To me, watermelon is a pretty artificial taste to begin with. All the watermelons I've tried don't even taste remotely similar to the actual fruit. Banana is another one, but I've had better luck finding authentic ones than watermelon.
Chemical and or Soapy Taste In Your Juice
- Thread starter BentWookie
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You guys all have great points. I am not quite yet comfortable enough to start DIY as I've finally just sorted out what hardware I will be using long term. With this new hardware setup (VV/VW w/ Carto or Carto tank) I am getting to know all my juices again as it tastes much different than the vivi and kanger style tanks i've been using up to now. It seems though the trend is that people in general will find some solid juices which they can rely on and also finally dabble in DIY for reasons such as QC, economics, and adventure.
Seems part of it also may be personal preference as well as genetics as described in this article about the "Brussel Sprouts Gene". The 'brussels sprouts' gene: TAS2R38 | Anna Perman's Genetic Spaghetti | Science | guardian.co.uk
On a side note, thanks to all of you guys in the ECF community. I would never have been able to quit analogs w/out you.
Seems part of it also may be personal preference as well as genetics as described in this article about the "Brussel Sprouts Gene". The 'brussels sprouts' gene: TAS2R38 | Anna Perman's Genetic Spaghetti | Science | guardian.co.uk
On a side note, thanks to all of you guys in the ECF community. I would never have been able to quit analogs w/out you.
Interesting Bent Wookie! I also liked the side note about how are taste sensing is affected not only by that gene stuff but by age(I think everyone knows that one) and by what you habitually eat and drink. I'm surprised though that they didn't talk olfactory since without it you have almost nothing....just taste buds. Thanks for the article. I guess the guys the guys who didn't want to be the dad just said they could taste huh?
Sometimes during some embarrassing holiday dinners I wish I could use this excuse. lol.
I've ordered lots of juices I didn't care for over the years. Most had a perfumy bouquet or an off taste I didn't care for. Some were fine when I went back into the reject box and tried them again weeks or months later. Some were still bad.
About two weeks ago, I ordered some tobacco flavored juice from a supplier I order hardware from pretty often. When it came in, I filled up a Vivi Nova and took a hit. SOAP!! It was like "Momma washed my mouth out with soap" taste. It wasn't subtle at all. That one is in the maybe one day box for hard juice times.
I recently ordered 4 bottles of juice from a new vendor about 200 miles away. I like to deal with closer vendors when possible for the quicker shipping times. I ordered USA Mix, USA Mix light, Desert Ship, and 555. All have that same soapy taste, but these are more subtle. I can recognize the soap taste because of the previous vendor's juice that was so heavy on the soap. Maybe these will settle down and become good vapes as the juice mixes and melds. Time will tell.
About two weeks ago, I ordered some tobacco flavored juice from a supplier I order hardware from pretty often. When it came in, I filled up a Vivi Nova and took a hit. SOAP!! It was like "Momma washed my mouth out with soap" taste. It wasn't subtle at all. That one is in the maybe one day box for hard juice times.
I recently ordered 4 bottles of juice from a new vendor about 200 miles away. I like to deal with closer vendors when possible for the quicker shipping times. I ordered USA Mix, USA Mix light, Desert Ship, and 555. All have that same soapy taste, but these are more subtle. I can recognize the soap taste because of the previous vendor's juice that was so heavy on the soap. Maybe these will settle down and become good vapes as the juice mixes and melds. Time will tell.
Well I've diluted the original juice in plain VG. The mixture is at 25% original juice and 75% plain vg. It's been steeping since the 13th and now it just smells like some cheap perfume.
Since my original post I started reading a lot about DIY juice. It's interesting that in a 15ml bottle that it only takes as little as 3 drops of flavoring. It's starting to become very clear to me how easily you can mess up while mixing juice. I've also started reading that watermelon is 1 of the most difficult flavors to accurately replicate with a majority of the watermelon flavorings ending up tasting like jolly rancher candy.
This thread has actually inspired me to try my hand at DIY. I've placed my first order for some basic, easily mixable juices.
