors that you like. I usually mix with 70% VG 30% PG because i use a sub ohm tank. PG helps boost the flavor, and VG helps boost the vapor. If you like flavors that go a long ways, than you want alcohol based flavors because they are generally more potent. I have made mixes with all alcohol based flavors that are very strong in flavor but only ended up at 5% total flavors. Loranne, Natures Flavors, and Express (found at ecigexpress) are mostly alcohol based brands.

 

[freemind]

You want to buy your flavors in larger quanities. I buy 30 mil or larger bottles of flavors I use. I buy about ALL my flavorings from E cig Express.

And the percent of your flavors depends on two things.
1 How strong you like it.
2 the concentrate of the flavorings.

Some are more concentrated than others. I use a lot of FA and TFA flavorings. Nic Vape is another that is strongly concentrated.

Start buying flavorings in smaller quanities to see if you like them. THEN move to 30+ mils at a time. The larger bottle of a flavor you buy, the cheaper it is.

Don't just assume flavoring needs to be 30%. Mine are 10% total, generally.

 

[OBDave]

I'm a bit of a Bull City Vapor fanboy these days - good prices and a wide variety of flavors, plus the VapersTek nicotine - I tried some mystery stuff I bought from a local shop once and won't be using anything aside from VT or Nude (which I got a sample of and liked) going forward.

As far as flavors go, @freemind is right in that you should get a bunch of sample bottles, mix small batches, and see what you like. Then buy big bottles of the stuff you're going to use a lot of.

Flavour Art tends to be stronger than others, most people mix these at under 10%, but even some of the others like TFA I generally don't see mixers going over 15-20% often. I haven't dabbled with alcohol flavorings or Nic Vape yet, but those might also be good options for super-strong flavor.

Another thing - what kinds of flavors do you like? I do a lot of fruits and sweet-and-sours, but I've heard that less expensive nicotine that can be a bit harsher is less of a big deal with tobaccos and other dark flavors...

 

[Mike H.]

Thanks everyone...i went with a crap load of FA samples from mamasjsjuice and some other supplies from bull city.

Already made a couple mixes i like so far.

An espresso and cream and a jamaican coconut cream rum...will be trying out some new stuff tonight.

 

[Mike H.]

OBDave,...i seem to like fruit and candy type stuff so far..ill try some bakery and other things in time.

 

[OBDave]

OBDave,...i seem to like fruit and candy type stuff so far..ill try some bakery and other things in time.

If that's the case, you might have better luck with better nic...less flavoring needed to combat the harshness. Only reason I brought it up, though I'm far from an expert, having only tried a few different suppliers to date.

 

[BigNasty]

OK I tend to go in waves of fruits and deserty vapes, good for a change of pace.
Get samples is fine once you get comfy with mixing and trying new things, find one recipe or three and hammer them out till you can;t stand them or can do them in your sleep.
As far as nic goes MFS is pretty decent and kick ass pricing, ECX is slightly more but lower shipping costs till the free shipping mark.

Good VG and smooth pg is the most important. The vg you seek is the coconut based not the modified soy based.

 

[Mike H.]

Was going to give vaporstek nic a try...i found myself going lower nic wise to combat harshness im getting from the rts nic..not sure how rts vg is really compared to others...my first purchase of it really.

I did want more vg and picked up some from bull city when they restocked.

 

[Mike H.]

Who sells coconut base vg? and smooth pg?

 

[manson]

i'm still waiting for the response too. Maybe Gilligans vape shop

 

[MistyMe]

I'm very new to vaping. Since I've never been a smoker and vaping appeals to me for other reasons, I would not have opted to start doing this unless I could control what went into my juices.

I decided to go with Nature's Answer Coconut Derived Glycerine for my mostly VG base. It costs more than the big bottles of bulk glycerine you can buy. But DIY is so economical anyway, I prefer to spend some extra money for what I consider to be better ingredients.

I am so appreciative of all the help I've found on this forum and I hope this link to a coconut glycerine source is helpful to someone else.

Note: The label on the bottle in the picture is not the label I received on my bottles. The actual label clearly states it is coconut derived and safe for topical/internal use.
http://www.vitacost.com/natures-answer-pure-vegetable-glycerin-alcohol-free

 

[freemind]

I'm very new to vaping. Since I've never been a smoker and vaping appeals to me for other reasons, I would not have opted to start doing this unless I could control what went into my juices.

I decided to go with Nature's Answer Coconut Derived Glycerine for my mostly VG base. It costs more than the big bottles of bulk glycerine you can buy. But DIY is so economical anyway, I prefer to spend some extra money for what I consider to be better ingredients.

I am so appreciative of all the help I've found on this forum and I hope this link to a coconut glycerine source is helpful to someone else.

Note: The label on the bottle in the picture is not the label I received on my bottles. The actual label clearly states it is coconut derived and safe for topical/internal use.
http://www.vitacost.com/natures-answer-pure-vegetable-glycerin-alcohol-free

There is no grade that I can tell.

If this isn't food grade, I would NOT recommend this.

 

[MistyMe]

There is no grade that I can tell.

If this isn't food grade, I would NOT recommend this.

I have consumed different types of extracts made by this company over the course of many years and I do personally have faith in their quality.
However, I certainly understand your concern and I would encourage anyone who is considering using this product to do his or her own research and then make an informed decision.

While there is no 'grade' listed in the product description, this is the statement:
"Safe for internal use. Nature's Answer products are manufactured in our cGMP licensed facility; Unconditionally Guaranteed."
Here is the link to FDA information on Current Good Manufacturing Practices (CGMPs).

So, if you are looking for a coconut derived VG (which is pretty hard to find) this product may or may not be for you. If anyone else knows of another product that might be a good choice for this purpose, I am interested in checking it out.

 

[manson]

Ask for a response, get a response. Thank you mucho for all the info. All this goodness, I have to start studying how to make my own juice.

 

[Huckleberried]

Moved from DIY Tips and Tricks to DIY General Discussion