I recently started my foray into DIY, and bought PG VG and 100mg/ml nic from wizard labs and roughly 70 flavors from various manufacturers. The nic was amber colored and against suggestions from members on this thread, I mixed up 900mls of 80/20 4mg base. It tasted faintly peppery and my gut told me it was not right; but I trudged on and made 5 ml testers of the 70 flavors which was a long process. Then I actively and passively steeped my samples. Many of them were tasty and the peppery notes had diminished. So I went ahead and made a few recipes and steeped those, many of them for weeks as some contained custard ingredients. Started vaping them and they were OK. After more vaping of the 10 or so flavors i made I began to notice an unpleasant background flavor in most of them. I read here that vaporstek and nude nic had the best consistent reviews and bought a liter. Also ordered a quart of VG from essentials depot. After all of the wasted effort described so far I decided to heed the advice read here and taste tested all of my ingredients first. These are my findings; Wizard labs VG was OK, initial flavorlessness finished by a very faint musty taste. Essentials Depot VG was truly clean and flavorless, which I was only able to notice by doing a side by side blind tasting with the wizard stuff. The amber colored WL nic mixed at 4mg 80/20 tasted mildly of nicotine, sweet earthy, peppery, and a little nutty. The Vaporstek nic mixed the same way tasted faintly of nic and a little sweet, nothing else.
This is not a jab at wizard labs, as when I notified them of my experience they promptly sent me a replacement for the bad nic. But to date the VT nic is the smoothest cleanest I have tried. The real point to this is to inform the newb that the advice found here can really speed up the learning curve on DIY, as well as save time and money. If a product you recieve from a vendor is not up to snuff, contact them and make sure they resolve the issue. This helps all of us and will ensure that our vendors continue to provide only the highest quality products. If not, they will likely lose market share.
Thanks to everyone here for all the continued help and support, this is truly a great community.
My experience is not great with VT. Two different orders came with a vicious throat hit. Not smooth at all even at 3mg. To replace them they wanted me to pay for return shipping both ways.
Making you pay for shipping is a bad business practice. They accidentally sent me VG based nic when I requested PG. I called and they merely apologized, I had to tell them I wanted what I ordered for them to agree. I only paid shipping one way. The quality control with nic at the quantities we typically order clearly leaves room for improvement.
VT is nice but inconsistent. I first purchased the 100MG sample from Bull City. It was colorless/clear when I received it and only slightly oxidized when I began using it. (we're talking the slightest tinge of yellow) So I then ordered direct from VT and when I received my unopened/sealed product it was ALREADY more yellow than the sample sized one that had been opened for at least a month! As it sat, unopened, it continued to oxidize and is currently a peach color. Nude nicotine, however, came clear and has remained clear.
Which is better vg base nic or pg based?