Short version: How to add harshness to DIY (have 12mg nicotine 50/50 base)
Background: So I’ve been vaping now for a few months, and have been making my own juice for almost a month now, and I’ve been having such a hard time making flavors that I like, not only because I’m still getting into the groove, but most juices aren’t harsh enough to mimic a cigarette? I know harshness is relatively individual, I’m talking about that almost cough-inducing/tickle/almost drying sensation in the back of the throat. I have a 50/50 pg/vg with 12mg nic base that I bought all in one jug to make mixing simple for now; so I’ve got a decent amount of nicotine as I know that is a harshness factor. But is there anything I can add for harshness? I know there’s things like overall sweeteners, bitterness, etc. so what can I do? Any suggestions appreciated. I searched around the site/google, but not many people have my preference so I figured I’d make my first post!
PG gives throat hit, so the higher the PG, the “harsher” it should be. FA makes a “flavor” called Flash that is supposed to add hit. FA Bitter Wizard might work, too. A lot of citrus flavors give me that tickle sensation and make me cough. Inawera Dirty Neutral Base (DNB) is very ashy and might help mimic that too.
As @jojo said FA Bitter wizard works wonders, but easy with it… also Smooth (Triacetine) by TFA might help.
Carefull with those, they might mute your liquid. DNB by INW is really like an ashtray… don’t think you’d want that…
Everything above was exactly what I was gonna suggest all works perfectly to mimic the cigs throat hit if you don’t fancy going sub ohm or messing with your juice make some recipes that are known to be quite harsh before steeping key lime comes to the top of my head that’s harsh as fook before it properly steels and good luck
Just an FYI - PG is not harsh. Don’t believe me…try vaping a bit of straight pg (make sure it’s a clean coil/wick) and you’ll see it’s like vaping air. [disclaimer - this has been my experience. If you try it and find straight pg gives a strong throat hit, let me know]. What it does though is amplify - not just flavors - but the way nic hits your tongue and throat. So yeah, you can use more PG than 50/50. In fact that was quite common in years past before sub-ohm vaping to find 100% PG liquids. Point is if you’re not getting the throat hit you want at 50% PG, chances are raising it won’t help much. Maybe a little.
I’m suspecting you’re not sub-ohm vaping now. Am I right? If you aren’t, and you’re starting out with a base liquid that is 12mg nic, then by the time you add flavors or anything else you’re only reducing the nic content, and honestly nic is where you’re going to find the most throat hit which is why I suggested sub-ohm vaping. Doing that increases the amount of all components per puff as more liquid is being vaporized in the same time period per puff as opposed to a higher ohm, lower power vape. This would be a good solution. A better solution would be to get a stronger nic base which would allow you to have a higher nic content on your finished product.
Here is a thought… I know it’s controversial so guys don’t rake me over the coals with this one… take some of your nic base and leave it open on top of a fridge or someplace completely out of reach for a few days. Oxidized base will be nice and harsh like a cig in my opinion. Say 3 to 7 days then mix some juice and vapeit. This will probably lower your nic content but I can pretty much guarantee a harsh hit with it being exposed to the air like that… sorry if this offends anyone it is not meant to and yes I know most of us do everything we can to avoid this happening including myself
Once your nic base starts to oxidize it can accelerate the process fairly quickly. Perhaps beyond the point you’d like. That said, I do like this idea. Why not just set out 2/3 of a bottle you’ll mix juice in and add only the nic base to that. Leave open to air for a few days. Once that yellowish color starts to appear, then mix the recipe and top with the nic base. You’d achieve the same goal without harshing the entire stash of nic base.
Normal is a setting on the washing machine.(Or dishwasher. Can never remember that.)H. Quinn
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Hmmmm, this is curious. Maybe “harsh” isn’t the right term, throat hit def. is right though. I def. get much more TH in higher PG mixes, and more creamy/sweet/vaporous and less TH with higher or max VG.