Apple, banana, coconut, pinapple, black and mild, vanilla, EM/cotton candy. Thanks all for the very helpful feedback. Keep an eye out in the DIY forums for my DIY horror stories
Since my original post I started reading a lot about DIY juice. It's interesting that in a 15ml bottle that it only takes as little as 3 drops of flavoring. It's starting to become very clear to me how easily you can mess up while mixing juice. I've also started reading that watermelon is 1 of the most difficult flavors to accurately replicate with a majority of the watermelon flavorings ending up tasting like jolly rancher candy.
This thread has actually inspired me to try my hand at DIY. I've placed my first order for some basic, easily mixable juices.
Apple, banana, coconut, pinapple, black and mild, vanilla, EM/cotton candy. Thanks all for the very helpful feedback. Keep an eye out in the DIY forums for my DIY horror stories
i think that perfumy/chemical taste and soapy taste are two different things with different causes. I gave some of my diy vanilla to a vanilla lover who had only used high pg liquid. I had made my mix with at least 70% vg. she said she did not like the soapy taste. I had read somewhere that some people notice soapy taste in high vg juices.
after reading this entire thread i decided to do an experiment. I didn't want to devote the time or resources to an appropriately scientific experiment with similarly treated atomizers, controls etc, but here is what i did. all the vg use was from bottles opened in the last 36 hours. using a new atomizer i dripped and vaped a solution of one half pg and one half wizard labs 48mg ice vg, then WL kosher usp vg base, then humco usp vg (from walmart) base. then i repeated the whole thing. the only time i seemed to discern a slight soapy taste was with the humco vg. i noticed nothing with the the WL vg and with the ice/pg mix i only noticed the peppery taste of the nicotine.
conclusion: i am not especially sensitive to a soapy taste, i didn't find it particularly repulsive but it seems like the humco vg was slightly soapy. I'll try to use only kosher WL vg if i make some more juice for my friend and as a general rule. the 30% price savings is not worth it to get any soapy taste. unfortunately when i asked my wife to pick some up for me she got two bottles so now i have 12 ounces of the stuff on my hands, literally, i'll never have to buy hand lotion again.
after reading this entire thread i decided to do an experiment. I didn't want to devote the time or resources to an appropriately scientific experiment with similarly treated atomizers, controls etc, but here is what i did. all the vg use was from bottles opened in the last 36 hours. using a new atomizer i dripped and vaped a solution of one half pg and one half wizard labs 48mg ice vg, then WL kosher usp vg base, then humco usp vg (from walmart) base. then i repeated the whole thing. the only time i seemed to discern a slight soapy taste was with the humco vg. i noticed nothing with the the WL vg and with the ice/pg mix i only noticed the peppery taste of the nicotine.
conclusion: i am not especially sensitive to a soapy taste, i didn't find it particularly repulsive but it seems like the humco vg was slightly soapy. I'll try to use only kosher WL vg if i make some more juice for my friend and as a general rule. the 30% price savings is not worth it to get any soapy taste. unfortunately when i asked my wife to pick some up for me she got two bottles so now i have 12 ounces of the stuff on my hands, literally, i'll never have to buy hand lotion again.
it could be that the juice vendors are using cheap vg. as for chemical taste, some flavorings are made from natural extracts. i get no chemical taste from the TPA coffee flavor extracted from natural coffee. seems to me that i get the most chemical taste from fruity juices. If you really dislike chemical and soapy taste u should diy, using kosher usp vg and natural extract flavorings.
WL vg is 99.7% pure, humco vg is 99.5%. I'm guessing the WL ice vg is more pure than the regular WL vg. WL "pure" is a different product. Note: I got some of the last batch of ice or pure that WL will be making for a while.
WL vg is 99.7% pure, humco vg is 99.5%. I'm guessing the WL ice vg is more pure than the regular WL vg. WL "pure" is a different product. Note: I got some of the last batch of ice or pure that WL will be making for a while.
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Just tried a peach flavor from goodejuice.com (their premium brand) and tasted like a pure 100% natural fresh peach. Very flavorfull but not overpowering. No steeping, no soapy perfume taste like some other vendors. I find that the soapy and perfume tatses come from suppliers that use artificial flavorings and mix flavors just before they ship.
I've also tasted nuetral tobacco flavors from vendors which also had funky artificial tastes. those tasted more soapy not so perfume. The goodejuice home brew line tatses like rich natural expensive tobaccos and nothing else, just the way i like it.
