Hello all. I've been doing some research on all the menthol and other cooling additives that can be added to e-juice. I have read several other threads on this topic and reviews on various products on sites that carry them. I used to be a menthol smoker and still enjoy a nice cool throat hit in some of my e-juice. All the different types of coolants can be kinda confusing and I just want a good one to mix with some of my premade e-juice. Most people suggest adding Koolada + Menthol to a juice for the full cooling effect but without any of this stuff on hand, it's hard to know what mixture is right for me. So I'm here to ask, what do you use to add some icyness to your juice and what do you prefer? Here's what I know so far...
- Mint - Like the mint plant. Mild cooling effect, has a slight flavor
- Menthol - Adds more throat hit and the 'burn' feeling, can have a bitter and/or eucalyptus like taste
- Koolada - Adds a 'cooling' effect without the 'taste' of mint or menthol. Some say they can taste a flavor that mutes or affects the taste of their juice
- WS-23 - Similar to Koolada but milder, but also has less taste than Koolada to those who can taste it
- Polar Blast (FA) - Described as having no mint or menthol, but still adds a cooling effect. Milder than Koolada and most have described it as having no taste
- Arctic Winter (FA) - Described as a strong menthol
- Extreme Ice (FW) - Described as a strong menthol with a wintergreen like taste
- Peppermint, Spearmint, Wintergreen - Variations of mint that add a noticeable flavor which some may describe as toothpaste, chewing gum, or mouth wash
Some things to note in particular is that while Koolada is suppose to add the cooling effect without the taste of mint/menthol, some people have described it as not quite the effect that they are looking because they can taste something unpleasant and it mutes the flavor of the juice they add it to. Menthol can be harsh or 'medicinal' tasting for others and other minty type flavors make their juice taste like toothpaste. Other coolants may add a cooling effect but is too mild or not provide enough 'icyness'. Of course, taste is subjective and some people may enjoy the flavor that some of these additives have.
But I believe most people who want to enhance their juice with a "cool" effect just want the straight up icy cool feeling with some throat hit with NO additional flavor. So how to achieve that and what is the best mixture?
I recently bought a bunch of random cooling additives and want to experiment with them. I am GUESSING that the best blend for me personally, might be a combination of the WS-23 or Polar Blast, combined with the Arctic Winter. One for the throat hit and full on 'menthol' feeling and the WS-23/Polar Blast for the cooling effect. As with menthol cigarettes, you feel it more in the inhale with the throat hit and harshness, but does not leave much of a minty taste or aftertaste. And for those who may have inhaled some Vicks before, obviously it is not meant to be smoked or provide a throat hit, but it does leave that lingering cooling feeling in your mouth. A combination of both may be required to achieve desired effect, but it is possible the mixture may alter the taste of your juice slightly.
My allergy mix is
5-10% menthol solution 2-5% eucalyptus mint
It's like huffing vaporub.
About 2 years ago I bought 25g WS-23 crystals and mixed it up in 200ml pg, I add about 1 drop per ml and make juice is ice cold like the Malaysian stuff or sometimes I double it up for extreme icy cold.
I've tried koolada, FA polar blast, and FA arctic winter. FA Arctic Winter is just a nice menthol really, gives some cooling but of course you will have the menthold taste. FA Polar Blast is pretty much just like Koolada but a little colder, overall i was very disappointed with FA Polar Blast as I wanted something very cold (this was a few years ago before i knew about WS-23). If you addpolar blast to the menthol it's a little colder but still just a menthol juice. Now WS-23 is where all the magic happens, this is the only real way I know of that you can get a super cold throart hit without any(or much depending who you ask) flavor change.
If you mix a little koolada (polar blast will do the same thing) to the WS-23 it can give it a small kick that wasn't there before, but very hard to tell unless you side by side compare them. Also the koolada or polar blast really has a chance to mess up the flavor is you are sensitive or add too much.
A while back when I was trying everything I could to mimic the ice throat hit of Malaysian juices there was hardly any info about WS-23 available, and pretty much no DIYers that I saw were talking about it. After I found some from a chemical supply store in Thailand and when I mixed up it, EUREKA! Ws-23 was exactly what I was searching for to recreate the Malaysian juice cold throat hit. Now I see it mentioned every so often by mixers, but usually still in small amounts, maybe just repacing what would have been koolada. Personally, I live in a hot climate and don't enjoy DL vaping anything except ice cold juice.
