10 1dram vials might be good for testing out some lorann flavors, not a bad price either.
When i was testing some of their flavors i ordered the 10 pack from Amazon. After i found those that i liked i ordered from the least expensive sites i could find, this changes often. Some of the flavorings that have food coloring can also be purchased without, Banana Cream, Watermelon and some others i cant remember. One Stop DIY Shop sells several but they are down until tomorrow, maintenance.
Hobby Lobby, Michaels and Wallyworld all carry a select few flavorings. Ecigexpress has a large selection of Lorann also, $1.19/dram.
One Stop DIY Shop is like the mom and pop store of DIY. Their customer service is fantastic and the packaging is meticulous. I've found that they bubble wrap individual glass bottles, and include a pair of gloves and some pipettes in each package.
Yes. Make sure you don't make the same mistake I did, and do the research as to which flavors have food coloring and which don't. Half of my flavorings had food coloring in them and I could not use them.
Oil based is bad for vaping. Some people use it but it's not recommended. I just mixed up some juice using flavor apprentice concentrates and they came out amazing, better than expected.
Lorann Oils aren't actual oils. Some of them have food coloring, but are otherwise safe to vape.
Some of them are, in fact, oils. Some of them are as safe as any flavor on the market for vaping purposes, while others have food coloring and other additives as you mentioned, which makes them a slightly higher risk choice. Some of them are an absolute no-go. http://bestvaporflavors.com/best-lorann-oils-vaping/ has a handy chart of what's what(gracias /u/DonOblivious for linking this originally).
My understanding is that you don't want ones with oil in them. So these are a no go.
Very true that you don't want oils as flavoring. However, a fair few LA flavors are safe to vape, and a few others are "safe-ish" and use food coloring in the flavors. I'm on mobile atm so I can't link it, but there's a website that breaks down which LA flavors are safe bets and which ones are not.