Bottom line in, my experiences, suppliers using quality pg/vg and extract flavor from natural vegetation need practically no steeping and don't have any funky flavors.
I've also tasted nuetral tobacco flavors from vendors which also had funky artificial tastes. those tasted more soapy not so perfume. The goodejuice home brew line tatses like rich natural expensive tobaccos and nothing else, just the way i like it.
Bottom line in, my experiences, suppliers using quality pg/vg and extract flavor from natural vegetation need practically no steeping and don't have any funky flavors.
The soapy taste could be coming from the plastic bottle I made a juice that I vape most of the time and I had a soapy taste I redid the mix in another bottle and it was fine so the soapy taste could be the plastic bottle just my two cense.
I have read the comments in this post about soapy and chemical taste.
TBH I have always ordered my E-liquids from Vapors-choice and evrything I ordered tasted great.
Except this Spearmint with Arctic Chill. It was not soapy or chemical tasting just not my flavor.
I did detect a hint of vinegar smell in couple of the empty bottles. Search Vinegar on ECF.
Unfortunately Vapors-choice prices are middle of the road for 30ml competitive shipping prices though.
I just ordered some RTV's from Mt Baker and I feel like it was a total waste due to really soapy chemical tasting liquids.
The first I have ever experiance like this when branching out and trying a new vendor. However I will let them steep for a while.
I liked the Strapple and Caramel Apple so much from Vapors Choice.
Thought it would be simple and purchased the "Fruity" flavorings from Mt-Baker Strawberry, Green Apple and some Sweetner.
After reading the info in this thread and tasting the RTV's I have my doubts.
I will proceed with trepidation and will mix very small batches to test on a dripper then go up in sizes accordingly.
I would like to save the liquids I bought that have not turned out as expected and break them down, but like mentioned with no definition.
It could be different ingredients that cause the soapy taste. I reckon it is more than likely over-powering the flavor and lack of "my special ingredient".
The other note with Vapors Choice is that all the flavors I bought were 100% VG but still had great taste.
One other problem is being on the other side of the world and not having immediate access to large resourses and paying top dollar for shipping.
I'm not trying to bash Vapors Choice as a sales pitch but his flavors are really nice without needing a steep time, true RTV when you open the bottle.
TBH I have always ordered my E-liquids from Vapors-choice and evrything I ordered tasted great.
Except this Spearmint with Arctic Chill. It was not soapy or chemical tasting just not my flavor.
I did detect a hint of vinegar smell in couple of the empty bottles. Search Vinegar on ECF.
Unfortunately Vapors-choice prices are middle of the road for 30ml competitive shipping prices though.
I just ordered some RTV's from Mt Baker and I feel like it was a total waste due to really soapy chemical tasting liquids.
The first I have ever experiance like this when branching out and trying a new vendor. However I will let them steep for a while.
I liked the Strapple and Caramel Apple so much from Vapors Choice.
Thought it would be simple and purchased the "Fruity" flavorings from Mt-Baker Strawberry, Green Apple and some Sweetner.
After reading the info in this thread and tasting the RTV's I have my doubts.
I will proceed with trepidation and will mix very small batches to test on a dripper then go up in sizes accordingly.
I would like to save the liquids I bought that have not turned out as expected and break them down, but like mentioned with no definition.
It could be different ingredients that cause the soapy taste. I reckon it is more than likely over-powering the flavor and lack of "my special ingredient".
The other note with Vapors Choice is that all the flavors I bought were 100% VG but still had great taste.
One other problem is being on the other side of the world and not having immediate access to large resourses and paying top dollar for shipping.
I'm not trying to bash Vapors Choice as a sales pitch but his flavors are really nice without needing a steep time, true RTV when you open the bottle.
Hi There Milde Shag,
Since I originally posted this I have discovered with most vendors that there is always good and bad. I still have not isolated the source of the soapy flavor but I have found some vendors that NEVER have that soapy taste. Of course these are the pricier/premium vendors such as Copper Creek, Alien Vision and a few other smaller ones. One of my favorite juices as of today is from Roar Vapor. I love his Hawaii Sunrise but oddly enough some of the juices he sells does have this off putting taste. I just received my first order from ECBlends. 2 different formulations of RY4 and Dragon's Blood. This is where it got interesting.
