We do not promote underage nicotine consumption, nor do we even recommend taking it up if you haven’t already.
This (like our other articles on this subject) is to try to assist those who are already hooked on nicotine through cigarettes and want/need a better form of ingestion.
TLDR:
Nicotine Salts=35-50mg nicotine content and provide that real kick I missed from true cigarettes. I vape less, the cost is actually less than cigarettes now (living in tobacco country that’s actually difficult to do), and I get the nicotine buzz that hooked me originally and was more than likely that “taste of death” that I was actually craving while vaping.
The pod-system I started with and this article is about: Nautilus All In One
Where it all started…
I used to hate my mom smoking. The smell, the wind in the backseat from the front window having to be down, the waiting times for her to just finish. I never wanted to start smoking because of that, but alas the social pressures of growing up as a teenager in the 90’s provided it as an easy choice. There was a time when I really could quit anytime I wanted and it was only for social purposes. As I grew more into the computer industry and other areas that gave me time and the want to pass it, I had less and less reason to try or even “the want” to quit. The bonds of friendship that were provided through the activity are still some of my best to this day. Nick and I are a great example of this friendship forged through clouds of smoke. We worked together at a computer shop and our friendship grew strongest during our chats on the stoop behind the shop. Discussing topics from current problems we were facing in the shop to life, the universe and everything. I’m sure we would have been good friends but I’m not sure we would have solidified such a long lasting friendship without the times our habit provided us. Furthermore nicotine has calmed and at the same time stimulated me over the years. Given me a goal with a simple reward to complete tasks or get through difficult times. Over the years the costs have become more significant…coughing, congestion, financials, spring/fall transition fevers & sicknesses, and other miscellaneous items.
In comes vaping…
So I finally took up the cause that Nick was so heavily promoting and got myself a Provari with a Nautilus tank. Previously I had tried the blue e-cigs from the gas stations, but it never provided enough to keep me off real cigarettes. Those really are a terrible alternative to try especially as an introductory device. They do work great as a simple option and there will be more on this factor later. They also do provide a nice boost at times where “taking a break” is not an option or convenient. The Provari really gave me the option to stop regular cigarettes and it worked for a year or more. I was able to vape continuously with little to no drawbacks at first. Then it rolled off the desk and the tank broke. I was without an alternative and the vape shops you see around towns today were not in my area at the time. So I had a couple days of delivery time before I could vape again. So I got a pack of cigarettes and at first I hated the taste but I didn’t go through the pack in a day like I used to do. I actually had a few left over by the time my new tank arrived. I still finished the pack because by the end of them I enjoyed the taste again and it reminded me of that pestering feeling I got vaping. The “taste of death” as I became to call it…the you only live once so enjoy the time you have while you have it feeling that had truly “hooked” me over the years and may be what I actually was craving over the years. Everything else was probably excuses to continue reaching for that feeling I got from cigarettes. Now I know it may be more related to the additives and other chemicals that are found in our modern day cigarettes or even more so the more concentrated power of nicotine a cigarette provides versus vaping.
What kept me going back to cigarettes…
There are a number of downsides to cigarettes: the need for fire, the ashes, the smell, the aftertastes, finding places to smoke in the ever growing areas of restrictions on smoking, and there are many more. Vaping is no different I’m not going to sugar coat it. Keeping up with juices and batteries and the same area restrictions being imposed. You are trading one set of items for another and there are a number of times where you will feel that cigarettes are actually less of a hassle. For you they very well may be, maybe you can smoke in your home, maybe you are used to the smell, maybe you don’t have friends/family that are bothered by it (hint: most non-smokers are bothered by it but are being respectful by not telling you or making a point of it). On top of that the various options, once you get into vaping, can be overwhelming and increasingly costly. You never want just one mod, you always want more batteries, the tank you have is never exactly what you want, and coils themselves have so many options and problems. I also came to find out that if I vaped a coil too much (normally about 2 days of vaping would be max) I would start getting piercing headaches in my frontal lobes, so I would have to change the coils out prior to that. This increased the cost significantly because I’m way to lazy to continuously build my own coils. I, myself, have gone back to cigarettes a number of times while vaping. Each time I’m reminded of why I do and it is harder to justify vaping more and more every time. I do notice I smoke less when I go back but it increases over time and I always do end up going back to vaping because of the downsides of cigarettes. Within a few packs the coughing every morning is back and the congestion starts building up again. I notice that when I’m only vaping that I’m vaping all day, from morning to night almost constantly throughout the day. Cigarettes (especially since I won’t smoke in the house) I don’t do as often and actually focus on the cigarette/time it provides as a break. Calculating the costs of smoking a pack a day vs the coils and the (at least) 60ml or more of juice I would go through every two weeks I found I was actually saving money by smoking cigarettes (yes our cigarettes are cheap here compared to other areas in the US). Adding on top of the fact that I would be probably adding more money trying to test out new/different mod or tank/coils, I was at an impasse. So after trying sub-ohm vaping, building my own coils, probably 10 different mods, dozens of tanks and still wanting to go back to cigarettes I went on the search for something new again.
