Hey everybody; I have been DIYing for a little while now, long enough to have a few ADV. I am a custard lover for sure and tend to lean that way.
Anywho, I recently went and paid an outrageous amount of money on one of my very favorite juices. I was kinda excited because i have only vaped my own recipes for several months now and thought I would treat myself to a wonderful vape… this is when I realized I am not half bad when it comes to DIY. (according to my own taste buds that is). The juice I paid for was disgusting. I literally can not vape it. I thought maybe I got a bad batch and took it back and got another…same thing. I went and bought a vanilla custard I used to absalutely love and found it to be a bit bland.
So I was just wondering if anybody else has experienced anything like it?
Yes. Many of the commercial juices I enjoyed now suck. Except one. Cuttwood’s Bird Brains is my holy grail and I still haven’t managed to get a spot on clone of it. But I’m getting closer. BWAHAHAHA. In comparison to what I have now, my own recipes and MANY recipes from other people here on ELR are far superior to what is available commercially.
You are not alone and find yourself in very good company 
Isn’t it nice to know that, not only are we saving money? We are also, vaping a superior juice?
By my palate we sure are. 
Saving money? Maybe not. My flavor collection and hardware collection might argue that point. LOL
i have a holy grail also. Crazelnut by yetivape, they do have a pretty good custard line. Who new BigFoot could make gourmet juice?
My holy grail is called Baby Jesus by CafeEcig. Named as a result of the first person who tried it yelled out, “Sweet Baby Jesus!”. The owner of CafeEcig first got me into mixing and he is a master custard mixer. At least he used to be, i havent vaped any of his liquids in a couple years now. Maybe ill run by tomorrow and do some taste testing and see if i still like it, hehe.
As for the rest there are very very few liquids that i would/will still purchase, Melonlyptus and Honey Suckle My Cuke by B-X and anything by Bigglesworth.
My two cents on this… It’s because your palate changes. It’s well known that your palate changes over the course of your life. But apart from that normal taste bud erosion, I found that not only the things I enjoy in vaping but also in eating and drinking changed dramatically since I started vaping and got rid of them nasty cancer sticks. Your sense of smell is one of the slowest to recover from your smoking, so if you have been smoking for decades, your taste experience might be constantly but slowly changing for the next years for sure.
I definitely agree. Also a lot of commercial liquids are made to vape with low powered devices. As we move on to higher powered devices we generally need less flavoring and oft less PG. I make all the flavors that i vape daily pretty light on flavor as to stave off vape tongue.
@bradslinux I know what you mean by spending on hardware and flavors. Believe it or not I actually save all of my receipts. Hardware, juices, everything to do with vaping, including what I gave away. I added it all up and thought for sure this is more than smoking. (vaping is a hobby for me. I spend a pretty penny on vape gear). I smoked a pack and a half of cancer sticks a day. When I added up the stinkies for a year I added it at a pack a day and I still would have spent more on cigs. When I add the families cancer sticks to the equation I just about had a breakdown.
Yup, and instead of a bucket of stinking ashes to show for it, we have TOYS!
@bradslinux this a bit off subject but i did not want to make a whole topic for one question…Anywho, when i am buying flavors i have noticed some of them have a DX in front of them. Do you know what that means?
The DX ones are diketone-free I believe.
Yep, I thought it stood for diketone extra so I thought yummy and got some, no diketone 
JoJo is correct. TPA uses the DX and it means diacetyl free. CAP uses V2 to denote this. It could mean that they have replaced diacetyl with acetoin propionyl, acetonin or butyric acid.
I found the same very shortly after I started DIY. I went to my local vape shop to buy a dripping atty, for testing flavours. While there, I sampled a bunch of new juices they had got in … none of them blew me away. In fact, I can now taste mostly sweetener from many of them. I tried an old favourite too, as it was one of the first I planned to try clone. I didn’t manage to create a replica, what I created is way more satisfying and rich and natural tasting. I was puffing on it in there thinking … why was I so over excited about this juice?? because I hadn’t tasted much better is why. I’ve since made a couple of juices that are also much better than anything I have over paid for in the past. It jut delights me knowing I would actually pay good money for what I created.
Get some FA Condensed Milk. IT’S LOADED! So is LA Butter 
Thanks 
My holy grail is Deadly Sin and none of the clones are close in my opinion. But yeah, I find I like my stuff better than store bought juice. I guess being able to make it to meet your needs is the reason it’s so great