Hello, friends! I've been lurking on here for a while. I like reading a lot of you guys' posts about flavors and stuff, and I came to ask for a wee bit of help!
So with tax returns coming in, and bills finished getting paid, I have the money saved so I can start buying my stuff (yay!). But what I wanted to ask is your opinion on what I'm getting and if I'm missing something or should look into something else.
What I'm Ordering:
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As for my VG and PG, I'm planning on getting 480ml of each it from BullCityVapor.com
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I was planning on getting about 25 30ml glass bottles (with dropper) from Bull City Vapor as well
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One lab coat (So I can feely science-y and I like that better than an apron (just incase anything spills (kind of a neat-freak)))
Questions!
So, I only have 4 questions. The first one, what kind of nicotine do I get? When I'm on different websites looking for nicotine, some, like Bull City Vapor, offer nicotine in different mg of nicotine and they offer different base solutions (like VG base or PG base). I want to make some high VG juice and some 50/50 vg/gp juice (for ADV), so I don't know what to go for as far as nicotine goes.
Second question: is there a better website to order from that's not Bull City? They are the cheapest website I've found so far. Is there any better place I should be looking at that's better quality that I can order in 480ml+ of ingredients? I want to buy a bunch of it so I just have to buy once, and be good for a while. Also, so I can experiment more. Buying bottles in bulk would be awesome too.
Third question: Can I reuse equipment? Like, if I were to make a juice that I didn't like, can I just empty out a bottle, clean it, dry it, and reuse it, or would i have to just use another bottle and trash the old one? And I've not just talking about bottles. I mean all my equipment. What can I reuse and what is a one time use kind of deal? Also, why nitrile gloves as apposed to other material gloves?
Last question: Am I missing anything or recommend me to get anything? I've seen the sidebar's beginner's guide, but i just want to know if there's something else that the list of essential equipment is missing, or you just feel should be on that list. So, just assume that all I have is going to be what I mentioned (obviously I'm going to have a sterile room with a new clean table).
Thanks a lot in advance guys! I really hope to start contributing to y'all soon!
One thing I learned when starting DIY was to not only get the flavors you like and think will be good (fruits, chocolates, etc) but to also get those flavor ENHANCERS. Ethyl maltol, koolada, sweet cream, sweet, sour, milk, etc. Those will take your flavors up several notches and add a lot of complexity and allow you to make a bigger variety of juices than you would with the 'regular' flavors alone. For example, ripe strawberry and juicy lemon will make an OK juice, but throw in some super sweet, sour, and a hint of koolada, and you have a delicious ice cold strawberry lemonade. Same with bakery/desserty flavors - ethyl maltol, sweet cream, bavarian creme, vanillin will do wonders.
I was actually planning on making a strawberry lemonade flavor! Lol. Where do you get your flavor enhancers from, if you don't mind me asking?
I get the majority of everything from Wizard Labs, and TFA (the flavor apprentice) is usually my go-to. I looked around on Bull City and looks like you can get pretty much everything from them, they even have a tab specifying flavor enhancers. I've never ordered anything from them, though. I love Wizard Labs, the prices are pretty good and they have a ton of flavor options, quick shipping and free shipping if you order over a certain $ amount.
For nicotine Nude Nicotine is often regarded as the best. Every batch comes with test results for purity of not only the nicotine but also the carrier fluids. It's the only nicotine I use.
Sites aside from Bull City: I use www.ecigexpress.com for most of my flavors. Also HeartlandVapes for anything I get in bulk.
To reuse bottles go with glass bottles. Plastics trap the smell/flavor and even washing with rubbing alcohol I can't get the smell out. Glass rinses 100% clean with hot water. I personally don't use gloves, I think they're more of a risk. You can get complacent thinking "I have gloves, I'm 100% safe". What happens when you scratch your eye when you have nicotine on your gloves? I use 100mg/ml nicotine and no gloves and am extra careful. I do keep my nicotine in a 30ml dripper bottle though for ease of use.
For the nicotine, what is the difference between the 24mg nicotine vs the 100mg nicotine? I wanna make juice with like 3mg/2.5mg nicotine. Which one should I go for?
Also, thanks for the info! Very much appreciated!
100mg is 4x more concentrated so you'd use 25% of what you'd use if you were using a 24mg nicotine base. I make 3% juice w/ 100mg/ml base so my total nicotine in my bottle needs to be 3% of the total volume. For a 30ml bottle that's ~.92ml or (I use weight so I know it's 1.11g). If you used 24mg you'd need 1/8th of your bottle to be nicotine base, or ~12.5%.
I love Bull City. They are amazingly quick to ship and I have heard that their nic is good quality and very smooth. We ended up getting the 100mg just because I think it makes dilutions really easy. My initial order was from Wizard Labs. One main reason was that I wasn't sure which flavors we would like, so the small sizes really appealed to me. We know enough now that I felt comfortable placing my entire last order from Bull City and getting their 10 ml bottles. I am also partial to them because an email I wrote thanking them for their quick service was answered almost immediately and I ended up having a little chat with one of their guys. Customer service like that will win me every time!
I like putting my liquids in light resistant glass, so I ordered 30 ml amber Boston rounds from Amazon. They have a good price on a dozen. There is such a huge and supportive vaping community out here. I research everything to death! You should be able to find plenty of tried and true recipes. Some of the stuff I did initially tasted really crappy , so it's nice that folks post and take some of the guess work out.
I do rinse and reuse. All of the ingredients are water soluble and should come out with just water. I usually add a drop of soap 'cause I'm anal.
One note about the nicotine. I have been utterly surprised at how quickly we have dropped the strength that we are vaping. You may need less than you think...
Have fun!
For the nicotine, I'm finally down to 0 from 18, but I have a couple of bottles of 2.5mg and 3mg for when I get really bad nic-fits. But the main reason I want quite a bit of nicotine is because one of my great friends is trying to go down from 24, and he wants to join me in making juice too as a "taste tester" :p
What is the difference between light resistant glass vs non light resistant glass? Is it just preference?
Light can deteriorate the substances and your juice will keep better in light resistant glass. Unless you keep your bottles in direct sunlight though I don't think there should be much of an issue, I've bought plenty of juice in clear bottles and have never noticed anything off. ymmv?
Nicotine is light sensitive. http://www.cdc.gov/niosh/ershdb/emergencyresponsecard_29750028.html
Most of that will apply to the pure chemical and we're obviously working with a diluted solution, but the light info is at the top. The link may answer your question about nitrile gloves as well.
As someone who worked in a lab, I am more comfortable storing chemicals and flavorings in glass. Both light and plastic can cause things to break down or react. I just figure the less chance of reacting before it hits my coils the better :-)
Congrats on getting down to 0 nic! I just dropped to 12. I quit smoking/started vaping Dec. 27 and flipped back and forth between 26 and 18 till recently.
Lucky friend to get to be your taste tester! My son and I are now making liquid for ourselves, his girlfriend and my sister. I have way too much fun with it!
>Also, why nitrile gloves as apposed to other material gloves?
Nitrile doesnt allow nicotine to pass through the glove. Latex and other materials allow nicotine to seep through and defeats the purpose of why we wear gloves in the first place.
So, with nicotine being this thing that goes through a lot of materials and is something that should be handled carefully, how does one dispose of gloves and old nicotine bottles once you're done with them? Just the regular trash, or is there a safer/better approach?