Confessions of a Noob and an Epic Fail

[LordVapor]

@SthrnMixer

Great story!

One more like and I get a badge. Hint hint

[zigz]

badgered! (10char)

[Oleskool1]

LOL Very good story.

@LordVapor

Sit back and hang on. This is about to get stupid funny.

So before I found this forum I was dying to get away from retail purchase of my e-liquid. I had a flavor profile and thought if I searched for some names of e-liquid I liked I could easily find the flavors to make my own. Within minutes I found a site with a flavor by the same name as my favorite e-liquid. Low and behold, they had another. So I wandered the site seeing what other flavors I could find that were the same as my favorite e-liquids.

I found 3 that looked promising, along with a couple others I wanted to try. So I ordered them. It was that same night I found Ecig Express. I browsed around dropping flavor after flavor into my wishlist. My wishlist quickly grew beyond the value of the change in my kids piggy bank. So I picked out a few I really wanted to try and ordered them along with some syringes and some additives like Ethyl Maltol, Sucralose, Vape Wizard, and Malic Acid (based on reviews, I had to have this stuff eventually). Then it was off to ebay. I found some VG and PG being sold for a good price from a reputable seller with very good feedback on his chemicals. I bought my Nicotine from myfreedomsmokes.com (1st smart move so far).

So as I waited anxiously for my shipments to arrive I browsed Amazon for bottles, flasks, gloves, the whole nine yards. I even had an ultrasonic cleaner in my cart (USC in case you pros don’t know what an ultrasonic cleaner is anymore ). I was ready to start making and selling my e-liquid before I even had everything I needed. Rude awaking coming…

So after all my stuff arrives I found an Android calculator app that is actually quite good and immediately started mixing. I took two of the five flavors I bought from the first site and figured 10% single flavors should be about right, which would be an entire bottle of flavoring. So I mixed up a 100ml batch using flavor #1, and another 100ml batch using flavor #2. Both at 6mg nicotine. I was proud to have my first liquids made. I tasted them. They had almost no flavor except a slight taste of dish soap. Don’t ask how I know what that tastes like.

That’s when I found this forum. I read, and read, and read. I thought I learned enough to mix another flavor. The knowledge learned here taught me to make small batches. Ok, 10ml will do. Not having any 10ml bottles except the ones my first flavorings came in, i used one of the two empty ones after properly cleaning it. I am afterall a professional mixer now I thought to myself. Here is where I first realized I was a moron. After mixing my 10ml concoction in my flask I get my tiny funnel and dump the entire mix into the funnel. As I watch the funnel drain I notice my fingers getting wet. I look down and the bottle is overfilling, yet the funnel still has what looks to be about half of the mix left in it. Wait a second I exclaimed! These are 5ml bottles! Some of you are probably onto why my first two mixes were not good. Others, keep reading. Maybe you will learn somethin’

Stupidity continues…
So I grabbed the other 10ml (ha ha) bottle and filled it with the other half of the concoction. Reality hadn’t even set in yet. A day or so later I taste my first two mixes again. Dishwater, but better tasting dishwater. Fame and fortune were on the way!

So while waiting for these mixes to mature to greatness I posted, read, picked out a recipe and ordered the ingredients for Unicorn milk. I tested my first two mixes again a few days after the last test. No more dishwater! No more anything. WTF I exclaimed! I thought about it. Bam! It hit me like a pissed off ex with a baseball bat. 5ml bottles. Not 10ml. My mixes were only made at 5%! So I added some of my highly rated flavors to each. 5% Flavourart Strawberry to one, Something else in the other. I couldn’t tell you if I had to, but it was 5%.

Like 4 weeks after mixing my first two batches (notice, I can’t even narrow it down within a few days), the only flavor I can taste is the second ones I added. Strawberry, and um, oh yes! Watermelon. They actually aren’t terrible now after resteeping. So I still had three of these weak ass flavors left. I grab one and being more experienced and educated by the fine folks here I tasted one of the flavors. Expecting a very strong flavor concentrate I braced myself for my cheeks to implode. Huh. I thought. That’s actually not bad! Wait a minute!

So I go back to the site I ordered them from. Looked at my recent orders…

E-Liquid? I ordered E-Liquid?

[bradslinux]

@SthrnMixer

Humans are funny this way. I know I am…which may explain why I broke out into a cold-chilled panic once in my truck, digging everywhere looking for my cell phone, when my wife said “what’s wrong” and I said I can’t find my cell phone. She simply replied…look in your hand. I was talking to her on it at the time.

AWESOME! LOL HAHAHAHA
I’ve never done that.

[ShelaghDB]

That was priceless! Yet frightening as someone about to make their first order of DIY stuff this week.

So to recap, if you were to look back and type the #1 mistakes to look out for, what would those be?
#1 I suspect would be, read, read, read.

Anymore?

[JoJo]

My two: Label everything really well. Start with measuring by weight.
There’s a great thread on the “Don’ts” of DIY.

Definitely Don't when DIYing

Continuing the discussion from Most helpful single flavor: So I have noticed there are a lot of experienced mixers on ELR. I’m sure it took a lot of trial and error to get good at creating flavors. I would like to see a list of “Definitely don’ts in DIY”. Things you know not to do again. This should become a must read, especially for noobs.

[SthrnMixer]

@JoJo

Label everything really well.

