Alright so I am finally out of supplies and want to buy more. So what I had was nude nic, wizard labs vg, and tfa flavors. My juice has always been harsh and I've dealt with it because, I am a broke vaper. Now that I'm out I don't have a choice. The last time I bought anything was five months ago so anything new in the market I missed?
VG: Like who is the best vg maker? At the time I didn't care but, wizard labs isn't any good for vg imho.
FLAVORS: everyone praised TFA but, now everyone is shying away so who da fuq do I get flavors from? I didn't like the flavors I bought. watermelon and strawberry. The watermelon was okay at best and the strawberry stayed very alcoholic way too harsh. FYI I only like fruit flavors I am very picky with them.
NIC: last but certainly not least nic. I have vaped my juices without nic and they weren't as harsh by a long a shot. I add 2mg of nic quadruples the harshness. Why 2mg I chain vape when drunk and wake up with the worst head ache. So is nude nic really the only option for nic? Like there is no one out there that can compete? I doubt that. They would have a monopoly over the nic game and someone would sue eventually.
So I'd really appreciate anyone helping me out here.
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If your nic is VG based, make sure to shake the hell out of it before using it. VG based nice tends to settle and have nic "hot spots". Your measured 2mg could easily be 4mg/ml.
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If you don't let EtOH based flavors (TFA Strawberry) steep long enough for the EtOH to evaporate, it will be off-tasting and possibly harsh.
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I've heard great things about VapersTek Nicotine, if you think it is the problem, it's worth the shot.
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Waking up with a head ache.....after drinking....? Never heard of it. Must be nic ;D
I attribute most nic problems to 100% VG nic. I know because I used to use it too (from Nude) and it went bad pretty fast -- less than 3 months. I switched to VapersTek when nude was out of nicotine stock and I've gotta say, it's quite excellent at 100% PG.
I'm going to try Carolina Nic next based off of /u/abdada's recommendation next
Report back -- and use my group code to save 10%! Group discount code is "Dada 10" with the capital D. Code will get the discount better as more people use it, and I do not get a commission.
I love my CXTC. Can't go back to anything else. Ordering a nitrogen pump next month so my nic won't touch air until it is in my mixes.
I'll try the new nic and also I didn't know about steeping too long causes probs with some flavors. As for your comment on waking up with a head ache after drinking I don't get hangovers. Never did till I quit smoking and started vaping. It's not like your typical hangover as people have described. Have you ever chain vaped like crazy and you get light headed and nauseous. Yeah having that the whole day sucks balls. That's what a hangover is from what people have told me. So I lowered my nic and it solved that prob.
Edit: I use 6040 vgpg on nude nic I think I can't remember it might be 8020. I always put it I'm lukewarm water to get it thin then shake. Then I mix. I know it degrades nic but he'll it's not alot of nic to ruin. FYI I STARTED THE WARM WATER BATH AFTER MAKING A FEW BATCHES AND FOUND NO DIFFERENCE IN HARSHNESS. IT ONLY MADE MIXING EASIER. SINCE MY DUMBASS BOUGHT A 22 GAUGE SYRINGE NEEDLE. I ran out a my gallon of vg and only had 10ml left of nic that oxidized no biggie.
Vaping tends to dehydrate you because of the humectant property of VG. I wouldn't be surprised if you experienced your first hangover because of it. Hangovers are usually due to dehydration. So the combination of two could have dehydrated you enough to have your first noticeable hangover. I've never heard of nicotine having an all day affect unless you swallowed entire bottle of juice. Most nicotine buzzes last only 5-10 minutes, if that.
If you want fruity fruit flavors, try inawara... They all taste like actual fruit to me, sort of "crisp" for lack of a better term. Two apples is awesome, watermelon is a little weak, but thats kinda realistic, strawberry is a tad bitter, which is also a bit realistic. Overall I like them more than anything else I have :)
If you want candy fruit flavors, loranns is sugarific. I feel like I'm gonna get the diabeetus every time I mix any amount of a loranns flavor.
Mbv fruit flavors are sort of like juice... Not candyish, not like fresh fruit, just a Blandish sort of medium IMO.
