Buying ingredients around town?

[Bennylava]

Hi all. I was wondering if any of you know, if any of the ingredients can be bought, just around town. Perhaps the Loranne Flavoring can be found at Kroger? Or the VG and PG can be found at a health food store? Where would you recommend looking, when it comes to shopping at a storefront? I prefer pure VG, so that's all I'll really need


But I went to walmart and found some Mccormick Cocoanut cake flavoring for $1.50. If nothing else I can use it in a cake. Will that work? Or does it need to be specifically Lorann Cake icing flavoring?

 

[j3illy]

No reason why you can't pick those components up like that, but I doubt there's anywhere else you'd find nic. base. Even when you hear some of the ppl these days say "American made juice ONLY", no matter what the nic. base itself is coming from China and produced from their tobacco leaves, so it's kind of a moot point as far as I kno..

 

[Bennylava]

Well I mean have you ever seen the correct flavorings at say, Kroger? Or Albertsons? I won't be using nic.

 

[thatguy2]

got a Hobby Lobby close to you?
really good selection of Loran's in the candy making section there..
Walmart has limited selection of flavors- located in the craft department with the Wilton cake decorating supplies..
VG can be had at Walmart, CVS, Rite-Aid, Walgreens or other drug store-normally just called glycerin.. use the search here for walmart VG for a picture of the bottle your looking for..
PG can be had at Tractor Supply

 

[omyeyes]

Hi all. I was wondering if any of you know, if any of the ingredients can be bought, just around town. Perhaps the Loranne Flavoring can be found at Kroger? Or the VG and PG can be found at a health food store? Where would you recommend looking, when it comes to shopping at a storefront? I prefer pure VG, so that's all I'll really need


But I went to walmart and found some Mccormick Cocoanut cake flavoring for $1.50. If nothing else I can use it in a cake. Will that work? Or does it need to be specifically Lorann Cake icing flavoring?

No, the McCormick will not work. Too weak and they are only extracts. The flavorings that you need are 4 times that strength.
Get the Vegetable Glycerin at Walmart. 6oz =$3.88.
If you don't have a Hobby Lobby to get the flavorings, try Michaels, or JoAnn's. They are going to be in the cake decorating section.
Don't forget No Extracts, No Emulsions.
View attachment 290162

You will also need some syringes, 10ml & 5ml for measuring.

 

[glasseye]

Read this to make sure you get the right VG- http://www.e-cigarette-forum.com/forum/diy-e-liquid/277267-purity-pg-vg-peg-short-version.html you want USP. Check the ingredients of the store flavorings. You don't want any sugars, gums, oil, etc. that a lot of the extracts can contain.
If the VG is too thick, you can pick up distilled water anywhere. A gallon is about $1.

 

[dannyv45]

Read this to make sure you get the right VG- http://www.e-cigarette-forum.com/forum/diy-e-liquid/277267-purity-pg-vg-peg-short-version.html you want USP. Check the ingredients of the store flavorings. You don't want any sugars, gums, oil, etc. that a lot of the extracts can contain.
If the VG is too thick, you can pick up distilled water anywhere. A gallon is about $1.

Excellent advice.

 

[Bennylava]

From the article:

"It is possible that a USP product can be either pharma grade or food grade. The USP designation only refers to a general production regime and does not cover the percentage of contaminants. So a USP product might be considered safe for inhalation; or it might, on test, prove inadvisable to inhale. The only product that is guaranteed to be suitable for inhalation is a product that is (a) designated by the manufacturer as Pharmaceutical Grade, and that (b) also has a provable license for inclusion in a specific inhalable medicine. Needless to say this is virtually impossible to locate for the individual buyer. A vendor would be able to buy e.g. Dow Optim glycerine in quantity, for mixing down (or its PG equivalent), and be assured the material is suitable. This however doesn't take into account the nicotine base carrier PG or glycerine."

So basically, if the VG is suitable for use, it will say "Pharmaceutical Grade" on the bottle or box, somewhere. So it seems now I must ask my question again. Can pharmaceutical grade be bought at any local storefront? That seems unlikely. The only one I can think of would be the ones behind the counter at Wal-Mart Pharmacy, as one member suggested. But it occurs to me that it will be expensive. Would a health food store possibly stock pharmaceutical grade? Or anywhere else that it might be able to be bought off the shelf in bulk?

If not, where is the least expensive place to buy it online? As the sole purpose for me doing this is the cost of buying retail juices at vape shops.

It now seems quite unlikely that all these local mom and pop shops are using Pharmaceutical grade VG and PG. More likely, they are just buying food grade online and using that.

 

[WillyZee]

Many vapers (myself included) are using Essential Depot ... one of the best deals anywhere on PG/VG (I believe they also sell quarts on Amazon).