At ECBlends you can customize your juice. They give you the option to add extra flavor, double extra flavor, or add flavor shots. So for example the RY4 contains both caramel and vanilla flavoring. So I am able to order double extra flavoring as well as add flavor shots of caramel and vanilla. The two RY4s I ordered consisted of
Bottle 1:
Double Extra Flavor
Caramel Flavor Shot
Vanilla Flavor Shot
6mg nic
Max VG
Bottle 2:
Extra Flavor
Caramel Flavor Shot
6mg nic
Max VG
In bottle 1 I detected a very faint hint of the soapy flavor. In bottle 2 I detect no soapiness at all. The Dragon's Blood I ordered with double extra flavor and I detected no soapiness at all. I think it has to do with the combination and amount of concentrates that is used in the recipe. But alas I still don't know what exactly the source is. At any rate I have managed to find a great rotation of juices to sustain me so it is no longer that disappointing when I get a dud juice. If I ever do figure out what it is I will be sure to share my findings in this thread.
Good luck w/ your juice exploration and thanks for your reply!
~BW
Since I originally posted this I have discovered with most vendors that there is always good and bad. I still have not isolated the source of the soapy flavor but I have found some vendors that NEVER have that soapy taste. Of course these are the pricier/premium vendors such as Copper Creek, Alien Vision and a few other smaller ones. One of my favorite juices as of today is from Roar Vapor. I love his Hawaii Sunrise but oddly enough some of the juices he sells does have this off putting taste. I just received my first order from ECBlends. 2 different formulations of RY4 and Dragon's Blood. This is where it got interesting.
At ECBlends you can customize your juice. They give you the option to add extra flavor, double extra flavor, or add flavor shots. So for example the RY4 contains both caramel and vanilla flavoring. So I am able to order double extra flavoring as well as add flavor shots of caramel and vanilla. The two RY4s I ordered consisted of
Bottle 1:
Double Extra Flavor
Caramel Flavor Shot
Vanilla Flavor Shot
6mg nic
Max VG
Bottle 2:
Extra Flavor
Caramel Flavor Shot
6mg nic
Max VG
In bottle 1 I detected a very faint hint of the soapy flavor. In bottle 2 I detect no soapiness at all. The Dragon's Blood I ordered with double extra flavor and I detected no soapiness at all. I think it has to do with the combination and amount of concentrates that is used in the recipe. But alas I still don't know what exactly the source is. At any rate I have managed to find a great rotation of juices to sustain me so it is no longer that disappointing when I get a dud juice. If I ever do figure out what it is I will be sure to share my findings in this thread.
Good luck w/ your juice exploration and thanks for your reply!
~BW
I ordered Strawberry with 2 extra flavor shots of soap at 12mg 100%VG.
I was able to cut some down with straight VG and a couple of drops of Strawberry Flavor and about 1 drop of sweetner.
This worked it became useable but the flavor was muted not far off straight VG.
However there was a whisper, that some Chinese Flavors were inconsistantly causing the soapy taste.
I need to find the thread that explains about TFA Flavors as I can order from them and they seem middle of the road as for economy.
I have let the original Mixes Steep for about 48hrs with the lids off but I also noted that Nic can oxidize when exposed to air ?
To me that indicates that the Nic level would lower over time. So Steep to or not, that the question is.
I was able to cut some down with straight VG and a couple of drops of Strawberry Flavor and about 1 drop of sweetner.
This worked it became useable but the flavor was muted not far off straight VG.
However there was a whisper, that some Chinese Flavors were inconsistantly causing the soapy taste.
I need to find the thread that explains about TFA Flavors as I can order from them and they seem middle of the road as for economy.
I have let the original Mixes Steep for about 48hrs with the lids off but I also noted that Nic can oxidize when exposed to air ?
To me that indicates that the Nic level would lower over time. So Steep to or not, that the question is.
I ordered vanilla butternut from there with double extra flavor. It does taste soapy to me but its ok when I mix it with a regular tobacco. Perhaps the vanilla is the culprit?
I also got some van/choc 555 from them. I absolutely hate it. Again, maybe it is the vanilla. I'm very new so I haven't done much experimenting.