For PG and VG I just buy quart or half gallon bottles of USP off amazon. Essential something or another... Less than $10 a quart, and USP is USP as far as I'm concerned :)
Mbv nic got crazy harsh for me... NN is doing well so far, no pepperyness or harsh flavor, but I've only had it a couple months, so we'll see... Haven't tried any others, but there's a company in Colorado who's name I don't recall that's supposed to be good...
Wow this is the info I'm looking for. I'll try higher vg content on nude nic maybe it'll be less harsh. I had 5050 but tossed it thanks to oxidation. Umm what is your setup please say box mod with an rda. I want a different wick material that doesn't make my juice takes weird. I use Japanese cotton. I just hate rewicking every morning thanks to max vg juice.
Edit: if I can make non harsh juice and rewick every other day I'll have nothing to bitch about and that sounds nice.
Lol. I use unregulated boxes, occasionally rda, but usually with rebuild tanks (I'm favoring aqua2 lately, with a 2nd air hole bored out so I can lung hit off it). Japan cotton with a rewick every 5ml or so and a recoil every 4th or 5th refill generally.
Nude nicotine for nico, I buy 70/30 VG/PG for ease of shaking etc. I also only buy 12mg and cut it to 3mg, again for ease.
VG, as long as it's 100% USP VG doesn't matter. Usually thrown in with my Nude Nico or Bull City order.
Flavoring: This is the frustrating/tricky part. The issue is different flavors are different strengths. Perhaps the flavors you mixed were just too high percentages? Most of my flavors tend to be TFA and Capellas. I'd suggest following a few recipes from here to start.
Feel free to PM me anything.
VG: It sounds like you're doing something wrong. I never had a problem with Wizard Labs VG when i would order from them. Never heard of VG being harsh.
Flavors: If you don't wanna mix any recipes that are on here, go to the "My first order flavors" in the sidebar and pick a bunch of flavors from different companies. Also What percentages were you mixing TFA's flavors at? I haven't seen anyone shying away from TFA, they have just ventured to other brands.
Nic: How old is your nic? Are you using one of the calculators online? Alot of this sounds like user error.
Also I now know that vg is hydro scopic which means it absorbs water so the older it is the more harsh it gets. It has been very humid on the days I was mixing last and those were thee harshest batches I've ever made. Also the vg content of my nic is very high so water in my vg and nic most def isn't not helping me any. I am forced to go minimum 95 percent vg thank to pg allergy... My chest gets tight and its hard to breathe. I have a more severe case of pg allergy. Which blows for wicking but fuck it. I just want a warm smooth vaping experience that I've only had once from the discount bin at my b&m of a juice that's discontinued.
Does any of your juice taste peppery? Although mixing at 2mg I don't even think you'd be able to tell if your Nic oxidized.
I wouldn't doubt user error. I just dove in after reading the sidebar. I ALWAYS USE SAFETY GEAR THOUGH GLOVES GOGGLES AND HALF MASK GAS MASK WITH REPLACEABLE FILTERS. Yes I use a calculator. I always make 50ml batches at 2mg roughly of nic. My nic is 100mg/ml I'd add .7ml of nic to get roughly on the lower end of 2mg. Flavors I'd mix at 5 percent TFA pg base. So I'd add 1.5ml Then I'd top the bottle with a little room for shaking with vg. I have wicking issues all day and its always harsh. BUT IT DOESN'T TASTE BURNT EVER. So yeah I hope you can tell me what I'm doing wrong. FYI I like a warm vape but there is a difference between warm and harsh. Warm is breathing the hot air when pulling something out of the oven. Harsh is a lingering irritation. My juice is harsh.
For some flavors 5% is too much and for others, not enough. For Strawberry and Watermelon 5% is actually a little lower than where I might use them, so in my experience your flavors shouldn't be causing the harshness. If you are 100% sure your calculations are correct and didn't get a bad batch of nic, you should be fine there as well. One thing you can do is try the same mix with a different brand of nic and see if it does the same thing. That will eliminate the nic being the culprit. I doubt it's the pg or the vg, but you could try a whole new batch of both pg and vg to eliminate those as well.
My thoughts are that it has something to do with your setup. Have you tried your juices on anything else other than your go-to tank? Have you tried a new completely different build/coil other than the one you're used to?