In my experience WS-23 is not milder than koolada but stronger. Might be because WS-23 is sold by chefs in 30% concentration while I believe tpa koolada is 10%. Also, both WS-23 and Koolada mute flavours in my experience. If you like mint so far my best recipe has been:
8% FW candy cane
2% FW menthol
1% cap cool mint
1% tpa marshmallow
According to FA MSDS, Polar Blast is 7% Koolada (WS-3) plus 3% of an icy ingredient, as far as I'm aware not used in any other vape concentrate.
And WS-23 (in a 30% solution retail product) gives a much 'colder' effect to juice than Koolada (in a 10% solution retail product).
Further reading from one manufacturer (direct link to pdf).
There are, last I read, six of the WS compounds that have GRAS classification, with two other similar coolants that have it as well. They include WS-3 (koolada) WS-5, WS-12, WS-23, and I'm not entirely sure of the others. This should have the info in it somewhere. Also, it probably names that 'mystery coolant' in Polar Blast. At a guess, it's either WS-5 or WS-12.
There's no mystery about it - just didn't seem relevant to my comment.
It's actually Frescolat ML (FEMA 3748, CAS 61597-98-6) aka L-Menthyl lactate. C13 H24 O3
This video might be of interest to you.
Thanks for the share. Never though you were a menthol fan. Why no menthol recipies, are those a secret? O:)
I'm not a menthol fan. At all. I hate the way menthol tastes in a vape. But I love cooling, especially in the summer. I just like it to be as flavorless as possible. So that's why I've got a recipe or two with Koolada or that mention adding your own preferred amount of Koolada to them. Those were before I discovered FA Polar Blast. I managed to finish one recipe using a little of that... and then found WS-23. Holy crap I think I'm addicted to that stuff. Here are three recipes I made with it and two recipes by /u/Apexified that I loved that used it:
https://alltheflavors.com/recipes/79058#orange_shandy_thechristmasmix_by_id10_t
https://alltheflavors.com/recipes/66029#pickle_gibson_by_id10_t
https://alltheflavors.com/recipes/62189#pickle_rick_by_id10_t
https://alltheflavors.com/recipes/60351#sweet_summer_chilled_by_apexified
https://alltheflavors.com/recipes/54784#blue_frost_revisited_by_apexified
do you find WS-23 Mute flavors and any sweetness in a recipe. i find myself increasing the amount of Super sweet when i use WS-23. i've also found out that because WS-23 mutes some flavors (to me at least), i can't just added to an existing recipe and get the same profile but colder.
You may find [this] (http://www.leffingwell.com/cooler_than_menthol.htm) page interesting, particularly the graphs further down the page, the WS from like WS-23 is from Wilkinson Sword, a razor manufacturer who wanted to make cooling agents for shaving
You could also maybe email info@driphacks.com he seems to know how to make cooling/icy juices and he's a friendly helpful guy and he sells various crystals ready to mix
Taken from https://www.rainbowvapes.co.uk/products/ws23-rainbowvapes-intense-flavours
'(mix between 1-2%) A Koolada that cools the front of the mouth, work mixing with ws3 for a full mouth cooling.'
I sometimes mix in 0.3% of 10% methal crystals mixed in PG, whenever I get a cold and can't vape much. It helps whenever you get a raw throat from drainage. After the cold has passed and have gotten my taste buds back, I noticed that the juice is a bit sweeter than it should be. Don't know if this was from the cold or what!
I vape MTL and use 2.5% of a 50% menthol crystal solution. Basically what you use but at 12.5%. Cooling agents affect everyone differently, but I find I am extremely tolerant to the cooling effect and need a lot to feel it.
I know some people would barely be able to inhale some of my recipes.
Menthol also helps your body more readily absorb nicotine so keep that in mind if you are trying to lower nicotine levels you are vaping down.
That's interesting. Any source?
TPA Koolada
I haven't used it my own mixes but an acquaintance used it in many of his. I'm not crazy about it. At all. It does add a bit of cooling effect to the mix, but to me it also adds a weird watery aftertaste.
TPA Peppermint
My current favourite. It doesn't have a strong cooling effect but it adds mint (herb) notes and a bit of spiciness and gives noticeable throat hit. Too much of it tastes like toothpaste though. My usual range is 2 to 8 drops per 10 ml.