Sent from my HTCEVOV4G using Tapatalk 2
It's hard to say. Very Hard.
But I can tell you this. I know one retail house that Everything they sent me had a Chemical Undertone.
I am sure it came from the Nicotine Base they used. Because that was the Common Ingredient in Everything they sent me.
In my opinion, unless you have had a bottle of juice from a vendor which was fine and then reordered the same flavor from the same vender that then had this chem/soapy taste is probably not due to something they have done, unless that bottle went bad - or they changed the recipe or switched suppliers for their ingredients (they could have also had a bad batch of nicotine but one would assume enough complaints that they would pull from the shelf), its probably your own taste buds and smell receptors. This would be especially true if you detect this everywhere but to a different degree with different brands - because there are differences in how the ingredients are compounded and what with to produce them before they are made into e-liquid. I would still contact the place you bought it especially if they make their own as opposed to relabeling a generic or selling a brand name not their own. Even if you can put it on one vendor, brand etc in your experience you might get closer to the answer especially talking to the chef/chemist making the juice.
before going nutz and buying out 15 online dealers looking for e-juice without this chemical taste The simplest might be to pick a couple of sites or one site that carries different products and get a few sample packs. The three main categories would be to find a vendor that makes their own juice as its ordered (not necessarily customized flavors but hands on in the shop), the vendor that makes/sells under their label but its made commercially, and a brand name juice that you can get many places but is not special to that vendor. Look for sites that offer sample packs where you can pick the flavors you want in it and try variety and maybe mix up the nicotine mgs too.(If you bother to read further you will see the explanation of nic strength and 'taste'). You might not solve your problem but you could very well find a juice out of these that don't have something in them that you taste as a chemical taste (why below)
One problem I have is that very few bottles of e-liquid come with ingredient labels and those that do rarely list everything in the bottle, usually just the nicotine and PG/VG levels, not what flavors/types are used, sweeteners and preservatives. At least in the US they apparently do not have to be labeled.. I know the bottle is small for an ingredient label, but if there was a law that they had to say everything that is in the e-juice you would get an insert with the juice listing them if they did not fit. This has always bothered me a bit as recipes vary from place to place. For the most part, because of DYI people just assume its nicotine, PG/VG, flavor and that's it when, if full ingredients would be listed you would not only be seeing nicotine and PG/VG in the list but natural as well as (in most cases) artificial flavor, sweeteners (if applicable), preservatives and so on. If labeling feel under the FDA drug laws you would even see what made up artificial flavors or given the correct chemical name to look them up yourself. Most vendors do even post a full ingredient list online if not on their product. They will tell you what grade of PG/VG they use, the percentages and the purity of nicotine but its very hard to determine what type of flavoring they are using, what type of sweetener (if any), type of preservative (if any). Certainly makes us much more educated abut what we are buying.
How many mg of nicotine you should use is subjective too- although rule of thumb and good starting place is to figure out the mgs by how many analogs you smoked, depending on how you smoked the mgs you try maybe too much for you. Many people find that to high a strength of nicotine makes them think of chemicals, although I never have heard 'soapy' associated with it, people taste things differently.
The recipe for e-juice sounds like a just a few things, the nicotine, the PG and or VG and the flavor. Although these are termed 'pure' that just means the grade they are and how much the chemicals and products used for making the component is cleared of things that were used (as well as any other impurities removed), not the they are made of any one compound. Except for the flavor, of course. While the resulting product is considered 'pure' to pharmaceutical standards, that does not mean they are 100% pure.
There is a very small (like 2%) part of the population that have taste buds and/or the ability to smell things the rest of us do not, just like there is a small percent that don't have certain ones and so things the rest of taste they cannot. An example of this are the people that cannot taste a type natural sweeter - to them it has no taste. The small percent of people that have receptors that react to things and 'taste' then often complain of a chemical taste as what the associate it with. So while its tasteless to most of the world, for a very few people there is really a taste to it and you can detect the very small, small amounts left behind that the rest of us cannot.