In comes nicotine salts…
Searching the YouTubes of vape reviewers I came across a review for the pod-system, the Nautilus AIO. I had never tried a pod-system because the sub-ohm’ing had me hooked on clouds believing I got the most nicotine out of that. What intrigued me about this one was several items. First it was from a brand I’ve come to trust Aspire, they have great build quality and several of the products have lasted me over the course of my vaping years. The Nautilus was my original “first real tank” and the Atlantis 2 has actually been probably the best tank I’ve used over the dozens I’ve tried and was my primary tank up until just now. Other tanks and coils had leaking or spit-back and have not held up against the grueling daily life I live and put my possessions through. I was concerned about the battery life (1000 mah), the pod only being 4.5ml (they even had a smaller 2.5ml option pod), and it used 1.8ohm coils (which while nice while I started vaping didn’t seem to compare to the sub-ohm options I got into later). I figured I would need two of them so I could always have one charging and be ready, I would need a couple of pods so I wouldn’t be refilling all the time, I would need a dozen coils to prevent the headache issue I mentioned earlier. I was hesitant to try it, to say the least, but what really peaked my interests was the fact there was a second coil meant for nicotine salts and I had never heard of this. So I researched more into this new option and found this article here. I realized that “taste of death” I was missing in vaping that cigarettes provided was probably more of the fact that I needed a higher concentration of nicotine. Side note when I started vaping I started off on the highest mg I could get at the time (24 mg I believe) I think that’s what really helped me make the actual switch over from cigarettes for a long time. I started trying to go with lower doses thinking I would be able to ween myself off of it but in actuality I was just vaping more and more instead. So I decided to take the plunge. I got the Nautilus AIO from VaporDNA (I’ve ordered tanks/mods before and have had good experiences) as well as an extra pod, I got the “save on flavor” 6mg 100ml Yami Vapor Mika (it only saved $1), a 5 pack of standard coils (for the standard juice), a 5 pack of nic salt coils (for the nic salt juice), and I got the highest user rated nic salt juice on the site at the time Yami Salt Juusu in both the 50ml and the 35ml variants. So the two day delivery wait began…
Note: we are not affiliated nor receive any compensation from VaporDNA (actually with any any of the companies mentioned on this page), it’s just the site I used and have used in the past without issues myself.
