I wanted to know if there are certain Vegetable Glycerin's that are better than others. Better in a sense where its more pure or from a preferred plant, etc. I know a lot of them are Kosher certified but prices range from 12.00 per gallon to 40.00 per gallon. Which do I buy?
The two main differences for us in the West is about the % of purity of the vg, the US phormacopea allow US producer to sell a 99.5% pur VG while the European Phormacopea only allow 99.9% pur VG. Except for that, I don't really know any real concrete material differences.
I always get mine from bulk apothecary if that helps =)
Yup, that's where I've been getting mine for the last 4 years. Either from their Amazon store or their website directly (check shipping prices, most of the time it's cheaper from them on Amazon with 2 day shipping)
$28 a gallon with Prime versus $13.99 a gallon from Nic River. Where are you that shipping is $14+ ?
I worked with products like vg for a long time, knew a few manufacturers, some having a good name for outstanding quality and high disclosure of exact source, processing and quality testing.
100% pure vg is essentially impossible to get because it attracts water so aggressively that it's always contaminated with water. 99.99% is achievable and purest available, but 99.5% is very likely to simply contain more water if it is a quality product.
I basically vaped the stuff from the guys I trusted the most and had all the answers as to exactly where it came from, never had a problem with any recipes or anything but unflavoured wasn't enjoyable, it had after taste.
Once I was short and went to the local vape store and grabbed a litre for $12.95 which was re-bottled and labelled as local vape shop name. My "good stuff" was 8.95 for 200ml. Well the local vape shop stuff is a lot smoother tasting and sweeter with no after taste. I now use it for everything.
So I'd suggest you taste a few brands, but ideally find something where the company is happy to tell you where they're sourcing the product and what their quality controls are.
My experience is that if a company has excellent standards, they're happy to tell you all about it because they're proud &/or doing it right and have nothing to hide. Avoid anyone saying "I don't know" or "that's private/trade secrets/intellectual property" kinda thing, they're hiding something imo
VG is either palm based or soy based I believe
some people say palm tastes sweeter, and almost all soy is GMO
so palm might be a better option if you can find that info from sellers
Jesus! Doesn't palm contribute to deforestation and species losing their habitats? I did not want to have to worry about another damn palm product!
Depends on where you're from, in EU you can get both vegetable glycerine and vegetable propyleneglycol based on rapeseed, its excellent stuff.
As for source, of course it will make some difference, but the end product is purified to meet USP/EP standards and you can also usually ask for CoA to check impurities.
The 99.5/99.7/99.8% is an indicator of water content only, and in itself a pretty useless indicator of anything.
You can also get not vegetable based glycerol and propylene glycol if they're 99.9% pure with CoA because they'll basically be the same thing
Non veg VG is derived from animal fats, and regular PG is made from crude oil so its a fossil product from the petroleum industry.
There's no such thing as perfect purification, I'd just say no to both, especially as vegetable alternatives are readily available for less than $10/litre.
But you're free to enjoy whichever product you'd like.