Wintergreen Problems

[DJ Colburn]

howdy Folks!

I've just started DIY juicemaking. I'm leveling quickly, but I still have a ways to go before I have epic ranks in Craft: e-liquid.

So, I decided to make a Wintergreen juice. PG nic base, VG cutter, and wintergreen flavoring. Put it all together, and it separates pretty quickly. I guess the wintergreen flavor is oil-based, and we know how well THAT works. Fine, I can handle that. I've been shaking the bottle really well before dripping. At least it tastes good!

Now, about 12 hours later, my atomizer and drip tip are covered in a sticky, slimy, gooey, gummy substance. I can only guess that it's residue from the sweet wintergreen oil in my juice.

Any suggestions on how to make this better, overall? Is there something I can use to help my juice mix better when using oil-based flavorings? Is there a vendor with a good water-based mints?

Peace!

 

[brittanyNI]

TPA makes a water/alcohol soluble wintergreen that is pretty good. I've never used it as the sole flavor, but it has worked well for me mixed with other things, so I suspect it will work fine for you!

 

[DJ Colburn]

I wonder if it would be worthwhile to find some kind of emulsifier to add to the liquid, getting the oil to mix with the rest of it. Hm...

 

[brittanyNI]

Personally, I would avoid that. Emulsifiers are essentially soaps. That is, they are molecules in which one end like water and the other end like oils, so they serve as a bridge that allows the oils and water to mix.

Though some of these are technically not soaps (because technically soaps are the result of a saponification process), they are still soap in a functional sense.

I would not recommend inhaling these.

Perhaps you are familiar with nonoxynol-9? It is sold as a spermicide. All it is ... is a detergent. It destroys the lipid (fat/oil) layer on the little spermies so they die.

All of your cells have these lipid layers as well. Inhaling something that will strip away the lipid layers from the cells of your respiratory tract is, imho, unwise. I'm not a doctor of medicine, but it's just not something I'd recommend.

Furthermore, true oil of wintergreen is methyl salicylate, an ester of methanol and salicylic acid. You will be essentially absorbing aspirin through your mucus membranes. To continuously dose oneself with aspirin via absorption through the mucus membranes would strike me as a bad idea.

 

[DJ Colburn]

Detergents are one of two main kinds of emulsifiers. The other is lecithin. Soy and egg lecithins are main ingredients in lots of food products, like mustard, mayonnaise, salad dressings, etc.

Yea, I definitely don't want to be inhaling SOAP. But I'm already inhaling polypropylene glycol, vegetable glycerin, and whatever else is in the flavorings. Why not add one more food-grade ingredient to the juice? Again, just a thought.

If anybody else has tried this already, I'd be interested to hear the results.

 

[Hoosier]

I guess it's time for the crazy one to step in.

I know how to make it better.

I'm going to assume you are using wintergreen oil like I did.

5% wintergreen oil
10% PGA
(Of final volume)
Mix well
Add to remaining 85% and mix.

I also used a few drops of menthol and EM in mine for an Altoids kind of taste. It gets slightly cloudy and will separate if left alone for awhile. It did not get my things gummy.

 

[classwife]

+10 with Hoosier on the PGA!
I use it with the wintergreen and peppermint...I also have non gunky, long lived attys.

 

[Mindfield]

Detergents are one of two main kinds of emulsifiers. The other is lecithin. Soy and egg lecithins are main ingredients in lots of food products, like mustard, mayonnaise, salad dressings, etc.

I was thinking of lecithin as well. However I can't help but think that even if you consider lecithin safe to inhale, you're probably going to gunk up your atty/carto PDQ and possibly beyond repair.

 

[DJ Colburn]

Hm... sounds promising. Can I use 151 instead? Can't get Everclear in Mass. (Damn puritans!)

 

[Hoosier]

+10 with Hoosier on the PGA!
I use it with the wintergreen and peppermint...I also have non gunky, long lived attys.

You know what it means to agree with the crazy guy?

Sure, 151, the highest grain alcohol you can get.

 

[440BB]

I make batches of wintergreen and teaberry and I've learned to mix those flavors with PG first, and add the VG last. The VG takes a while to mix in and the juice is cloudy for a day or two, then it's good to go. The Oil and VG don't interact well if the oil isn't diluted with PG first. I don't use pga, just PG.

 

[Ricjamz]

what is a good mixture for wintergreen, is sweetner a good idea too?

 

[440BB]

I mix 15% Perfumers Apprentice Teaberry or Wintergreen for a pretty strong juice, but 10% is very good. I get it at Goodprophets, currently on sale for $3.99/30ml, as this is my wife's daily vape and I better always have it on hand! I haven't used a sweetener but I could see that taking the edge off a little. Just add a little at a time to taste, or use Ethyl Maltol to soften the vape with out too much sweetness. Good luck!