Flavor preparation itself can be a real offender when it comes to chemical or other odd tastes. They may use a pure fruit, even organically grown, or spice or whatever but the process of leeching and distillation or other processing the flavor can leave behind subtle things that most people are not sensitive to. Then you have these strictly artificial flavors that people often taste as more of a chemically flavor then or a natural one. You did not say what flavors you were trying but depending on the process used for tobacco flavoring some can be either chemically or leathery tasting. If you have always tried flavors with tobacco flavor mixed in you might want to try a non tobacco flavor. You might also want to stick with those juices with natural flavors instead of artificial or a mixture of both.
Then the sweetening - a lot of flavors have added sweetening because the PG/VG is not sweet enough for the taste of certain flavors or the flavor itself can be bitter. Although glucose can be found in some juices usually the sweetener is a non glucose or artificial type (will not raise blood sugar levels). As anyone knows, different people taste these sweeteners different, and experience everything from a normal sugary taste to a majorly chemical taste with very bad after tastes. Unless every brand you have tried uses the same sweetener this is probably not what is happening unless every type of sweetener you find bad tasting - in which case you need to find a brand that sweetens with glucose (sugar).
Preservatives: In most cases, even if the label lists ingredients of an e-juice the preservative is not listed, if some are used. I think this is because people associate preservatives with chemicals and they don't want people to start worrying they are vaping chemicals. Usually this preservative is citric acid, but there are pharmaceutical grade preservatives that are used. I have noticed that a lot of the larger brands that ship to retailers all over and their product requires a longer shelf life do use a preservative. Citric acid as a preservative is not the same as adding Vitamin C but its a very safe preservative used for a very long time but it could taste bad to some people. The downside of brands with preservatives is that people often complain of off tastes as most of these preservatives are not tasteless.
I don't know how long you have not been using analogs or how long you did before you started vaping. Has this always been the case for you or is it something you more noticeably reached? Taste and smell start coming back very quickly when you stop but as they do, and as they mature they decode smell and taste different. Some vapers may have noticed this when a same brand and flavor they liked and used a lot in the beginning all changes on them and they no longer like it as much. If you're very new to vaping it could be that from analogs your not tasting correctly and your taste and odor receptors are trying to put a tag on what they are tasting and missing it completely. If that's the case, it may just straighten itself out. You may also notice changes in taste and smell of other things too.
Now you can do a bit of testing - which might be easier and cheaper in the long run then going to multiple vendors in search of one that might have a juice without this taste for you. You can usually find all of these in 6 ml or even smaller samples so your not buying way more then you will ever need.
You might want to try a flavorless 0 mg nicotine juice (no added sweetener) and see if that taste you get is from the PG or VG or if it is tasteless to you and you don't smell anything. I would try the PG based first and then a 50-50 mix f PG/VG if you don't taste it in the 100% PG. If you are very sensitive to something in the PG, hopefully the VG will be tasteless to you, and you will know where the problem lies, and what options to pick when buying juice, more VG then PG or 100% VG if you can get it. If your chemical/soap flavor is detectable in the flavorless no matter whether its PG or VG or a mix you might want to contact the vendor and see what brand they use and then find a different one to try.
I would next try out sweetened flavorless 0 mg nicotine juice - not necessarily because you like it any sweeter then the PG gives it but since you don't know if a bit was added to what you have tried its a way to know if its the taste of the sweetener that is soapy. You can find 'flavorless' sweeter of the general types online at many e-juice vendors and just add a drop to your bottle of flavorless - and remember don't worry if it tastes too sweet - your not judging that but if that is where the bad taste is coming from.
If the PG/VG and flavor is tasteless, then you should try the same mix but with the nicotine in at the normal strength you have been using and see if its from the nicotine itself. If you find it here you may want to try a lower strength and see if that takes away the chemical taste. Its very possible that if it was tasteless without nicotine, a lower strength would not have that chem taste. I have read and seen many reviews that have mention 'chemically tasting' fruit flavors with higher nicotine strengths that tasted just fine at lower. I looked for there view and could not find it again on You Tube but the reviewer actually gagged on the review of a fruit flavor he got to review in his normal 224 mg strength but came back in a later review to say how good it was at a lower strength.
At this point you either have found your culprit or unflavored juice with nicotine and some extra sweetener is flavorless to you - as it should be actually, and hopefully, then it is the flavor used or possibly a preservative.