Absolutely. It sucks when you find a bottle of juice at your mixing station with no label and you’re not sure what it is.

[LordVapor]

If I had to go back my advice to myself would be to definitely read Resources and Tips for Beginning DIY E-liquid

JoJo put together one helluva collection of useful threads there that after you read through it all, there is NO WAY you will fail. I was already mixing before I found this site. And that thread made me start over and do things right. So thank you @JoJo. I have a much better understanding of more things than I can mention because of your help.

Another thing I did wrong was to think I could do a little research and recreate some of my favorite recipes. I was wrong. But after reading that thread I could give it a more educated try.

I suggest you look at the flavors in the juices that fit your profile. Then come here and find recipes that fit your flavor profile. Pick out a few and order those flavors. Start out small. But my thing is I hate to pay shipping for small orders. So I am getting ready to order $300 worth of flavors from 3 different sites.

I know that sounds crazy. But to stay focused on starting small those flavors will be put in the closet until I am ready to move on to the next recipe. I haven’t mixed much in the past 2 weeks. Because I have a few batches steeping that I want to make sure are good. Once I have a feel for those flavors (Strawberry (FA), Vienna Cream (FA), and Cream Soda (FW)) I will move on to another recipe.

So I guess the main jist of my reply is to take your time. Go slow. Mix very small batches and give them time to steep before trying again. And I think learning about each and every flavor as you go should be your first priority.

[JoJo]

Aw, yay! Glad that post helped. It was a group effort.

[TRisin]

Check and recheck read the recipes over and over double triple check. Stay organized and create a comfortable way to catalogue I started using the create a recipe and leaving them private, but keep a small black book with single flavor % trials on one side with recipes on the other. To each their own
My first mistake was the syringe I neglected to figure the extra 2-3 ml in the needle, so while nothing was ruined as they were only single flavors but had to go back and re catalogue everything
Happy mixing and good luck

[Alisa]

I was going to tell you the exact same 2 things as JoJo.

[ShelaghDB]

Thank you for all the hints.
All the information here there and everywhere is a bit overwhelming so although I knew about the links to the beginners page, I had forgotten about it and now have it right on my browser bar and will read daily for a week or so, then make my first order…as that will take a bit of planning to do, being that i am not in the US but Canada, making it a bit harder, in the beginning. Than I shall re-read again.
Truly not looking forward to the beginning process but know its a process one must experience in order to learn.

Have just spent several months learning all I could about vaping, rebuilding, modifying when needed, only in the end to circle round and decide what i wanted was flavour only, and not the rest of it all.
Hoping to get that right with DIY.
Have spent time testing so many juice and know exactly what I like and hope not to make some disasters trying out genres of juice I already know I won’t like, no matter how great the recipe might appear.
Right now focusing on getting the “perfect” ingredients to make a base Vanilla/Custard recipe so I will read that beginners guide from top to bottom and back again.

I just want to reach a point where little time is invested in this hobby of vaping…lol…so far it’s taken up far too much time and am hoping that after I do master a vanilla custard and 1-2 more, that I can finally sit back, vape and enjoy without feeling as if I need to learn this or that in order to accomplish that correctly :

And then…and only then, enjoy puttering around while making a new flavour here and there but just enjoy my vape while doing other things…rather than fitting in those other things, while learning what i need to Vape successfully.

I have no doubt some know what i mean.

Thanks for all the tips and am off to start reading that page …Thank you all!!!

[Alisa]

For Vanilla Custard, you might want to try one of these two… both are great:
Third World Custard
[CustardStone] [2]

[2]: http://tjek.nu/r/12wP <— I make up 30ml of this Custardstone
and use it at 10-12% as a standalone flavor as well as mixing it with a coffee, a fruit, a nut, and/or caramel. Always keep this on hand.

[ShelaghDB]

Thanks, will try that…i read your notes about mastering the stand alone flavour which makes perfect sense.
This weekend I will finish reading it all and make my first order…

[ShelaghDB]

Bookmarked and d/l for safe keeping

But, I will do yours first due to the point u made about stand alone flavour backup u spoke of.
Thx

[Alisa]

Please let us know how it goes!

[ShelaghDB]

I so hope it goes better than the OP of this thread did. U shall be the first to know

I have to sit down and actually figure out all I need and order it.
A bit overwhelming to order when I just want to order everything and end up ordering none at all.
This weekend i will finally get it done.
Once i do it once, then I will find it much easier to look at flavours and guess better as to whether I will use it or not in the future.
Last but not least, I don’t have any desire to try everything.
I already know that i only like 2 genre of flavours, Desserts/Custards and Berry vapes but most berry vapes I have tried, of retail versions, always have a medicinal aftertaste to me.
Hene, I will focus only on custards until i feel that’s been mastered. Much of your earlier comments, solidified that for me.

Thx

[LordVapor]

I found I liked Unicorn Milk, so I ordered enough flavoring to make a truckload of that flavor. And gambit v2 looked good so I ordered a bunch of that flavoring next, along with a few flavors that looked pretty good. Now I went through and picked out flavors for a few different recipes and I only had to order about a dozen flavors. So as I go I am slowly building up my stash. Soon I will just be restocking instead of ordering as many new flavors.

[Chris_C]

Wow that sucks bro i feel sorry for ya im sure that bottle of nicotine was not cheap.

[SthrnMixer]

nope, not cheap at all.