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Flavorings DIY

gabrielpanoussi

Member For 3 Years
Member For 2 Years
Hello forum. I am a relatively new DIY’er and I have a few issues that some more experienced mixers may be able to help with.

I have purchased some supplies, VG and PG (not sure if I can mention vendor names), a water soluble flavoring (loranns Blueberry) and 100mg 100%PG nicotine base. These were my initial supplies.

I tried to do my first mix using the e juice me up calculator. 10ml of 6mg 30PG70VG with 30% blue berry. The first issue was hitting that 30/70 ratio. Maybe the PG based nic and the inevitable PG based flavoring. 36PG64VG was the best I could do.

My biggest issue was that though the Blueberry smelled very strong it did not taste like anything really. So I figured let it steep. 2 weeks later nope no flavor. Since this batch I have made others with less blueberry and some with more with similar results.

This led to me getting some other types of flavoring, Watkins Imitation Strawberry. This was very strong when mixed and vaped but is more like strawberry jam with 17% alcohol base it was not the greatest either but I could taste flavor.

Other flavors Watkins Root beer which contains no alcohol and Bakers vanilla a PG based vanillin tincture.

My question is that since these artificial flavorings” are often diluted in a base of alcohol, PG or water would it be better to get the actual artificial flavor undiluted? That way I can mix my chemical flavor concentrates at the density I would like. So far the only one I could find is vanillin in powder form. One other site had a list of chemicals but it required research to find out what they were used for (i.e. cocoa flavor, a chemical that tricks the brain into believing that if something is red it is cherry, etc.).

Notice on those familiar with the e-juice calculator software there is a tick box in the flavoring row that says flavor no pg no vg, where do these extracts come from?

I would like to clarify by saying I have tried a no flavor 6mg batch that was very good so my bases are ok. Flavor and the viscosity have been issues for me. I have experimented with leaving the Watkins flavor out in an open container slightly heated by a tv. Weighing the liquid every 15 min for a span of 2 hours I noticed a lot of loss to evaporation. I still get an alcohol taste and reduced flavor.

My goal is to make a mix that is equal to the flavor and quality of the retail brands.

Any help is appreciated.
 

BKTOAD

Silver Contributor
Member For 4 Years
Welcome to VU!

I have no experience with loranns, so no real help there. I believe some have oils in them.

Really tough to make a well rounded recipe with only 3 flavors at your disposal. In accumulating probably 100 flavors give or take, probably almost half of them I will never use again. Kinda have to build a stockpile and experiment to find the ones you like. Most vendors sell 10ml tester bottles to try out a flavor before committing to a bigger purchase. Usually $1.50 to $2.50 per 10ml. Will almost certainly fail to make a great juice with only 3 flavors at your disposal (unless you got super lucky and picked the best 3 flavors you possibly could have picked, almost randomly)

Find a recipe (or a few) on e-liquid-recipes.com that is highly rated and appeals to you. and order those flavors and make that juice. Best way imho to get started. Get a good juice and get to learn how to use your particular flavorings.

I tried to start out "winging it" with diy juice. As a Chef, I thought I would instantly just make awesome juice because I am awesome with flavors. Little more to it than that. E-juice flavorings are a different animal and vary greatly between manufacturers. After getting experience making tested recipes, i learned my flavors and how to use them, and can now at least get close to awesome juice by "winging it", at most needing a minor tweak or two to have a delicious concoction.

I would stick to these brands of flavors:
Flavourart
Inawera
Capella
Flavor apprentice/perfumers apprentice

This is in order with what I consider the best on top. YMMV.

Good luck and happy mixing.
 
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BKTOAD

Silver Contributor
Member For 4 Years
E-liquid flavoring is all about a mindset of adding flavor notes with each ingredient, not put in one single flavoring and adjust til delicious. Only a few flavors truly can shine as a rounded juice all by themselves. For example, I have at least 4 blueberry flavorings. None of them would make an incredible juice by themselves. But mixing a couple of them together, and/or with other different flavors, lets them shine and bring their own notes to the party to create a full flavor. None of them tastes "exactly like a blueberry" on their own. They need a little help with other notes to get to a full bright flavor.
 
