Since we mostly all just mix for our own amusement and pleasure as long you get repeatable duplicable results from your attempts it’s all good.
I weigh my PG and VG and drop count the flavors for the most part as I don’t usually mix more then 50ml of any recipe at once. Way to many fun possibilities to mix a large batch of anything now.
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That’s 50/50 with me. I like finding new go-to’s, but when I do, I like to make a decent clump of it so I have enough to get my fix when I want it, especially for ones requiring long steeps.
The wife, however, would be happy with 5 ADV’s from now until the end of time. I am ‘fortunate’ enough to be able to mix for two. And build for two. And buy for two. And maintain for two…
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It is what works for you. I only mix for my wife and I and while I have given away some to friends, I won’t do it on a regular basis. It’s certainly not about a little time and/or money, It’s because I don’t want the headache plus the laws in Indiana are so jacked up it would be foolish.
I have a hybrid weight/ volume method that came out of necessity. I’ve gone through a few gallons of VG from different sources and started noticing that the specific gravities were different. So I’m using the scale for flavors and volume for VG. So its what works for us as individuals. Maybe a little (or a lot) OCD but I know my mixes are accurate and repeatable.
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Stay with me here, I think I have something that could be something. If it has been discussed before, sorry.
A story, followed by an example, followed by my thoughts. If you TL;DR, no worries.
So, I saw an episode of Food: Fact or Fiction, and one segment dealt with how the mind perceives flavor. Not the physical process, the psychological part. Basically, it was this: Researchers were trying to determine bias. Specifically, they took a subject blindfolded and asked her to taste four different cake slices. Each were identical except for the icing color. All four were from the same cake batter but with different COLORED icing (same flavor, vanilla). Each time, the blindfolded subject identified the right profile, and each time she said it tasted like the previous one.
Then, they removed the blindfold and asked her to try again. This time, she was able to see the slice prior to tasting. And each time, she identified a different flavor. Pink was strawberry, brown was chocolate, green was lime, and blue was birthday cakey tasting.
Remember, all four were the same one from the blind test, and all four were identical except for the icing color. Yet she tasted them differently when she could see them.
OK, now my own real world example, my wife. And vape juice.
She hates Egg Nog, the real thing. So I handed her my vape filled with TFA Egg Nog, and she did not like it. Said it was nasty.
Later, I handed her the SAME thing, but didn’t tell her what it is. She said it was OK, kind of sweet and creamy. She said she’d vape that one once in a while. She did not believe me when I told her it was the very same Egg Nog she tried and hated earlier.
OK, now on to my idea.
How about maybe we think of a brand new way to craft a recipe? How about you have someone you trust put SF samples into unlabeled (like only numbers, not the actual flavor name) bottles and you do a blind test. You make notes about what you think, you never get told what each one is. Then, you craft a recipe based on your notes, what you think would pair well, etc.
Removing the bias and mixing flavors your palate tells you rather than your bias may open the door to some incredible recipes that would otherwise never be created.
Thoughts?
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A1. Yes
A2. Yes and No
A3. a: make an informed decision by reading reviews, listening to folks comments, and get lucky. b: really no way to do this except for following part a of this question, and mixing the recipe yourself, fully steeping said recipe, and sampling the recipe.
A4. I just follow instructions given above in A3 a… I pick the recipe that uses flavors I think I may like. I do like to vape 40/60 9mg, so I do adapt my chosen recipe and mix it to my prefered nic & pg/vg ratio.
A5. I like weird names like “Moon Butter” but I always go by the answers given in A3 & A4 above. Names are like time, just relative.
A6. Be sure to not take too many Tylenol for your headache, a side effect from overdose of tylenol may be guess what… headaches and nausea. And welcome to the world of mad scientists, I’m sure you will enjoy about %50 of your experiments 
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I agree. I just sort of added that on in my mindless-stream thing. I pretty much meant a different name for the same recipe.
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Well, being up front and honest, I take it automatically that everyone is “nuts” till I’m shown different.
This is not true, many of us have similar palates and why we can rate each others recipes. Taste is fair to say subjective when someone has a recipe that 100 people give a 5 star rating and one other person gives a substantially lower rating. I don’t think you are looking at the whole picture. Making e-liquids is not much different than cooking food for others and hoping they will like it. If it is good most will and a few won’t if it’s bad most won’t and 1 or 2 might like what you’ve made. Pretty much, this goes the same for e-liquids.
