The ABC of CBD Vapes: What to Know and Which One to Buy!

Reading time - 14 minutes

New to the world of CBD (short for cannabidiol) and/or vaping? Finding yourself struggling to decide on which CBD vaping device to buy on your first purchase? Or perhaps you are very experienced with CBD vaping and might be feeling adventurous and in the mood to try out a different type of vaping device?

Well, look no further, dear reader.

Being a newbie in any field is definitely a challenging yet exciting position to be in. The CBD vaping market continues to expand, with a greater and much more diverse product range has found its way to the store shelves, and all these options can be a challenge to navigate, so let us help you with your shopping list to suit your budget and style!

A brief introduction to CBD

Cannabidiol (CBD)  is a naturally occurring compound that constitutes one of the hundred variants of chemicals called cannabinoids. CBD can be legally extracted from the hemp plant, scientifically termed as Cannabis sativa, which contains less than 0.2%  tetrahydrocannabinol (THC). Similar to its cousin, CBD possesses psychoactive properties. However, it is considered to be safe for it is not intoxicating, and users do not develop the “high” sensation that they would have experienced when consuming THC. With that in mind, consuming CBD would not put the consumer at risk of developing substance addiction-related problems unlike marijuana or certain types of pharmaceutical medications.

These qualities make CBD a particularly attractive option for patients seeking to alleviate pain or treat other mental-related health conditions. CBD has been used for a variety of therapeutic applications such as anti-inflammation, pain relief, anxiety, seizure and epilepsy treatment.

To dive a little deeper into a few interesting therapeutic applications of CBD, researchers found out that the endocannabinoid system is involved in the maintenance of a high quality sleep. Having a good night’s sleep is critical to your physiological wellbeing. CBD, in this case, can interact with specific cannabinoid receptors (specifically CB1 and CB2) to reduce pain and anxiety, which are common causative agents for insomnia. For example, Shannon et al. (2019) studied and compared the anxiety levels and sleep quality of 72 adults before and after taking 25 mg of CBD in capsule form. After the first month of their study, they found that the anxiety score amongst the participants reduced by 79%, whereas their sleep quality increased by 66%. This finding implied that CBD plays a role in improving the sleep quality of people suffering from anxiety. Through supporting a supporting healthy sleep-wake cycle, CBD can thus indirectly assist in boosting our creativity or memory (and not to mention, productivity!).

Meanwhile, there were several studies reporting the potential use of CBD to treat general chronic pain. For instance, Xiong et al. (2012)  showcased that administering CBD helped to reduce chronic inflammatory and neuropathic pain in mice. Besides that, CBD was also demonstrated to suppress inflammation  in rodents. These essentially help in muscle relaxation and pain relief, which would be of great benefit towards professional athletes, for example.

With this in mind, CBD has been climbing the popularity ladder within the general public, with purchases of CBD and cannabinoid-related products projected to increase by four times by 2021. Users can generally consume CBD in several different ways. These include taking ingestibles, sublinguals, edibles, or alternatively by the use of vaporizers (more commonly known as “vaping”).

What do you need to know about vaping?

Vaping can be defined as the inhalation of a vapour generated by an electronic cigarette (more popularly known as an “e-cigarette”) or other types of vaping devices. Essentially, it is named after its production of vapours instead of smoke.

CBD vaping has become one of the most widely adopted approaches to consume CBD oil. This is mainly because CBD vaping improves the efficiency of taking cannabinoids, whereby it increases the rate of CBD vape oil absorption by the body. To provide a more insightful comparison, users can expect to wait for approximately six hours before the effects of taking ingestibles, sublinguals, or edibles can be felt. On the other hand, CBD vaping permits a much more rapid sensation, in which users may experience the effects of CBD within five to ten minutes post-inhalation.

Sounds interesting? Excited to learn more about where and how to begin your CBD vaping journey? Perfect! As a start, the two main materials you will need would be some CBD vape oil and a vaping device.

What do you mean by “CBD vape oil”?

CBD vape oil is the liquid used in the vaping device (“vaporizer”) to generate vapour. They essentially contain CBD distillate mixed with flavouring, and propylene glycol (PG), vegetable glycerin (VG) or medium-chain triglycerides (MCT) oil.

CBD vape oil is often infused with a variety of flavours ranging from vanilla to strawberry to tropical fruits to enhance the customers’ vaping experience. As a matter of fact, the flavouring used in the production of CBD vape oil is actually considered to be food-grade, as these flavourings are also used in food products like ice cream or salad dressings.

In the case of Amphora’s products, terpenes are used instead of PG, VG or MCT oils. Terpenes are naturally-occuring essential oils that can be found in herbs and plants such as cannabis. These organic compounds are not psychoactive, but they can affect your vaping experience as they give the CBD vape oil its distinctive aroma and natural flavour. 