The nic salt experience…
The first thing I noticed was the compact size of the AIO. Huge difference even from what I thought was small Provari. I actually really appreciated that from the cumbersome heavy mods I was used to carrying around. The next thing I noticed was both the standard juice and nic salt juice bottles both have the needle tips instead of the standard droppers tips I’m used to using. This greatly assisted in filling the pods with their bottom based plug hole system. I filled one pod with the standard liquid and the other with the nic salt liquid. I didn’t find the filling as big of an issue as many of the reviews had made it seemed, probably because I’m used to the already cumbersome filling methods of all the tanks I’ve used. I tried the 50ml nic salt first, of course, and the experience was nothing short of breath taking (literally). I had the nicotine buzz like it was my first cigarette ever and a shortness of breath because of my cloud size inhale I tried to take. It was then I realized this is what I’ve actually been missing from vaping, this was what that “taste of death” I had been chasing actually was “pure nicotine bliss”. Both the juice flavors I got are tasty (always a difficult first pull on a random juice choice for me) both are fruity with a hint of a juice (like actual orange/tangerine juice) kick. I’ve mainly been vaping on the nic salt pod the most, but I switch over to the standard juice just for some flavor variation and ability to hit it a few times in a row where I can’t with the nic salt one. In the week I’ve had it, I’ve refilled the nic salt tank once and the standard juice tank once, (4.5+4.5+2=11mg (the nic salt is half empty right now)) so I’m already well under half the juice requirements of before. I haven’t needed to replace the coils in either (though I’m probably going to replace the nic salt after it’s empty now) but I’m not getting any issues from either of them as far as taste or headaches. The nic salt has been great, I take a puff maybe two maybe a couple of times an hour but way less than when I use the standard juice pod. I’ve actually had no issues with battery because it supports pass-through charging/usage. So whenever the flavor tastes weak I plug it up and I can keep vaping while it’s plugged in. I was really surprised by this considering I’ve been used to having to charge the dual battery mod batteries every other day and that’s a combined 5000 mah of power. It makes sense though because I’m only vaping at around 10-14 watts (non-adjustable) and I really don’t feel like I’m vaping as often as before. I haven’t had any issues with leaking and I’ve even tested by leaving it upside down at night at times.
The long short of it all…
I’m really enjoying this setup and at a starting cost of only $50 for the main pod system and a bottle of nic salt juice it’s hard to argue against. Just having that will provide almost two weeks worth of vigorous vaping and it’s easy to add additional pods, coils and juice in the future. Overall I’m already looking at 1/4 the cost of pack-o-day cigarettes would have cost me and the benefits otherwise vastly outweigh cigarettes in their own accord already. A small note on what I do with the second pod and the standard juice. I use the second pod for the standard juice and I am able to quickly swap them out if I want to take a break and just enjoy vaping (which I very much do enjoy). The nic salt juice is great for the nicotine buzz but I’m not able to just hit it more than a couple of times in a row (the buzz is way too much and the slight fear of a nicotine overdose is there as well). Having the second pod I can swap out in seconds I can have a break and vape for several puffs in a row without worry or overwhelming buzz. I find myself doing this when I’m sitting back and thinking on a programming problem or taking a short break to divert my attention and come back to a problem later. I still have the feeling of missing the outside time breaks I took with cigarettes but this is more a personal choice item where I have to force myself to get up, go outside and then come back in within a timely manner. The cigarette was nice for being sort of a motivator and self timer for that action but with a little self discipline I could develop a similar routine maybe with the standard juice and just use the nic salt juice inside when I need a quick hit. Unsure how I will handle this and if I will have the discipline to achieve such actions because that’s why I haven’t quit nicotine all together probably (being the lack of such a quality in determination). Lastly I want to mention the cap situation that comes with the AIO system. At first I thought this was great, having had lint and pocket dust having gotten into my vapes before. However in practice I haven’t put them on since I took them off. I feel I want to use them when I put it in my pocket but at the same time I feel like it would just end up getting lost or in my pocket when it’s off defeating the purpose in general. For now I’ll probably leave them off and see how it goes from there.
Going forward…
Once the 50ml runs out I’ll see how the 35mg works for me and will probably stick with that going forward just because I feel like 50mg maybe a little too much at times. It has only been a week but I haven’t even thought about picking up cigarettes again and I’m really enjoying this setup so far. The simplicity of the blue e-cig is here, nothing to worry about except filling the pod and replacing the coil (way less often) and charging but again with pass-through usage ability not even an issue there. I’ve not missed the clouds because I’m not really that into making a big scene vaping and if I can get the nicotine hit out of a smaller puff that’s fine with me. Overall I’m really happy with what I found and I hope this helps some of those out there that may be looking for that “taste of death” or other reasons that pull them back to cigarettes even if they really enjoy and support vaping.
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