UPDATE **REVIEW** EC Blend (for vaping) & Liquid Barn

WARNING: This post has to do with vaping. If you are under age, please know that I do NOT encourage smoking or vaping for minors and this post is not intended for you.  I don't encourage nicotine use of any kind for anyone. This post has to do with my personal substitution of vaping for smoking cigarettes.

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UPDATE

This update is to mention my experience with Liquid Barn. I learned about them via a Redditor when I asked about a cheaper way to DIY juice. 

Where I have gotten ebase from EC Blend in smaller amounts (because of the pricing), I found larger and cheaper bottles of it on Liquid Barn. I will be doing a full L.B. review soon. For now, though, the prices for a 500ml bottle of base was  $9.50  and EC Blend has the same amount for a sliver over $26.00 Big diff. Huge diff. I still love ECB for their flavor concentrates from the Flavor Artists line but, unless the taste is awful, it makes all the sense in the world to use the L.B. base.

As I said, a full review is coming soon/

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I just had to take a break from the cosmetics posts for a minute. I have some more of those scheduled but... ugh! I am makeup'd out at the moment! I thought I would pop in and do this one for my vape buddies. Here we go...

Finding vape juice is not difficult. Finding affordable and good juice is. For myself, I have to like the prices, trust the vendor, and be in love with the juice.

EC Blend hits the trifecta and is my all-time favorite place to get vape juice. ECB juice is priced cheap but made well. No matter what kind of vape device you have, the juice is the key. And you tell right away when an ejuice is crap. Am I right, vapers? We know.

Gahhhh!!!!

Let's get right down to the Pros and Cons of ordering from EC Blends.

PROS:

1. Price. This is a HUGE pro. The base price for most (if not all) liquid is $2.50 at the moment. That's not the finished price but that's where you start. Keep reading...

2. Every bottle of juice is, at the least, customized to a point. You will soon see just how far you can go, but just say that for a 15ml bottle of a "Soda Fountain" creation, you can add up to 3 flavor shots, choose a soda flavor, add cream to make it a "float", add sweetener, make it a menthol, choose the nic strength 0 to 36mg), add extra flavor, then name your creation. For all that, the finished price is currently $4.75. I kid you not. And that is only if you choose all those customizations. If you just choose a soda (4 types available) and your nic strength, the price drops down to $3.95.

3. When I say that you can customize, I'm so serious. Depending on the type of base flavor that you start with, the customizations change. For instance, with the Soda Fountain (Soda/Malt Shop), you choose a type of soda, but there are so many other categories of flavors to start with: Coffee & Tea, Floral, Fruit, Holiday, Sweets & Desserts, etc. They even have a novelty section with weird and goofy stuff like licorice, popcorn and the like. These seem run for a while and eventually discontinue.

There are sooo many flavors, I think you should just check out their Flavor Menu (in PDF)

4. As if the basic flavors don't have enough room for customizing, EC Blend has a Create Your Own Wizard. Yeah, they do. And that CYO Wizard is so much fun to use that you might get carried away. I know I did.  ECB suggests that you should get only the smallest bottle of your Wizard creations until you know if you will like what you came up with. Thank goodness I paid heed or I would have ended up with a huge bottle of my Honey/Rose/Melon/Apple juice. I couldn't wait to scrub my tongue free of that insane nastiness.

5. You earn points for dollars spent. When you first sign up for an account, you can even earn up to 1520 points if you do all the initial super-short checkmark surveys on the points page. With points, you can get up to 35% off storewide or free shipping with no minimum. After that, you earn all your points from spending on the site and sharing your referral code ~hint hint~

6. The site features a ton of helpful articles about vaping, current laws, mixing/DIY, etc.

7. There is a Live Chat feature to contact customer service.

8. ECB has helpful and responsive customer service reps. They also have a Facebook page where you can chat with them. By the way, instead of just having a basic FAQ section, ECB features a "Knowledgebase" of information about ECB and vaping in general. (Later in this post, I will be sharing a handy vape hack I found there.)