Hello Im new on this site. I Made my first flavoring order from myfreedomsmokes.com. I got pretty much all TFA and i have several recipies that i love and always want to be the same. I found cheaper flavoring from wizard labs. Does anyone know if there is a difference between the tfa from myfreedomsmokes and the Flavor concentrate from wizard labs. I just dont want to get new stuff and all my flavors be all out of wack
 

BKTOAD

Silver Contributor
Member For 4 Years
Shouldn't be any difference.

Except maybe how long the flavoring is on their shelf. Kinda like buying a Coke at a seven eleven versus buying a coke from kwik shop. Should be the exact same product from a different store.
 

RonJS

Gold Contributor
Member For 5 Years
Hello Im new on this site. I Made my first flavoring order from myfreedomsmokes.com. I got pretty much all TFA and i have several recipies that i love and always want to be the same. I found cheaper flavoring from wizard labs. Does anyone know if there is a difference between the tfa from myfreedomsmokes and the Flavor concentrate from wizard labs. I just dont want to get new stuff and all my flavors be all out of wack

Cheaper at the Wiz? Yes...especially if one takes advantage of their "'tis the season" 15% off sale! (See site for details)

Ron
 

Heabob

Gold Contributor
Member For 4 Years
Member For 3 Years
My goal is to make a mix that is equal to the flavor and quality of the retail brands.

This is why I myself, and others here, don't use those "off the shelf", retail brand flavors very much, if at all.
Usually much weaker than CAP, INW, FA, TFA, FW, etc.
And of course, the alcohol, as the retail brands usually contain more of it than the other brands.
Due to needing to use so much to get any taste, the alcohol taste also comes through.
You can evaporate some of the alcohol but it's more messing around that I don't think it's worth the extra effort.
Using crappy flavors will just make you more frustrated and eventually give up IMO.
If you're having trouble with finding a good PG/VG ratio, I'd recommend you start first with 50/50 mixture and slowly adjust from there if needed.
 

Rin Vapes

Silver Contributor
Member For 4 Years
Member For 3 Years
I have had little luck with Lorann's in general. Most flavors I've tried from them are very weak and just undesirable. Watkins was an absolute nightmare and I got NO vapeable mixtures out of them.
I would personally suggest buying brands that people typically use specifically for vaping. (Perfumer's apprentice, Flavour Art, Inawera... they are generally inexpensive and much more concentrated than the crap you can get at the grocery store)
 

Diescum88

Gold Contributor
Member For 4 Years
I use mainly tfa, FA, a couple CAP flavors and some flavor west.. only lorran flavoring I've liked so far is the cheesecake graham cracker crust. I order from bull city flavors for mine and the prices are awesome to say the least

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G930A using Tapatalk
 

gabrielpanoussi

Member For 3 Years
Member For 2 Years
Thanks for all the replies.
update: The TFA extracts have worked really well. 5% of black Cherry does the trick. 1% of Bavarian Cream is very strong! AS far as Loranns blue berry it is best for adding to drinks not vaping. The watkins strawberry and root beer are ok in a pinch but you to use a lot 30% and because of the water/alch it makes a thin juice. So lesson learned and hopefully this post will help someone if they pick it up on a google search. Looking forward to trying other flavors and vendors.
 

gabrielpanoussi

Member For 3 Years
Member For 2 Years
This is why I myself, and others here, don't use those "off the shelf", retail brand flavors very much, if at all.
Usually much weaker than CAP, INW, FA, TFA, FW, etc.
And of course, the alcohol, as the retail brands usually contain more of it than the other brands.
Due to needing to use so much to get any taste, the alcohol taste also comes through.
You can evaporate some of the alcohol but it's more messing around that I don't think it's worth the extra effort.
Using crappy flavors will just make you more frustrated and eventually give up IMO.
If you're having trouble with finding a good PG/VG ratio, I'd recommend you start first with 50/50 mixture and slowly adjust from there if needed.
Well said. I basically have come to this exact conclusion. Tried burning off the alch too much trouble not enough flavor, alch comes through all very true.
 

fartbubble

Silver Contributor
Member For 3 Years
Member For 2 Years
Loranne makes the best lemonade flavor. That's about it that I've found from them that I personally like
 

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