Good morning first time posting here and just joined the vaping comunity i stoped smoking 2months back started diy 1month and 2 weeks back but still wasting my flavors why is it that when people buy comercial juice it taste great no matter who buys it the taste is there but with diy it changes to taste isent there a juice mix that everyone will say it tastes great and cators to anyone and everyone. I can taste strawberry in juice i buy but when n mix it myself no taste but also i dident steep it maybe that is my problem dont know.
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First of all welcome to the community.
DIY is not just throwing two or more flavors together with a 50/50 base and thatâs it, finished.
It takes a lot of time, knowledge, patience, know your flavours, know what goes with what, know how to do it, tools and a lot of studying, testing and analysing.
Be ready to throw your mixes down the drain, some will be better than commercial juices a lot will even be unvapeable.
Steeping is just a method, if your mix is wrong from the start it will never get better.
You have to understand whatâs in it, and based on that you assess how long it might take.
A mix with a custard from X manufacturer might take X time, another manufacturer Y time, NET tobaccos could take months, fruits 4-5 days⌠fruits and creams, weeks, it depends⌠you might even think of adding the fruits (or whatever) at mid steepâŚ
So first, head over to: https://forum.e-liquid-recipes.com/c/e-liquids/beginners
This place has a huge amount of useful information, start reading and read and read and read and read⌠and mix and mix and mix and mix⌠did I say read and mix?
Commercial juicesâŚâŚ have you got professionals working for you 8 hours a day, professional tools, labs, testing, filtering equipment and access to their resources?
You probably havenât and there goes your answer.
Cloning an off the shelf liquid is not an easy task, unless you know exactly percentages used, flavours used, manufacturer/s, steeping time and so forth⌠but what you can do, is to clone a taste profile and even make it better!
A lot of mixes on the shelf are just simple juices, just think if a manufacturer could afford to do a mix with 10 or 12 different flavours in a mix⌠as an average, itâs 3 to 6 flavours including the accents or additives, behind those 3 to 6 flavours there are professionals that have worked on it (most of the time, not always⌠some use our recipes here⌠but itâs another story.)
So whatâs the deal in DIY? You might start thinking that youâre going to save money (at the end and with a well thought stash, you will⌠but letâs not get into that shall we?) letâs say thatâs not to save money (look at our stashes) but itâs a challenge, itâs the personal satisfaction of creating something and say oh my god, thatâs really good, itâs doing something that fits your taste that no off the shelf liquid will achieve or just might, after a very expensive search of trial and error.
This is a fairly new field and weâre all explorers, professionals or not, we get to know new things every day, we study a lot, mix a lot and have the time to explore new taste frontiers, we have access to thousands of good flavors (Would be counterproductive for a manufacturer to have 15 different suppliers of 100 flavours each), we are thousands spread all over the world, a great community that knows each other by name and help each other with their ideas and insights, (BTW lots of professionals come here for a âlookâ and sometime to help other people) so most of the time youâll come out with great tasting juicesâŚ
At the end, itâs a great hobby so welcome to the community! But Iâm sorry to say, no shortcuts in this business.
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Thanks i appreciate the feed back alot makes sense time and i will do just that reed and mix like you said read and mix i think i must reboot myself and mind and start with a fresh mind and read that is why i joined to read learn and understand and be apart of this comunity so if i have struggles i can get guidence and with your responce being so quick seems i am in the right place thanks i will start by reading all i can on this forum. Have to get my balancing right first thanks.
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A little success goes a long way in giving you further motivation. I would try to get one recipe that works for you done. Did you add the flavours you have to your stash and made it public. I am sure there must be a 2/3 flavours recipe you can make out of what you have that could be satisfying. And I am sure people here would take a guess and help you get unstuck.
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Superfrog thanks no not yet going to load all my flavors this afternoon hopefully i can make atleast one ejuice that can be a all day vape like everyone calls it i did mix ry4 double at 10% has been sitting 2 days now so will have a taste this afternoon and hopefully that would be vape able for me that would be a good start for now but im reading and see what i can do diffrent to what i was doing not sure if my taste buds are normal yet cause i mixed alot of juices which i got off sites and to my taste not good then you see 20 reviewa saying its great i must juat get my sweet spots on my flavors and take my time to teat their % whitch suits me best for now.
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To give you an insight and help with the site (Is that a pun?? or a rhyme??)
RY4 double, guess itâs TPA (
) head to the site flavours list, here:
Look at the notes, itâll give you an idea about who used it and how much.
After that look at the âMost commonly used withâ and you have an hint on the pairing for that flavour.
Then look at âRecipesâ made, sort them by rating, look at the date (things change in time) look who mixed it, in time youâll know whoâs who, if he/she is a frequent poster/good mixer or an unknown user that threw in a recipe for the sake of it just once⌠youâll see if he prefers mixing fruits or tobaccos or creams, but all this in due timeâŚ
Choose the recipe you fancy, mix it, taste it for any correction you might have to make, steep it, enjoy it!!
Remember to thank/comment the Original mixer⌠he/sheâll appreciate it.
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I have to disagree with you there. Since I started with DIY almost 2.5 years ago, Iâve bought a handful of commercial juices. Every single one of them was one of the âpremiumâ juices, âŹ30/60ml price range and all but 1 were juices I didnât really enjoy. Not to mention the handful of house juices I tried in the past that nearly all went straight into the bin.