Next step is to get some flavor samples making sure you are buying from a vendor that makes their own, does not add any preservatives, not even citric acid. You may have to do a custom order to get the citric acid left out but if they are making to order that should not be a problem. You also want 100% natural flavors - which will limit flavors available because some can only be made from artificial flavorings or a mixture of both. I would also get a sample of one that does mix both but will leave out the citric acid and see if that preservative is your issue.
If you have to go custom made to get rid of this chemical/soapy taste, and I can't imagine vaping with that taste, you might want to consider DIY at this point and have complete control of what your putting in your juice and it costing you a great deal less then what you can buy even the cheapest juice out there.
before going nutz and buying out 15 online dealers looking for e-juice without this chemical taste The simplest might be to pick a couple of sites or one site that carries different products and get a few sample packs. The three main categories would be to find a vendor that makes their own juice as its ordered (not necessarily customized flavors but hands on in the shop), the vendor that makes/sells under their label but its made commercially, and a brand name juice that you can get many places but is not special to that vendor. Look for sites that offer sample packs where you can pick the flavors you want in it and try variety and maybe mix up the nicotine mgs too.(If you bother to read further you will see the explanation of nic strength and 'taste'). You might not solve your problem but you could very well find a juice out of these that don't have something in them that you taste as a chemical taste (why below)
One problem I have is that very few bottles of e-liquid come with ingredient labels and those that do rarely list everything in the bottle, usually just the nicotine and PG/VG levels, not what flavors/types are used, sweeteners and preservatives. At least in the US they apparently do not have to be labeled.. I know the bottle is small for an ingredient label, but if there was a law that they had to say everything that is in the e-juice you would get an insert with the juice listing them if they did not fit. This has always bothered me a bit as recipes vary from place to place. For the most part, because of DYI people just assume its nicotine, PG/VG, flavor and that's it when, if full ingredients would be listed you would not only be seeing nicotine and PG/VG in the list but natural as well as (in most cases) artificial flavor, sweeteners (if applicable), preservatives and so on. If labeling feel under the FDA drug laws you would even see what made up artificial flavors or given the correct chemical name to look them up yourself. Most vendors do even post a full ingredient list online if not on their product. They will tell you what grade of PG/VG they use, the percentages and the purity of nicotine but its very hard to determine what type of flavoring they are using, what type of sweetener (if any), type of preservative (if any). Certainly makes us much more educated abut what we are buying.
How many mg of nicotine you should use is subjective too- although rule of thumb and good starting place is to figure out the mgs by how many analogs you smoked, depending on how you smoked the mgs you try maybe too much for you. Many people find that to high a strength of nicotine makes them think of chemicals, although I never have heard 'soapy' associated with it, people taste things differently.
The recipe for e-juice sounds like a just a few things, the nicotine, the PG and or VG and the flavor. Although these are termed 'pure' that just means the grade they are and how much the chemicals and products used for making the component is cleared of things that were used (as well as any other impurities removed), not the they are made of any one compound. Except for the flavor, of course. While the resulting product is considered 'pure' to pharmaceutical standards, that does not mean they are 100% pure.
There is a very small (like 2%) part of the population that have taste buds and/or the ability to smell things the rest of us do not, just like there is a small percent that don't have certain ones and so things the rest of taste they cannot. An example of this are the people that cannot taste a type natural sweeter - to them it has no taste. The small percent of people that have receptors that react to things and 'taste' then often complain of a chemical taste as what the associate it with. So while its tasteless to most of the world, for a very few people there is really a taste to it and you can detect the very small, small amounts left behind that the rest of us cannot.
Flavor preparation itself can be a real offender when it comes to chemical or other odd tastes. They may use a pure fruit, even organically grown, or spice or whatever but the process of leeching and distillation or other processing the flavor can leave behind subtle things that most people are not sensitive to. Then you have these strictly artificial flavors that people often taste as more of a chemically flavor then or a natural one. You did not say what flavors you were trying but depending on the process used for tobacco flavoring some can be either chemically or leathery tasting. If you have always tried flavors with tobacco flavor mixed in you might want to try a non tobacco flavor. You might also want to stick with those juices with natural flavors instead of artificial or a mixture of both.