Are you using distilled water? How much if so? If you're using it at much more than maybe 5% try bringing it down to 2-3% or so.
I've used both Nude and MFS. MFS is not as good in my opinion, but it's really not that easy to tell the difference, and like I said if it's a good batch and it is really 100mg that shouldn't be the culprit.
Also, 5% of 50ml is 2.5ml not 1.5ml. Assuming that's a typo, but if that's what you're actually mixing at, you might want to check your math on everything else. The math on your nic calculation checks out, but maybe there's something else going on. I would go through and check everything dilligently just to be sure. This may sound dumb but make sure you're not using a big syringe to measure your nic so there's no way you are measuring 7ml and not .7ml(it's a long shot but hey dumber things have been done by reasonable people).
My bet is it has something to do with your tank or coil build if you build your own coils. Not enough airflow can make it harsh. Have you tried other companies 2mg ejuices at the same pg/vg ratio as the ones you mixed? Were they as harsh?
I have a pg allergy so I went to white label as recommended by my buddy at my b&m. Since the Max vg juice he got me on from the discount bin was a discontinued juice. I never ever ever had issues with harshness with my white label. Just their juice sucks all the dicks at wicking. I'd rewick four five six times daily and ordered a two hundred dollar order to find something that wicked good and tasted good fuck it yolo. This was before I found out about nic being easy to obtain and the savings of diy. I'm using the exact same setup more or less as before just bigger and better. I have a vertex v2 clone with 3 wraps of 22 gauge kidney puncture kanthal and Japanese cotton. On a smpl with vtc 4... Now I run seven wraps same gauge same atty just a new one. (battery vented and fucked the old atty on the smpl that's what I get for getting an effest battery) on a sigelei 150w so it is the nic for sure but when I use strawberry it's even worse.
Good to see you're being safe! As for the flavors, for Watermelon i mix at 8-12%. Thats the sweet spot for me. 5% is definitely weak to me for TFA's Watermelon. If your mixing flavors at 5% in a 50ml batch, you would need to add 2.5ml of flavor. Mixing at 1.5ml in a 50ml batch is 3% of flavor. Also, most TFA flavors aren't good at standalone and are much better when mixed with other flavors. As for the harshness i don't really understand where that could be coming from unless your actually mixing in 7ml of nic and not .7ml. You could make just straight VG/PG to see if the harshness is coming from the nic or flavors.
Heartland Vapes. I got Nic and a gallon of PG and VG there. For flavoring go ahead and get a bulk account for TFA. The nana cream clone recipe isn't bad. Gotta just find the right recipe. I tried mixing some cantaloupe strawberry etc, wasn't ever very good. I never really liked the Honey Pearry recipes and I was getting discouraged. Turns out, maybe I just do not like Honey Pearry..When you find that good recipe you will thank the vape gods.
VG: most VG in the US is made by the same one or two companies, and simply rebottled by the seller. Some sellers will add a small amount of distilled water to make it easier to pour, but other than that pretty much anything that says "99.7% Pure" is probably going to be the same thing. I've had VG from TFA, Essential Depot and RiteAid and they all tasted identical.
FLAVORS: I still prefer TFA, because I like their bulk pricing. I've never tried their Watermelon, but I prefer their Strawberry Ripe over their regular Strawberry. Ripe tastes more like, well, ripe strawberries whereas regular tastes more like underripe strawberries to me. Strawberry Ripe doesn't seem to have as much of an alcohol flavor to me, either. I'm also a big fan of TFA's Blueberry Wild.
Whenever you use a flavoring that contains alcohol, it's a good idea to let your bottle of juice (not the flavoring itself!) sit opened overnight, or up to 24 hours: this allows some of the alcohol to evaporate off and gets rid of that alcohol flavor and harshness.
If you're not sure about flavors, you might try ordering a bunch of tester sizes from Wizard Labs or another supplier, to see what you like. They're usually only about $1.50 each, and if you don't like one it's not a big loss. Different people taste flavors differently, and what tastes amazing to one person might taste really bad to you.