As long as it is USP ... you are good to go

http://www.essentialdepot.com/servlet/the-218/1-Gallon-Veg-Glycerin/Detail

 

[Jonathan Tittle]

Some extracts and flavorings, such as McCormicks are okay, but you have to check the label to make sure certain ingredients are not in the mix. Some extracts, like Vanilla, often have PG or VG, Alcohol and pure extract, which is okay, but if there's anything else, I'd skip it and move on to something else. Most of the flavors in the bakery aisle are for baking, as are the extracts, but some are okay.

LorAnn's flavors are confirmed Diacetyl-Free, so no worries of that chemical being in there and they're relatively easy to find. Almost any of the local hobby/craft stores should stock them in their two-bottle packs, or sell them individually. Some of the flavors are great, others are less than desirable. LorAnn uses PG and Alcohol as the primary two ingredients and all bottles are labeled individually on the back side.

For PG/VG, Essential Depot offers 2 Gallons (1 Gallon PG & 1 Gallon VG) for less than $55 and it comes with free shipping via UPS. You save at least $40-$60 over other companies buying in bulk and the stuff lasts for years. Highly recommended.

As for Nic, if you ever do go that route, you're probably not going to find it locally, so my suggestion would be Nude Nicotine or Wizard Labs just for starters. My Freedom Smokes would be my top choice for Nic.

 

[ut1205]

If you have a local retail bakery supply shop it will be the best option for a large selection of Lorann flavors.

 

[Bennylava]

Looks like this is going to be harder than I thought. Gathering ingredients, I mean. What is the lowest suitable percentage of VG that should be used? I found a local pharmacy that sells it in 99.5% purity. I guess the other .5% is contaminants. But would that level of purity be safe?

Also, where is the best place to buy flavors online? I see a lot of the same Lorann flavors, over and over again. Root beer, Lemon, Watermelon. But where can the wide variety that vape shops have, be found? (online)

 

[Sugar_and_Spice]

Looks like this is going to be harder than I thought. Gathering ingredients, I mean. What is the lowest suitable percentage of VG that should be used? I found a local pharmacy that sells it in 99.5% purity. I guess the other .5% is contaminants. But would that level of purity be safe?

Also, where is the best place to buy flavors online? I see a lot of the same Lorann flavors, over and over again. Root beer, Lemon, Watermelon. But where can the wide variety that vape shops have, be found? (online)

Try the flavor vendors.
capellaflavordrops
The flavor apprentice
flavorwest
Flavourart
Seedlings
Wilkins

As long as it says USP on the bottle of glycerin then it has passed all of the safety regs that the FDA puts out there for consumer use. Pharma grade is used in medications and cannot as a rule be bought by the average consumer, so 99.5% to 99.7% is probably the best you are going to find.

And to look for vendors that have been vetted by ecf members, look at the top menu of any ecf page and click on forum suppliers.

 

[Bennylava]

Not according to the link to the sticky, provided by another member in this thread. It says that USP could be food grade, which may or may not be suitable for inhalation. So does anyone know for sure what the percentage is that is safe?

 

[AthensGa]

My grandma used to buy little bottles of flavors for hard candy at the drug store. I'm sure the place had an actual name but everyone just called it "The Drug Store." Maybe if you could find an old fashioned drug store they'd still have flavorings sitting on the pharmacy counter. This was in a small town without a walmart, Kroger, cvs, walgreens or any other big chain retailer.

 

[omyeyes]

My grandma used to buy little bottles of flavors for hard candy at the drug store. I'm sure the place had an actual name but everyone just called it "The Drug Store." Maybe if you could find an old fashioned drug store they'd still have flavorings sitting on the pharmacy counter. This was in a small town without a walmart, Kroger, cvs, walgreens or any other big chain retailer.

Wow, I think those days are long gone. I haven't seen a corner drug store in years. Well, maybe back in '99, when I lived in Woodstock, GA. It was pretty rural but there was a Walmart down the street from it.

 

[Bennylava]

I like those towns where they won't give walmart the necessary building permits, cause it changes the town and kills all the small businesses.

 

[Sugar_and_Spice]

Not according to the link to the sticky, provided by another member in this thread. It says that USP could be food grade, which may or may not be suitable for inhalation. So does anyone know for sure what the percentage is that is safe?

Here you go. Enjoy

http://publichealth.drexel.edu/~/media/Files/publichealth/ms08.pdf

 

[Bennylava]

Has anyone tested this for 100% purity? If its really 100% pure as they say it is, why would they call it "food grade" and not "pharmaceutical grade"? Cause they could, and it would attract even more people. I noticed a lot of people in this thread are recommending and using that one.

http://www.essentialdepot.com/servlet/the-Glycerin-USP-Kosher-Vegetable/Categories

 

[Electraglide1]

When you see Pure Glycerin in a drug store is that PG or VG? The label does not specify. As thick as it is I would tend to think VG but not sure. Also where are the glycerins found in WalMart? Thanks for the help-new to the DIY side of the deal.