Thread for those who have bad reactions to ejuice ingredients.

[The Cromwell]

I know this is kinda rare and even rarer on Vape boards due to most that are like me quickly giving up on vaping and going back to smoking.

My story.
I switched to vaping 4 years ago with an overpriced cigalike kit my wife surprised me with for Christmas.
Had given up on quitting smoking after many failed attempts during 40+ years of 1.5 PAD smoking habit.
But I figured what the heck.
The tobacco flavor that came in the cartomizers was ok and got me off of cigs in about 1 week.
But the cost of those prefilled cartos would cost me twice as much as smoking!

The problem began when I bought refillable cartomizers and ejuice.
The first round I could hardly talk for a few days because of severely inflamed mouth, throat and lungs.
Was determined and tried more juice. Some was not as bad as others so I quickly googled and learned about DIY and started that.
Ordered some flavorings that had no artificial ingredients and was fine.
Started trying other flavorings and found that over 80% of them cause the issues to varying degrees.
I tried close to 100 different flavorings and found an early warning sign.
Tingly lips after vaping just maybe 5 vapes. If I kept it up after that I would pay.
Found I could vape some Capella flavors and have been vaping Capella Vanilla custard V1 with Capella Whipped cream for over 3 years. Still vape some natural strawberry. ALL artificial strawberry causes the issue along with most artificial fruit flavors and even some tobacco flavors.

Anyway I created this thread to find others like me and see if we can help each other find stuff that we can vape.

And also I have no PG sensitivity other than vaping pure vg juice is harsh as heck.
I mix 50/50.

Also Many flavorings are just too chemically tasting for me to vape.
And yes I try different strengths of the flavoring as most recipes have too much flavoring to suit me anyway.

 

[AndriaD]

Are you including those of us who have extreme reactions to PG or VG? Because you know my sensitivity to VG is fairly extreme, for someone who's not allergic to VG -- I just find it too thick to vape, it suffocates me. I did try thinning it with distilled water, and that does help, but the water causes too much popping, which I find very distasteful. If I stick to somewhere around 87% PG, then I have no issues; there's enough VG in it to produce vapor which visually resembles the smoke I used to exhale.

Andria

 

[The Cromwell]

Are you including those of us who have extreme reactions to PG or VG? Because you know my sensitivity to VG is fairly extreme, for someone who's not allergic to VG -- I just find it too thick to vape, it suffocates me. I did try thinning it with distilled water, and that does help, but the water causes too much popping, which I find very distasteful. If I stick to somewhere around 87% PG, then I have no issues; there's enough VG in it to produce vapor which visually resembles the smoke I used to exhale.

Andria

Sure, I also cannot vape over 60% VG as I start hacking up VG after a day of vaping it.

I also suspect that many suffer from Vapers Tongue from a much lesser reaction to ejuice ingredients than I have to them as My taste totally goes away for a few days.
And I have been vaping around 30 ml of the same juice daily for 3 years or more.
And NO vapers tongue.

 

[The Cromwell]

I have not heard of any effort by the ejuice industry, the FDA or the medical industry about researching apparent allergic reactions to contents of ejuice...
I am convinced that I would get pneumonia or worse if I continued to vape juice that reacts badly with me.

 

[AndriaD]

I have not heard of any effort by the ejuice industry, the FDA or the medical industry about researching apparent allergic reactions to contents of ejuice...
I am convinced that I would get pneumonia or worse if I continued to vape juice that reacts badly with me.

I'm thinking that it's probably a good idea to start with, foods or food ingredients that one already knows that one is allergic to. For instance, I won't vape anything with any coconut-anything in it, because my son is DEATHLY allergic to coconut-anything, it causes total anaphylaxis in him. The risk is much too great, to even attempt it.

Obviously, you have some (multiple?) sensitivities to some artificially-created flavoring agents... which is probably a separate thing from your "super-taster" ability, but maybe that super-taster thing is the way that nature has provided you, to be able to detect those agents or molecules that cause you a problem.

Andria

 

[The Cromwell]

I'm thinking that it's probably a good idea to start with, foods or food ingredients that one already knows that one is allergic to. For instance, I won't vape anything with any coconut-anything in it, because my son is DEATHLY allergic to coconut-anything, it causes total anaphylaxis in him. The risk is much too great, to even attempt it.

Obviously, you have some (multiple?) sensitivities to some artificially-created flavoring agents... which is probably a separate thing from your "super-taster" ability, but maybe that super-taster thing is the way that nature has provided you, to be able to detect those agents or molecules that cause you a problem.

Andria

A generally accepted theory is that the bitter gene I have is an ancient survival thing.
Since it causes me to taste chemicals created in spoiled/unsafe food that those without the bitter gene cannot taste.

I have no known allergies, heck even poison ivy does not bother me.
And bee stings hurt and then itch for a day or so but very swelling. Just a good bump at the site.

Aside from my allergy of vaping some flavorings. I expect that I can eat the flavorings but not vape tham as no artificial flavorings have given me problems from eating them.

 

[AndriaD]

A generally accepted theory is that the bitter gene I have is an ancient survival thing.
Since it causes me to taste chemicals created in spoiled/unsafe food that those without the bitter gene cannot taste.

I have no known allergies, heck even poison ivy does not bother me.
And bee stings hurt and then itch for a day or so but very swelling. Just a good bump at the site.

Aside from my allergy of vaping some flavorings. I expect that I can eat the flavorings but not vape tham as no artificial flavorings have given me problems from eating them.

I read something recently about that bitter gene, regarding why most folks seem to find Brussels Sprouts horrible tasting -- apparently most folks have that in some slight way, but you do seem to have it in a much greater form. I love Brussels Sprouts, and green manzanilla olives, so I'm thinking that I may not have it at all -- I loved the taste of beer even as a small child, when my dad would give me sips behind my mom's back -- and beer is certainly VERY bitter-tasting.

But liquid medicines commonly given to children? They were the EXACT reason I started practicing to swallow pills, with "baby aspirin," when I was 7 yrs old -- anything I could do to avoid anymore liquid medicines -- even injections! -- was just fine with me... and even some pills, I've found nearly impossible to swallow; there's a medicine called Flagyl, given to women for some types of "female" infections... I could NEVER get those pills down, because I could taste them even in my throat -- I often have that throat-tasting problem with the generic Dramamine I take at bedtime. I'm thinking my tastebud distribution may be the reason for that, they just reach further into my throat than may be the norm.

Andria

 

[The Cromwell]

This thread will be pretty much a dead thread since virtually everyone on this board does not have issues with bad reactions to flavoring ingredients.
I figure that virtually all those like me gave up on vaping quickly and joined the anti vaping ranks.
And rightfully so if it had the same effect on them as it did me initially.

This threads purpose is to help those who have issues with flavor ingredients.
And for lack of a better term to find hypoallergenic ejuice recipes and manufactured ejuice.

 

[The Cromwell]

One brand of flavoring that causes me no issues is Flavorconcentrates.com.
It is never mentioned by the DIY types like Fresh03 and DIY or Die or on here except by me.
Their strawberry is nice and so is their banana and blueberry and watermelon.
The Banana requires a few weeks of steep though and the flavoring levels required for a good juice are higher than most all artificial based flavorings.

They are natural flavorings and taste real not candied or artificial.

 

[The Cromwell]

Of the Capella flavorings I can use the Vanilla Custard V1, Vanilla Whipped Cream. Cinnamon danish swirl V1 and Apple Pie V1.