NIC: I've personally never had a problem with Nude, but I don't know if I'll order from them anymore. They didn't handle some of the previous issues that people had very well at all, and it didn't exactly instill a lot of confidence. There are lots of vendors that people use though: WizardLabs, VapersTek and Heartland are three suppliers than many people seem to gravitate to.
since you have a PG allergy, have you tried FA flavors? I mix mostly with those and you can get away with much lower percentages - like 1-3% for individual flavors etc. You didn't say what % you were mixing your TFA at but in my (limited) experience of mixing the last year TFA takes higher percentages of flavoring which is going to increase your PG in your juice.
Personally I prefer max VG juices - I don't have an issue with wicking because I just use a dripper. Ya you have to carry around your juice and your set up but I've gotten used to it. Some flavorings are noticeably harsher to me and usually that happens when I have to use a higher percent. I really like FA because the flavors are good and my juice isn't harsh (although there are still some TFA and CAP flavors I use because I just love them.)
Long time lurker and I don't think I have contributed much on this account (if at all), so here is my piece. Rewicking is important but only if you change flavors regularly. I rewick about once every two weeks. If your juice is "harsh" could be a number of things: to much sweetener ( should be about one drop per 10ml of juice), nic hotshots (typically has a harsh peppery throat hit that makes you cough. Warm the bottle under a hot tap and shake the bajezus out of it! ), to much flavoring ( juice smell/taste strong? Dilute it with your preference of pg/vg, percentages vary by taste but I personally try to keep it below 18%). Pg and vg can be bought on Amazon for dirt cheap, flavors are a one stop shop at wizard labs for me, but I haven't really shopped around a whole lot. Lemme know if you have any questions. Good luck and happy vaping.
As for VG, as long as it is USP, it is all the same. There are several places on Amazon to get 99.7% USP VG on the cheap. A lot of people use Essential Depot.
Flavors are preference. I like FA and Capella's fruits. Inawera supposedly has the best tobaccos. TFA has good cream base type flavors.
Nic: NudeNicotine (but only get PG). Vaperstek is good too.
Hello Nope,
I've skimmed over many of the replies and see that I'd like to add-on and emphasize that vaping certainly dehydrates you (PG dehydrates your air passage ways a little more than VG). Make sure that you drink plenty of water - especially if you're drinking while vaping.
I would also advise you to invest a few dollars on a nicotine testing kit. It will give you peace of mind that the nicotine concentration is what's on the label.
Lastly, there are other nic options such as Vape Clarity. (pardon my shameless self-promotion) I'd like for you to look into www.vapeclarity.com.
It's fine. I'll take a look now I'll edit once I've browsed over the site.
Edit: you site is very easy to use and simple which I like. You prices are good as well. I will most defiantly be placing an order very soon.
I've never had a positive experience with strawberry, in my own juice or anyone else's. For flavors in general, though, I've had fairly good experiences with Medicine Flower. They're expensive but a little goes a long way. (but, sadly...even their strawberry wasn't great).
I can't really help Nic wise, as I'm not in the US, I know that a lot of people have steered away from Nude Nicotine though, saying their Nic is always peppery and harsh.
VG/PG you can get that anywhere on the internet, Amazon is a good shout, look for anything 99.5% or higher.
Flavours, hunt around this sub and look for a fruity mix that takes your fancy, honestly you'll be far better buying a mixture of flavours then a large amount of 1 or 2 flavours.
I've not bought or looked at recipes for a while, but last time I did, /u/Fizzmustard's Nana Clone Was a good recipe too choose.
It's fairly close to the legitimate Nana cream from /u/Bombies not quite there, and there's a few other people who have attempted it too.
If you decide to go for a multitude of flavours, it's always nice to pick up a few extra's that will blend well, cream flavours go well with fruit flavours of course, a flavour like Marshmallow is often used to "Fluff or Fill" liquids out with a little sweetness and toasty flavours too.
Nude Nic is peppery and harsh?! LOL!!! It's miles ahead of any nic you can get otherwise. They give you the full GCMS analysis, if it gets peppery it's of your own doing (leaving it uncapped, putting it in a tanning bed, etc).
nude nic is prob the issue.. there has been a few reports that the mgs are way higher than listed.
That was a couple months ago and everythings fine now. Could be wrong though but if there was any problems recently it would be blasted all over Reddit.