A deep dive into vaping devices

Let’s get started with how vaping devices are designed. There are three major parts present within all types of vaping devices, no matter how advanced they are. These are namely the battery, the atomiser, and the CBD vape oil. As per usual, the battery acts as the main energy source that powers up the atomiser. This atomiser, in turn, is the heating element of the vaping device, as it rapidly heats up the CBD vape oil and vaporises them to be inhaled by the user. Once the vapour reaches the lungs of the user, the vaporized CBD e-liquid will enter the bloodstream by crossing through the alveoli, which are extremely tiny air sacs found in our lungs. And upon gaining entry into the bloodstream, the CBD compound will hike its way up to the brain quickly and bind with the cannabinoid receptors (that form part of the endocannabinoid system) located within the brain to exert its psychoactive effects.

Vaping devices have evolved at an astounding rate since the first modern e-cigarette was invented back in 2003. The different types of vaping devices can be broadly separated into three generations. Firstly, we have the cig-a-likes, which are considered the first-generation of vaping devices and were introduced in 2003. Up next, we have the vape pens that can be deemed as the second-generation, invented in the mid-2000s, and vape mods, which are the third-generation vape devices that were born in the early 2010s. Meanwhile, we also have dab pens as another form of vaping device. As a result of the various technological innovations surrounding vaping devices, each class possesses certain unique features that were not found in their older versions.

What is a cig-a-like?

As its name suggests, a cig-a-like (short for cigarette-like) is an e-cigarette that is designed to mimic the appearance and design features of a regular cigarette. They are small, light to hold and require virtually no maintenance to effectively assist smokers in transitioning smoothly from conventional tobacco to a healthier alternative.

Cig-a-likes can be broadly categorised into two types – disposable cig-a-likes and refillable cig-a-likes. Disposable cig-a-likes essentially contain pre-filled CBD e-liquid, whereas refillable cig-a-likes would require the user to manually refill the e-liquid carton after each round of vaping. Cig-a-likes are mainly designed for a mouth-to-lung hit (MTL)  method of consumption, which basically means that the user has to hold the vape in their mouth before inhaling.

There are several advantages associated with CBD vaping using cig-a-likes, whereby it comes as no surprise that cig-a-likes are typically extremely user-friendly and well-known for their simplicity. It can also be cost-effective because they use less CBD vape oil, can be bought at an affordable price and they’re portable.

Nonetheless, the relatively fuss-free cig-a-like also comes with some drawbacks, such as relatively short battery life, lower e-liquid capacity and vapour production coupled with a tight airflow may not be considered a sufficiently satisfying experience for certain users. Nevertheless, cig-a-likes remain an often-popular device for beginners.

Can someone explain what vape pens are?

Vape pens are handheld vaping devices that are larger than cig-a-likes in order to improve their battery power and the production of vapour clouds. They are called vape pens due to the device’s compact design, which effectively resembles a normal pen. In addition, with the introduction of CBD- and/or THC-infused e-liquid, vape pens have been a popular choice as a vaping device.  The use of heat in combination with high-frequency ultrasonic vibrations is how the CBD e-liquid can be converted into vapour to be inhaled.

At present, vape pens can generally be distinguished based on three key features. The first feature would be dependent on their fixed voltage, which essentially means that the device produces a steady voltage output, and thus users would not need to tamper with its settings at all. Besides that, variable voltage is another innovative feature that users can experiment with to personalise their individual vaping experiences. In specific, changing the voltage may allow the user to adjust the intensity of their vapour flavour, the production of clouds and throat hit (which is the sensation a user experiences when the inhaled vapour produced by their vaping device reaches, therefore “hits”, the back of their throat) to their liking. Last but not least, certain vape pens allow users to play around with the power output settings as part of temperature adjustment. This ultimately helps to prevent dry hits, meaning that there is not enough e-liquid on the coils of the vape pen, resulting in the user inhaling dry air instead of vapour.

With these fascinating features in mind, it is clear that vape pens can be counted as a user-friendly and portable vaping device. Users are definitely spoilt by choice as vape pens come in a wide variety of colours and sizes. Users would also enjoy an upgrade in their CBD vaping experience because the battery life of vape pens is longer than that of cig-a-likes. Not to mention, the vapour flavour and cloud production are much more pronounced in comparison to cig-a-likes. Certain vape pens may also offer users the option of selecting between a mouth-to-lung (MTL) or direct-to-lung (DTL) method of consumption by altering the airflow intake. In this case, vaping CBD in a DTL manner means that the vapour is directly drawn to the lungs of the user upon consumption.

Still, customers ought to bear in mind that with more e-liquid consumption, this basically equals more refills being necessary. So, it is important to define your budget when choosing the type of CBD vaping device that you might want to experiment with.