Your question is very similar though to âwhy is it in that restaurant, everyone likes those dishes but when my wife tries to make those dishes, they never taste as good?â. It depends on the skills and knowledge of the creator of a juice, as well as the ingredients, tools and methods they are using.
When you start mixing e-liquids, you have to go through a learning curve and just like with everything else, you grit your teeth and work your way through to get better (putting in some effort, time and money), or you may be better off having someone else mix for you or continue to buy commercial juices. The ultimate goal should be that you have liquids that makes vaping satisfying to you so you stay off the stinkies. All additional benefits are extras.
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Took me a month just to begin coil building. Took 6 months before I attempted DIY mixing. Took months more even after that to begin to understand some of the nuances involved in creating a good recipe. And even after that, it took me quite a while before I was able to develop juices that to me were on par with store bought. You may be expecting a little more than is realistic at this point in your vaping journey.
I assume you, like most, are doing DIY mixing to save money. Thatâs admirable and understandable- but at just 2 months in, just enjoy the benefits of quitting smoking and all the little victories that come with that. Read, research, ask questions, and prepare for the future laboratory you will build in your basement. But enjoy vaping in the meantime.
Iâm 3 years into DIY mixing and I still âwasteâ juices on bum mixes. It happens, but you wonât learn what works for you without finding a few hairs in the biscuits once in a while. Took Henry Ford three tries before he started the successful car company we know todayâŚ
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When I first started diy, I had to mix old recipes because my tongue couldnât really taste well. After quitting smoking for over a year, I gradually could taste some of the newer recipes that have low flavor percentages.
Maybe youâre experiencing the same thing? Try to mix at a higher percentage for now, and when your taste buds came back, you could mix however you want.
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P.e boy 
i get it trial and error all the time i believe im starting to see a bigger picture ist not HD yet or 3D yet but starting to see it its not just adding and adding its sampling changing sampling again and changing again till you find the taste you are happy with and to understand your flavors what they do and what works together and yes i believe my taste is still changing so i must learn to be patient whitch i wassent. So yes like food so i must become a chef with my flavors and teach my wife 
a thing or 2 and its better now if i want to know something i can ask all the friendly people here thanks for all the responses a really appreciate it.
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Well said sir. 
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These are all great answers.
Read them all again.
Iâm closer to being new than most of them, so while Iâm not the best mixer yet (though I have 4 or 5 recipes Iâm really pleased with), I may be able to tell you my early successes and cheats (since Iâm terribly familiar with the failures)âŚ
Find a recipe that sounds good to you or search a commercial clone you can do, and order just those flavor concentrates. Its easier than ordering 400 dollars worth of flavors and not knowing what to do with them.
Also, if you donât know how to navigate this site and learn the abbreviations youâll feel like youâre at a green bay packers scrimmage trying to understand Aaron Rogers audibles, so learn the site.
Keep it simple to start. Make a strawberry vanilla ice cream or simple ry4 tobacco blend. Once you get a success under your belt youâll enjoy it more.
Find a mixer who is highly rated and follow them.
Find another and follow them.
Watch DIY or Die on you tube and watch all his videos.
Read as many posts as you can on here. Save recipes to your favorites.
Donât attempt a lot of recipes without research. I made at least a gallon of recipes I didnât like before I started to focus.
There are some mixes you can fix but put them away for a while till youâre good.
Get a scale that measures down to .01 gram.
If you need help choosing it go to forums and search âscalesâ.
Read and absorb all you can.
Or if you want, find a mixer near you and offer to be his or her âflavor testerâ. This may sound like a joke but I have some flavor testers and its fun to charm people with your skills.
Okay Iâm done. If you do these things and the things above youâll figure the rest out.
Oh yeah. And do SFTS.
And if you donât know what that means, learn your abbreviations.
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I believe i understand start fresh 
and believe me i am already scrapped everything on my pad so yes starting over i have some flavor sampling to do and then i want to match it with some flavors here to see how much it differs hopefully none then i will start slow and mix up a recipe and taste then steep and see if i nailed it if i must tweek it to taste i will do so but first have to do some single flavor tests thank for all the help and no stress not giving up so quick i will nail some recipes.
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2 years mixing and I still have a lot to learn. No matter how good I make a liquid Iâm still not satisfied lol! Always striving for perfection. I will say Iâve tasted many store bought juices that straight suck so thereâs that. When you get to a point when you taste a commercial juice and say I can easily make it you know your over the hump.
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The things that have helped me most is watching live mixings and shows like ânotedâ from DiyOrDie and many others. These folks have a vast amount of knowledge and share it in their videos. Also you need to chill for a while until your taste and smell fully return. For me it was about at the 5 month mark of NO smoking at all. This is when you truly start to enjoy different flavor profiles. The flavor profiles I liked when I first started vaping are nothing like what I prefer now. It takes timeâŚhave patience and keep it simple for now. You will get thereâŚ
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Even those that go down the drain, have much value, in the knowledge gained.
Howâs that for some Confucius sounding shit? Fortune cookie material, I tell ya.
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How about a Haiku too?
When you mix the juice
Some will end up down the drain
This is how you learn
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I feel u there, it has taken me 2 years to just get a decent mixing strategy together⌠I have wasted loads if ingredients too but it gets better, do ur research is the main thing ⌠Believe me it gets betterâ:+1:
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Yes i totally agree, smoking really messes up ur taste buds and you develop a pallete over a time after giving up the cancer sticks. Took me avout the same time too.
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