Hi all. I quite recently thought I would try vaping (out of curiosity more than anything). At a retail store I talked to real people, enjoyed the conversation, and ended up with a Pockex device and a bottle of zero nic Cafe Vanilla (CEL) ejuice. (I'm not in it for the nicotine
just wanted to see what it was like and "what all the fuss is about".) I found it was actually quite enjoyable. The coffee/vanilla flavour was pretty convincing, and the vapour was smooth and rather comforting. Cigarette smoke makes me gag (I've never been a smoker) so it was a real novelty to be able to "smoke"! gave me a giggle, and I found it was a nice mini-treat too, like a cookie, now and then.
So, here's where I got silly. I tend to overdo it when I discover a new interest to explore
Did some casual googling about vape juice and I was fascinated by all the hundreds of flavours out there... some of them sound soooo delicious... so I thought Wow, if I could find some really yummy flavours I might be able to substitute a tasty vape for a snack attack... and that might help me lose some weight.
So I ordered about fifteen zero-nic e-juices of all different flavours from various sources (naming no names). I was pretty excited when the padded mailers containing cute little 15 or 30 ml bottles showed up today! (Who can resist a whole row of mini bottles with coloured labels featuring yummy flavour names? It's like a box of liqueur chocolates!) I also got a couple of slender e-cigarette devices (Kanger) to try out small amounts of different flavours without disturbing my original coffee-flavoured Pockex.
So I filled the new e-cig devices with a couple of different flavours -- a chocolate and a vanilla custard to start with. Let them soak in for several minutes and took a cautious drag. Agh! Ptui! OMG, they were awful. There was a nasty metallic taste, and the flavours were not at all convincing. So I rinsed out those cartomisers, left them to dry out, broke out two fresh ones and tried two more flavours: a lime and a sweet mint. Even worse! Just the smell of the lime, sniffing the open juice bottle, made me feel slightly ill. It was so *synthetic*; there was a really off-note in it, something sickening, I can't really describe it. Like... solvent? plastic? polyester resin? I tried a puff or two and almost threw up. What a huge disappointment! And my mouth got all tingly which never happened before.
So I took a long cold drink of water, went outside for some fresh air, and bucked up some firewood (chainsaw work). For the whole hour I was working I kept on tasting the awful chemical aftertaste of that lime flavour. It just wouldn't go away -- and I felt slightly nauseous. I had got a little of the juice on my fingers while opening bottles, and every time my hand came anywhere near my face I felt a bit sick from the smell. And I was thinking, WTH? How come the coffee flavour is so mellow and soothing, and these other flavours are so ghastly?
So I did a bunch more googling... and realised that the (low to mid cost) juices I had bought to try out were all quite high PG. They were 70/30 PG to VG whereas the one I had bought (dumb luck!) in the store was the reverse, 30 PG to 70 VG.
So now I ask the experts: could the issue be the PG percentage? is it possible that I am hypersensitive to PG and it is spoiling all the flavours and making me feel pukey? I don't think it's the Kanger devices because of how bad the lime juice smelled (without even being vaporised). I did offer the ecigs to my husband for a taste test, and he also found there was an unpleasant aftertaste; but he didn't find it nearly so horrible as I did. He said the flavour was basically OK but there was "a bit of a bitter aftertaste." It didn't make him feel nauseous. But even the 2nd-hand vapour from his test puffs was enough to make me gag.
Honestly, if I had tried any of these juices as my first vaping experience I would never have vaped again! I don't want to knock the companies that made them, because I get the feeling this reaction is "just me". But if anyone else has anything like a similar experience I would love to know more. I just wasted a whole lot of money on juices that I will never in a million years be able to vape; I can probably give them to other vapers in my locality, but what could/should I try as an alternative?
I'm thinking there can't be *just one* vape juice flavour in the whole wide world that I can tolerate! Maybe I should be looking for (a) natural plant-based flavourings instead of the harsh synthetics, and/or (b) high-VG juices? Can't figure out whether my disgust-reaction is to the PG or to the flavourings. This is probably the biggest consumer-regret surprise I've had in recent years. I know it's my own fault for going hog-wild with the juice purchase, wanting to try out all those flavours... but wow, the taste test was a real shock.
So, here's where I got silly. I tend to overdo it when I discover a new interest to explore
So I ordered about fifteen zero-nic e-juices of all different flavours from various sources (naming no names). I was pretty excited when the padded mailers containing cute little 15 or 30 ml bottles showed up today! (Who can resist a whole row of mini bottles with coloured labels featuring yummy flavour names? It's like a box of liqueur chocolates!) I also got a couple of slender e-cigarette devices (Kanger) to try out small amounts of different flavours without disturbing my original coffee-flavoured Pockex.
So I filled the new e-cig devices with a couple of different flavours -- a chocolate and a vanilla custard to start with. Let them soak in for several minutes and took a cautious drag. Agh! Ptui! OMG, they were awful. There was a nasty metallic taste, and the flavours were not at all convincing. So I rinsed out those cartomisers, left them to dry out, broke out two fresh ones and tried two more flavours: a lime and a sweet mint. Even worse! Just the smell of the lime, sniffing the open juice bottle, made me feel slightly ill. It was so *synthetic*; there was a really off-note in it, something sickening, I can't really describe it. Like... solvent? plastic? polyester resin? I tried a puff or two and almost threw up. What a huge disappointment! And my mouth got all tingly which never happened before.
So I took a long cold drink of water, went outside for some fresh air, and bucked up some firewood (chainsaw work). For the whole hour I was working I kept on tasting the awful chemical aftertaste of that lime flavour. It just wouldn't go away -- and I felt slightly nauseous. I had got a little of the juice on my fingers while opening bottles, and every time my hand came anywhere near my face I felt a bit sick from the smell. And I was thinking, WTH? How come the coffee flavour is so mellow and soothing, and these other flavours are so ghastly?
So I did a bunch more googling... and realised that the (low to mid cost) juices I had bought to try out were all quite high PG. They were 70/30 PG to VG whereas the one I had bought (dumb luck!) in the store was the reverse, 30 PG to 70 VG.
So now I ask the experts: could the issue be the PG percentage? is it possible that I am hypersensitive to PG and it is spoiling all the flavours and making me feel pukey? I don't think it's the Kanger devices because of how bad the lime juice smelled (without even being vaporised). I did offer the ecigs to my husband for a taste test, and he also found there was an unpleasant aftertaste; but he didn't find it nearly so horrible as I did. He said the flavour was basically OK but there was "a bit of a bitter aftertaste." It didn't make him feel nauseous. But even the 2nd-hand vapour from his test puffs was enough to make me gag.
Honestly, if I had tried any of these juices as my first vaping experience I would never have vaped again! I don't want to knock the companies that made them, because I get the feeling this reaction is "just me". But if anyone else has anything like a similar experience I would love to know more. I just wasted a whole lot of money on juices that I will never in a million years be able to vape; I can probably give them to other vapers in my locality, but what could/should I try as an alternative?
I'm thinking there can't be *just one* vape juice flavour in the whole wide world that I can tolerate! Maybe I should be looking for (a) natural plant-based flavourings instead of the harsh synthetics, and/or (b) high-VG juices? Can't figure out whether my disgust-reaction is to the PG or to the flavourings. This is probably the biggest consumer-regret surprise I've had in recent years. I know it's my own fault for going hog-wild with the juice purchase, wanting to try out all those flavours... but wow, the taste test was a real shock.