What about vape mods?

Vape mods are basically devices that are much bigger than e-cigarettes. Plus, they contain way more features than a vape pen. They are also known for their greater vapour production, which is partly due to these devices having larger batteries and being able to hold more e-liquid to be vaporized.

How is this made possible? The answer lies within the introduction of a feature called the “sub-ohm coil”, which allows a greater e-liquid heating ability compared to cig-a-likes and vape pens. The main principle behind this technology is that – instead of introducing a bigger battery into the device, the inventors chose to use a less resistant heating coil instead. As a result, more energy can flow through the coils without the need for greater battery power.

There are two types of vape mods available on the market at the moment, which are regulated mods and unregulated mods. The key difference between these two versions is that the regulated mods have a circuit board inside them. This circuit board provides a safety feature along with various customizable features including (but not limited to) temperature control, variable voltage and variable wattage. The regulated mods can also be further separated into either tube mods or box mods, whereby they differ based on their shape. In contrast, unregulated mods do not have any of the built-in features that are present in regulated mods. This essentially means that no safety feature is present as no circuit board is introduced to protect the user from any potential vaping device malfunctions. This would be something to bear in mind when you are looking out for vape mod devices.

With the increasingly mainstream adoption and commercialisation of vape mods in the current vaping industry, customers ought not to be surprised when they discover a massive range of vape mod designs which permits the safe delivery of vape clouds. However, vape mods are commonly used at home as they are less portable, and this is the key disadvantage of using them.

How about dab pens?

To put it simply, a dab pen is a vaping device typically used to consume minute concentrations of CBD or THC (known as “dabs”), rather than the conventional amount of e-liquid. They are occasionally referred to as wax pens or concentrate pens. Dab pens function in pretty much the same way as a vape pen as they are made out of identical compartments, though the main downside of using dab pens is that you need to load your dabs by hand, which can get messy and sticky as opposed to using vape pens that utilise pre-loaded cartridges. Nevertheless, dab pens remain popular amongst medical marijuana users as they’re good for micro-dosing, as well as heavy recreational users because these concentrates usually contain 80 to 90% CBD or THC. This may be attributed to dab pens being one of the most portable vaporizers and being highly diverse in terms of their shapes and sizes, which contributes to their popularity.

Some final guidelines to a better vaping experience

Overall, the effects of CBD vaping are expected to take place within ten minutes, whereby users would absorb between 34-56% of the CBD e-liquid. As a piece of general advice, users ought to take each hit of the vape in a slow and steady manner, with the time interval between each hit recommended to be between four to six seconds based on each individual’s preference. It is also advised for you to not hold your breath after inhaling as this might irritate their lungs. However, don't stress out about vaping technique, you'll get the hang of it and figure out what feels best to you.

One more thing - don’t forget to follow the general vape rules and etiquette! This includes vaping at home or only when given explicit permission in places such as private businesses, restaurants, or bars.

Why should you trust Amphora’s products?

Struggling to find a trustworthy source of CBD vape pens and cartridges? Fear not! Amphora is proud to offer CBD vape pens  and cartridges containing four different formulations, each of which is armed with a unique effect: sleep, anxiety, muscle recovery, and general wellness.

Feeling rather tired after a long day of hard work? Wouldn’t it be splendid to have a good snooze tonight? We can help you with that. Try out our ZZZ CBD  vape pen cartridge. The CBD vapours in combination with the scent of fresh lemon is the perfect way for you to relax and unwind before bedtime. CBD has been shown by several studies to be an excellent anxiety and stress buster, and this ultimately equals a better night’s sleep for you!

Or maybe you’re finding yourself in a stressful or anxiety-inducing situation, and struggling to achieve peace of mind?  Worry not and try out our PEACE CBD  vape pen cartridge. The sweet concoction of green peppercorn and grapefruit flavours together with CBD vapours can help you take the edge off the stress!

Muscles all aching from a tough training routine as an athlete? Or feeling a bit sore after a visit to the gym? We’ve got you covered. Introducing the MEND CBD  vape pen cartridge. Inhaling CBD vapours mixed with a combination of fragrances such as aromatic stone fruits, fragrant herbs, and pine aromas shall relieve your body from all the pain you might be experiencing! Here’s more exciting news: various research also provides evidence that taking CBD can be a great way to help relieve pain and inflammation!

Feeling a bit under the weather? Can’t seem to activate that creative mind of yours? Give the INSPIRE CBD vape pen cartridge a shot! Give yourself a creativity boost by inhaling CBD vapours infused with the earthy lilac and herbal lemon-pepper taste.

We are proud to declare that all our CBD products are 100% harvested from organically grown hemp plants. They are all also THC-free, extracted using carbon dioxide, and all ingredients used are third-party lab-certified to be of medical standard.