DIY Advice Needed

[Carnival]

Hey guys,

So I’m thinking of going the DIY juice route. To start with, the 2 recipes I’d like to mix are the following:

Sweet Lychee and Grapefruit
Green Apple and Cranberry

Something tells me I’ll need to add something else to them, maybe a flavour enhancer? Or can it work with just the 2 flavours in each recipe?

I’m totally new to this, so any advice is welcome!

 

[RichJB]

I don't know too many lychee and grapefruit combos but it could work, the citrus of the grapefruit complementing the sweetness/floral note of the lychee. Although my sense is that it will be thin and astringent if the balance is out or if you put incompatible flavours together.

Apple and cranberry is a popular combo and a quick ATF recipe search revealed several recipes that use this combo. As you can see, there are a couple of bakeries, a candy, a beverage and a cream. That's not to say that you have to put a base under an apple/cran top note, just that several are viable.

Two and three flavour pure fruit combos are very popular. Here is several pages of them.

When starting out, I'd always recommend mixing up some rated recipes by experienced mixers first. It takes a while to get into mixing and develop a feel for balance, which flavours work together well, percentages and so on. Even if you don't mix up any of the apple/cran recipes, you can get an idea of which apple and cran flavours work well together along with rough percentages. So I'd at least consult some popular recipes rather than trying to formulate from scratch.

Picking your flavours is also important. You can read reviews on the various apple, cranberry, grapefruit and lychee flavours at the Reddit flavour review page. Alternatively just type in apple, cranberry, etc on the ATF flavour search page and it will give you a listing of all flavours with that word in the name, along with how many recipes the flavour has been used in and average mixing percentage. So you can identify the most popular flavours of each type at a glance. Clicking on the flavour name will then take you to a page of recipes that use that flavour. These tools help to shorten the learning curve considerably.

 

[Carnival]

Thanks so much for your reply! @RichJB

I will definitely take a look at the links you provided.

 

[darryn.britton]

+1 to all @RichJB's solid advice; stick to simple, proven recipes initially.

One piece of advice I'd add is to mix by weight, not volume. Syringes are cheap but mixing with a decent scale is the only way to go. It's worth the ~R100, trust me.

 

[Jean claude Vaaldamme]

My only advice. Dont buy Red pill one shots. Once you used them all your diy mixes will taste bland and you will wonder why you waste time with diy.

 

[Silver]

Go for it @Carnival
Let us know how your first few mixes turn out.

 

[Room Fogger]

Thanks so much for your reply! @RichJB

I will definitely take a look at the links you provided.

One more tip, read the diy manual that @RichJB so kindly did for all wanting to start. It will give you a lot of tips and better insight into the diy world.
https://www.ecigssa.co.za/a-diy-primer.t44442/

 

[Carnival]

Thanks so much for the replies, everyone!

I ordered a few more flavour concentrates from BLCK Vapour today, lol.. I mixed my first 2 recipes, and as I finished up with the last one I had to smile... the whole process of mixing was far less complicated than I initially thought, in fact I thoroughly enjoyed it!

I am so excited, but at the same time I know my first few tries will most likely be flops.. and that’s okay! I will stick to it and continue down this rabbit hole, it’s way too much fun!

@Room Fogger I made sure I read @RichJB ’s DIY Primer!

 

[vicTor]

Thanks so much for the replies, everyone!

I ordered a few more flavour concentrates from BLCK Vapour today, lol.. I mixed my first 2 recipes, and as I finished up with the last one I had to smile... the whole process of mixing was far less complicated than I initially thought, in fact I thoroughly enjoyed it!

I am so excited, but at the same time I know my first few tries will most likely be flops.. and that’s okay! I will stick to it and continue down this rabbit hole, it’s way too much fun!

@Room Fogger I made sure I read @RichJB ’s DIY Primer!

awesome feeling doing your first mix right, scared and excited at the same time, exhilarating

 

[Carnival]

awesome feeling doing your first mix right, scared and excited at the same time, exhilarating

Exactly that!!

 

[Jean claude Vaaldamme]

If you make your own recipe is good to know what every concentrate taste like on its own. Some mix a 10ml bottle of juice with every flavour to taste it. I just take a 30ml bottle and mix plain 70/30 pg/vg in it. Then I drop 5 drops of the plain mix into my rda, then 1 drop of the concentrate and then another 5 drops of the plain mix. This is sometimes a bit strong (about 10%) but you get a quick idea what the concentrate taste like on its own. Some menthols, tobaccos etc can be quite strong this way so dont draw to deep into the lungs

 

[Carnival]

If you make your own recipe is good to know what every concentrate taste like on its own. Some mix a 10ml bottle of juice with every flavour to taste it. I just take a 30ml bottle and mix plain 70/30 pg/vg in it. Then I drop 5 drops of the plain mix into my rda, then 1 drop of the concentrate and then another 5 drops of the plain mix. This is sometimes a bit strong (about 10%) but you get a quick idea what the concentrate taste like on its own. Some menthols, tobaccos etc can be quite strong this way so dont draw to deep into the lungs

Haha, that’s a clever way of doing it!

Thanks @Jean claude Vaaldamme