TPA Spearmint
The 'coolest' one that I have but it also goes into toothpaste territory pretty fast. I haven't experimented much with it so far but 3-5 drops per 10 ml seems to be safe.
INW Eucalyptus&Mint
It's more eucalyptus than mint. I haven't used it as the only mint to far (aside from 'palate cleanser') so I can't say for sure how much of the cooling effect and throat hit is from it or other mints but it definitely adds noticeable eucalyptus notes even at 3 drops per 10 ml.
As for 'palate cleanser', I've seen someone on this sub mentioning that it works well as one so I added 1 drop to my remaining 5-8 ml of clear base that I usually vape between incompatible juices and when I get vaper's tongue. I wouldn't say that it helped get rid of vaper's tongue faster than usual but the clear vape didn't feel as boring and vaped somehow smoother than usual. And, yes, the eucalyptus was noticeable and nice.
Hope that helped.
I enjoy using a combo of fa polar blast and ws 23. I feel that both are a bit milder and don't have a taste like koolada does. Polar blast only gives me cooling on the exhale and ws23 only gives me cooling on the inhale so I use both for optimum cooling. ws23 can be very intense, so be careful.
I have about 90ml of extreme ice 3mg liquid I'm probably not gonna vape, if you wanted to try mixing some of it with some of your juices. Extremely icy throat hit, like I feel like I have gum in my mouth for a few minutes after a hit.
Hell, I have ~90ml of Extreme Ice concentrate left that I'll probably never use.
Great! I love menthol and have been experimenting with some myself. Even though i can't find any menthol candy in the market that i can't handle, when it comes to e-juice i noticed that we need proper caution and amounts.
0.3% of 10% menthol crystals and 0.5% koolada/polar blast is my sweet spot. Higher amounts will mute other flavors, and will bring unpleasant metallic notes to the juice.
I didn't noticed any difference between koolada and polar blast, but still need to solo test those flavors.
Keep it coming, DIY community needs more menthol. Very few like it, but we do exist. :)
I have not tried the menthol crystals as I want to avoid the additional step of getting base PG to mix it with, but you are right about being careful on the amounts added. I had a small bottle of Koolada from when I wanted to try DIY myself (something I have long given up on), but I have mixed it with some premade juice that I thought would taste much better with a cool kick. I added a small amount at first, not really measuring... maybe about 10 drops or so into a 60ml bottle, and then shook it and tried it. Wasn't cool enough. I added 10 more and it was still too weak. I ended up dumping about 5mls into the bottle before it was good enough for me. It could have been a low % bottle, I can't remember as it was a while ago but once I get my order of various coolants, I will try it again, starting off in smaller amounts and working my way up. I may try mixing it in a small dropper bottle using the same juice mixed with various coolants to see the difference for myself.
Spearmint, menthol, koolada, red blend, nicotine. I refill my markten e-cigs with that mix. I just eyeball it with the numbers since I've been making my own juice for almost 3 years but it's always a higher PG to VG ratio, usually 70/30. That's the closest I've ever got to a real cig. A great mod vape is blueberry, raspberry cotton candy, menthol, touch of koolada and nic. The e-cigs just became really convenient because using a mod while doing construction doesn't really work out.
I thought Koolada and WS-23 were supposed to be the exact same compound.
edit: Nope, you're right, FEMA 3804 and FEMA 3455
There's supposed to be a blend of WS-3 (koolada) and WS-23 that interacts with each other to result in a cooling effect which goes beyond additive. Personally, I'd like to acquire WS-5 and WS-12 (two of the more potent cooling agents) but so far the minimum order amounts I've found is 1kg.
Am sure driphack used to stock all the powders, but looking on his site now, he only has WS-23, but maybe email him, he must use a variety in his cryo range of concentrates, am sure https://vapourdepot.com/ used to stock a few of the WS range premixed, but only WS-23 now, chefs have https://www.chefsflavours.co.uk/additives/5650-ws-5.html premixed
Hmm. What's the usual cost for shipping from them? Getting stuff from the states gets expensive enough, and it's not like that's a long distance...
Good morning sir. I have many kinds of coolant in our country, and I also have friends in Italy. He said he heard that adding e-liquid, are afraid to sell to him. I also bought TFA's Koolada. In our country, this is called lactic acid peppermint, I think it will produce the best of the WS-23 if it does not cover the other flavors. -5 bit bitter. -3 a bit burning smell.