There's no way for vapers to determine the quality of nicotine concentrate other than by eye and by vaping it. When I first bought a large batch (2.5 litres) of nicotine from Blue Star I was nervous and got myself a nic testing kit. It doesn't test for quality, only that the strength is as advertised. So you know you've got 72mg/ml and not lower.
Having gone through nic from 3 suppliers now my experience is that Dark Star's is just fine, I have had no issues at all with it. It's clear in colour and without any peppery odour or taste. I've learned to trust what it says on the label.
I have seen complaints about Dark Star, mostly about the VG based nic, but they are not as many or as bad as those I've read about Darrant or Lucemill. I wouldn't personally put the 3 companies in the same bracket. If you have a bad feeling about Dark Star, that's fine, it's your money and your choice. Who else would you buy from and on what basis though? What makes you trust them more? Do you think it will be higher quality just because it's more expensive?
@Aaron1983
Thanks for the website for bottles mate. I've ordered 35 in 30 ml for £6 for better storage in the freezer.
@scrumpox
Thanks for your thoughts. I really appreciate it.
What you said makes total sense and, of course, frozen VG Nic is really gluey. You need to wait for it to get to room temperature and after it got fairly warm I used to pop it into the microwave for like 10 secs or better to not damage it at all just sink it in a bowl of hot water for a few minutes to thin it out and then give it a good few minutes shake. Just want to point out that it must be in a glass bottle. Plastic bottles would either melt or release plastic particles which is not good.
Flavourings in VG are more popular now.
I personally don't go lower in VG than 80 for heavy sub ohming. Any more PG just leaves a funny taste in my mouth which I don't find particularly pleasant. It just tastes weird. Still can get rid of it with sweetener but that's another matter.
At the vape jam I tried some 99% (or at least really close to that) VG French e-liquids (great flavour) which I was really impressed by and thought I'd give it a go myself at trying to do something that high in VG.
And then of course I have other tanks that work better with 70/30 and that's what I use in them.
On the other hand I still have my old nautiluses in which I use 60 PG liquids and they're absolutely fine. Flavour is amazing.
Different tanks work better with different juices full stop. Just need to find the sweet spot.
Regarding the suppliers, I don't know what to say and I never really cared. Thought I'd ask because it made me think twice after I read several different review websites about different companies. But again as with any other vaping related product, it's user error. And liquids take time to steep as well, need to be kept in the dark and shaken well several times during a period of about a month and eye measurements can let down. So plenty of room for error.
I was thinking of Alchem (everythingliquid.co.uk); mixnmatcheliquids.com (cyprus based) they do 100mg; Lubrisolve (lubrisolve.com) seemed alright; Lucemill (read some good reviews, plus they're a heavy supplier in UK.
But I'm fine with Dark Star and I've read more about them and I'll give them a go
Do you really think it's not worth getting the nic in VG honestly?
It's a few drops anyway for a 3mg so it won't bother me buying it in PG. Besides if I want a higher nic liquid I'll need more PG
I also don't know much about degrading frozen VG. never noticed it but never had it in the freezer for more than 8-9 months.
Thanks all for your replies