Then the sweetening - a lot of flavors have added sweetening because the PG/VG is not sweet enough for the taste of certain flavors or the flavor itself can be bitter. Although glucose can be found in some juices usually the sweetener is a non glucose or artificial type (will not raise blood sugar levels). As anyone knows, different people taste these sweeteners different, and experience everything from a normal sugary taste to a majorly chemical taste with very bad after tastes. Unless every brand you have tried uses the same sweetener this is probably not what is happening unless every type of sweetener you find bad tasting - in which case you need to find a brand that sweetens with glucose (sugar).
Preservatives: In most cases, even if the label lists ingredients of an e-juice the preservative is not listed, if some are used. I think this is because people associate preservatives with chemicals and they don't want people to start worrying they are vaping chemicals. Usually this preservative is citric acid, but there are pharmaceutical grade preservatives that are used. I have noticed that a lot of the larger brands that ship to retailers all over and their product requires a longer shelf life do use a preservative. Citric acid as a preservative is not the same as adding Vitamin C but its a very safe preservative used for a very long time but it could taste bad to some people. The downside of brands with preservatives is that people often complain of off tastes as most of these preservatives are not tasteless.
I don't know how long you have not been using analogs or how long you did before you started vaping. Has this always been the case for you or is it something you more noticeably reached? Taste and smell start coming back very quickly when you stop but as they do, and as they mature they decode smell and taste different. Some vapers may have noticed this when a same brand and flavor they liked and used a lot in the beginning all changes on them and they no longer like it as much. If you're very new to vaping it could be that from analogs your not tasting correctly and your taste and odor receptors are trying to put a tag on what they are tasting and missing it completely. If that's the case, it may just straighten itself out. You may also notice changes in taste and smell of other things too.
Now you can do a bit of testing - which might be easier and cheaper in the long run then going to multiple vendors in search of one that might have a juice without this taste for you. You can usually find all of these in 6 ml or even smaller samples so your not buying way more then you will ever need.
You might want to try a flavorless 0 mg nicotine juice (no added sweetener) and see if that taste you get is from the PG or VG or if it is tasteless to you and you don't smell anything. I would try the PG based first and then a 50-50 mix f PG/VG if you don't taste it in the 100% PG. If you are very sensitive to something in the PG, hopefully the VG will be tasteless to you, and you will know where the problem lies, and what options to pick when buying juice, more VG then PG or 100% VG if you can get it. If your chemical/soap flavor is detectable in the flavorless no matter whether its PG or VG or a mix you might want to contact the vendor and see what brand they use and then find a different one to try.
I would next try out sweetened flavorless 0 mg nicotine juice - not necessarily because you like it any sweeter then the PG gives it but since you don't know if a bit was added to what you have tried its a way to know if its the taste of the sweetener that is soapy. You can find 'flavorless' sweeter of the general types online at many e-juice vendors and just add a drop to your bottle of flavorless - and remember don't worry if it tastes too sweet - your not judging that but if that is where the bad taste is coming from.
If the PG/VG and flavor is tasteless, then you should try the same mix but with the nicotine in at the normal strength you have been using and see if its from the nicotine itself. If you find it here you may want to try a lower strength and see if that takes away the chemical taste. Its very possible that if it was tasteless without nicotine, a lower strength would not have that chem taste. I have read and seen many reviews that have mention 'chemically tasting' fruit flavors with higher nicotine strengths that tasted just fine at lower. I looked for there view and could not find it again on You Tube but the reviewer actually gagged on the review of a fruit flavor he got to review in his normal 224 mg strength but came back in a later review to say how good it was at a lower strength.
At this point you either have found your culprit or unflavored juice with nicotine and some extra sweetener is flavorless to you - as it should be actually, and hopefully, then it is the flavor used or possibly a preservative.
Next step is to get some flavor samples making sure you are buying from a vendor that makes their own, does not add any preservatives, not even citric acid. You may have to do a custom order to get the citric acid left out but if they are making to order that should not be a problem. You also want 100% natural flavors - which will limit flavors available because some can only be made from artificial flavorings or a mixture of both. I would also get a sample of one that does mix both but will leave out the citric acid and see if that preservative is your issue.
If you have to go custom made to get rid of this chemical/soapy taste, and I can't imagine vaping with that taste, you might want to consider DIY at this point and have complete control of what your putting in your juice and it costing you a great deal less then what you can buy even the cheapest juice out there.
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