You need to go with profiles that you like using the concentrates that you like. You may also like a said recipe better changing one or two concentrates to a preferred brand as well. Best way to find out is try the ones you like or that looks interesting and if you don’t like it don’t give up. Customize the e-liquid to suite your likes
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Some of the flavors I vape Have the weird names, I can assure you there is no milk or unicorns in unicorn milk. the combination of the flavors that are there make their own unique flavor, I don’t even taste the strawberries.
As far as the “blind taste tests” I’ll bow out as I have watched similar experiments and seen folks gagging as they tried to vape sriracha hot sauce 
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For @Lexie3 one thing I would like to expand upon a little is that there is nothing wrong with single flavor or 2 flavor mixes. In fact some are very good but when I search recipes containing them it is rare that I find anything I like as well. For example right this minute I am vaping a ginger ale SF and really like it. But my wife thinks its nasty. Also fruit flavors (some) develop more quickly than most others and often within a few days .
I think like most others who begin by attempting complex recipes is the well established fact that very often less is more. I didn’t really learn this until I began using FA which remain my favorites. As to "less is more I ran across this explanation quite some time ago which was made by a person who works pure aroma volatiles and knows a great deal about how the flavor changes with concentration.
“Aroma volatiles give the impression of a flavor in generally a very specific range of PPM in concentrate. Going over that range can change the flavor. For example, the aroma volatile of jasmine is the identical aroma volatile of feces at higher concentration. Also, the aroma volatile of butter flavor is the identical aroma of vomit at higher concentration.
Flavor concentrates are typically built with 3-12 different individual volatiles, so adding more concentrate to a mix may end up increasing some or all those volatiles into the feces/vomit range and then you end up with problems.”
Experienced mixers know their flavors where they are able to almost instinctively avoid these problems. Hope this helps. Keep it simple starting. I wish I would have.
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Your children are developing their sense of taste, be sure to allow them to taste as much of the food flavors that they can, or that you can sneak into their diet. At the same time please protect them by not allowing them to taste any of the toxins they might find that might look like food like the household chemicals, PG/VG, nicotine etc.
I’m glad they didn’t have laundry detergent pods when I was growing up 
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I kinda scanned thru this tread, but It’s full of opinions and quickly became too long to read.
If you’re looking for short cuts to becoming a good mixer, then I say forget about it.
The majority of those that think they’re good mixers are really not. And those following some of those mixers will quickly learn what not to do.
If you’re only using TPA, Cap and FW, you’re probably a basic mixer.
ELR database is so saturated with basic flavorings and recipes that it’s really, really tough to just grab a recipe and be impressed by it… even if it’s very popular.
The best investment I ever made since I started DIYing is buying more accurate flavors than some of these common brands. So when you add apple to a recipe, it’s really apple.
So when you see a profile that appeals to you, sub those common flavors for more spot on flavor brands and you will quickly see a difference.
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Luck, sheer luck. And i dont make mixes for other people to like, sometimes it just works out that way.
Most of my mixes are desserts, things i have eaten before. A visit a lot of food recipes site or look through cookbooks for inspiration.
I dont mix other people recipes very often and when i do i almost always sub flavorings for my favorites. Knowing what to sub for another flavor comes down to buying a bagillion flavorings and doing single flavor mix tests on them all. It might sound like a pain in the ass but once you find the flavorings you like best, well the rest is pretty easy from there.
I totally suck at naming mixes, completely and totally suck at it.
It pretty much all boils down to research, tedious but fun research.
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What about this, I know it’s easily lost in the thread, but what do you think about this sort of thing?
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Hell Yeah!! @Amy2 introduced me to recreating real food recipes and that really turned things around for me. Why try to re-invent the wheel?
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Ive still got a couple that i am working on, one of them is something my mom named blueberry stuff. It is basically a light cheesecake with loads of berries. Converting a food recipe is a great way to learn about mixing in general as you have something you can compare it to.
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Not meant for the OP… Just sharing my thoughts on a recent post for thoughts on a tobacco recipe. RY4, Cap Sugar Cookie and Sweetener. I thought… WTF! Sweet Cookies and Bacca! Several members chimed in, but I just wanted to say… DON’T DO IT!
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Serious question…why didn’t you. There are many of us here, including me, wanting to learn.
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When 10+ users offers so called… GOOD ADVISE, why go against the grain… That’s a good way to get slammed around here.
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Thanks. I appreciate your honesty.
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@mrpipes Very interesting info, thank you for this. I definitely will start with less and simple things to build up my confidence
Thanks you
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