Cameron Kelly doesn’t work in a smoke shop.
A newcomer to Smokecignals, Kelly’s new shop on Perkins Road, may be misled by the customers sitting on couches puffing smoke-like clouds, employees mixing chemicals in plastic vials or display boxes of futuristic metal devices.
Those clouds are flavored vapor, not tobacco or any other kind of smoke. The vials are full of liquid nicotine mixtures, and the shiny metal sticks are finely-tuned nicotine delivery systems known as electronic cigarettes.
“Really, we don’t even sell tobacco products,” Kelly said. “We in the community are of the opinion that drug paraphernalia and what we do shouldn’t even be thought of as the same thing.”
Smokecignals Baton Rouge is the newly opened second branch of a company started in New Orleans to cater to the growing community of those who prefer vaporizing liquid nicotine, or “vaping,” to smoking cigarettes or other tobacco products, Kelly said.
The shop sells products ranging from e-cig starter kits to hand-mixed “juices,” or liquid nicotine mixtures available in a range of flavors and concentrations.
Kelly said while the starting cost of vaping deters some people, e-cigs quickly pay for themselves both monetarily and through other benefits.
Though the “Ego kit,” which Smokecignals employees recommend to most first-time e-cig users, costs $69.99, a 10-milliliter vial of juice costs about $6 and has a nicotine content and lifespan equivalent to five to seven packs of cigarettes, Kelly said.
Kelly also said there are possible health benefits to choosing electronic cigarettes over the regular type, though they have yet to be studied extensively and are not regulated by the Food and Drug Administration.
Because there is no combustion or open flame involved in the vaping process, users do not inhale the same harmful chemicals and particulate matter cigarettes give you, Kelly said. He said Smokecignals uses only FDA-approved medical- and food-grade additives in its juice mixtures.
“I smoked cigarettes for 18 years, and haven’t had one in nine months,” Kelly said. “I feel better. I can walk up stairs without losing my breath. I can smell again and taste again. Those are things that you lose when you smoke cigarettes.”
Because electronic cigarettes are a relatively new trend and do not use tobacco, their sale creates a legal gray area, Kelly said. Smokecignals counters this by only selling to users over the age of 18.
Lucas Bernard, an international relations senior, works at Smokecignals and specializes in juice mixing.
Smokecignals offers more than 100 flavors of juice, Bernard said. He said popular flavors include Black and Blue, a blackberry and blueberry mixture, Chuckles, a peanut-chocolate-caramel mix that emulates a Snickers candy bar, and Hungry Sarlacc, which Bernard described as a “complex tobacco flavor.”
The juice mixtures have four main ingredients, which can be added in varying ratios according to the customer’s taste, Bernard said. The cocktails are composed of liquid nicotine solution, flavorings, propylene glycol and vegetable glycerin.
Bernard said the latter two ingredients affect the properties of the juice’s vapor. A higher portion of propylene glycol helps deliver stronger flavor and mouthfeel, while more vegetable glycerin produces thicker clouds of vapor, Bernard said.
Novelle Gibson, a Smokecignals employee, said she prefers juices with no nicotine and higher vegetable glycerin.
Gibson is a former chef, and said her work experience has led her to create unique flavor profiles when she mixes juices. She said being a woman in the growing electronic cigarette community is rare, and she hopes more women adopt vaporization.
“I’ve been trying to make more female-oriented stuff,” Gibson said. “There shouldn’t be any boys club, girls club thing here.”
“I smoked cigarettes for 18 years, and haven’t had one in nine months, I feel better. I can walk up stairs without losing my breath. I can smell again and taste again. Those are things that you lose when you smoke cigarettes.”
This futuristic silver cylinder is an electronic cigarette with an in-house blend of juices. In the background, Novelle Gibson puts a wick into the rebuildable atomizer of an electronic cigarette.