9. Most vendor sites have a basic "About Us" page. EC Blend goes farther and is the most transparent vendor of all I've seen online so far. They provide info about their ingredients and their vendor certifications and operating standards (FDA, cGMP, OSHA, Environment, etc). They even have a page showing the current processing times (and that was important even before this COVID situation).  Also, they explain how and why they age-verify.

10. Samples are highly requested but it's luck-of-the-draw. However, I have always, always, always gotten a small sample of liquid thrown in with my orders. This is how I discovered that, although I normally avoid tobacco-flavored juice, I now love the Honey Dipped and RY4. (FYI There are various RY blends. The "RY" stands for Ruyan, the originator of the electronic cigarette, and the number - 4, 555, 7, etc - stands for a blend or version.)

CONS:

1. The site can be a little overwhelming. For once thing, the pages are all densely packed and the banners and menus can be confusing. I've been using ECB since the beginning of last year and I still get lost. This is why I am providing direct links for most of the features I'm pointing out. If you really end up loving ECB (and I think that you will), instead of saving the main page of the site, use my hack of bookmarking every page you want to refer back to.

You can also request a paper flavor menu/catalog to be sent with your order. That's the best way to keep track of what you like, don't like, want to try, and so on.

2. They process vape juice from scratch when you order (remember that customization?) so you won't get your orders lickety-split. Even back before COVID slowed down the speed of the planet, I learned to order ahead of needing vape juice. Times vary, but usually when I order the status sits at "in production" or "processing" for at least 3-4 days before it ships. Lately, it's been maybe a day slower than that. Once it ships, it is all up to the USPS or whichever shipping method you choose.


3. Because they make the juice from scratch (all fresh!), you will need to steep it before it hits its best flavor. I can never vape mine right away. (Or can I??? Keep reading.)

4. Prices on vape devices - unless they're on sale or being discontinued/going vintage - aren't very price-competitive with other sites. ECB is mostly about the juices, and they don't really even carry many devices. I did buy my brother a pen device for a gift when it was dirt cheap, but ECB is not the first place I look for mods/pods, etc. On the other hand, you can find good deals on accessories (drip tips, tank bands, etc).

That's it. Just a few negatives that I can deal with because of all the positives. Now, about that last item on the negative side...

STEEPING HACK

Here is the hack I mentioned about quick steeping or speed steeping your vape juice. It comes straight from ECB:

Seal the bottle tightly and air free in a zip lock bag, then seal it in another (tightly sealed and air free also).   

Place the bottle in hot tap water for 10-15 minutes. This will allow for better mixing when shaking.  This process can be repeated as much as needed to completely blend your e-liquid.

Listen. I tried this with the most recent order and, oh happy day! My juice was even better than it is when I slow steep it for a couple of weeks. My juice was already sealed in the ECB delivery bag so I left it in that. I wasn't sure if the tap water in the apartment would be hot enough so I ran some through the coffee pot and it worked perfectly. And I understand that you don't want to use boiling hot water.

MY SUMMARY

I want to mention something that I just now remembered. ECB has brick and mortar stores in some U.S. states. (See what I mean about being able to get lost on the site? So much info!)

Now that I have been vaping for a while and have tried various sites, I really only patronize a few shops for vape items. There are so many shops that are not consistent with service and quality. For the past few months, ECB is where I go first for my juice.

(By the way, for vape devices, I go to Electronic Tobacconist - free shipping over $20; Breazy -when ET doesn't have what I want; or in a pinch, Element Vape. I've never had problems with products from those places.)

Here is my favorite ECB flavor. It's Dragon's Joy from a category of "creamy" flavors called the Dragon Series:

It's slightly sweet and very "creamy"/mellow.

I have only recently decided to try the Flavor Artists concentrates and got the Fruity Cereal and Dragon Fruit. Because of the COVID lockdown and wanting to be a little more frugal, I got the concentrates. These bottles will last forever since it only takes a couple of drops to add flavor. I have some cheap flavorless/base eliquid to use them with or I can add to existing flavors. The concentrates can be added to beverages and used in baking and cooking recipes as well.

DISCLAIMER: I am not being compensated in any way for this post, but... If you do go over to ECB, it would be great if you credited me by using my referral code (GR87HA6SWC) when you create an account. That way, I will earn some points.

Peace
--Free