Disclaimer: This E-liquid was provided to me free of charge for the purpose of conducting a review. This fact notwithstanding, I will, as best I'm able, provide an honest, accurate and unbiased assessment of this product. Pertinent portions of this review have been quoted from my review of Virgin Vapor's Organic Creme Caramel. http://vapour-taster.blogspot.co.uk/2013/09/organic-creme-caramel-by-virgin-vapor.html Quoted passages are in italics.
"ce·les·tial
adjective
1. pertaining to the sky or visible heaven, or to the universe beyond the earth’s atmosphere, as in celestial body.
2. pertaining to the spiritual or invisible heaven; heavenly; divine: celestial bliss.
3. of or pertaining to celestial navigation: a celestial fix.
4. of or pertaining to the former Chinese Empire or the Chinese people."
I'm going to assume Virgin Vapor chose the word “celestial” for the name of this e-liquid as an alternative to what would have been an otherwise alliterative “heavenly”. I'm pleased they did; "heavenly" is a word so densely saturated with accretions of meaning as to almost render it meaningless. The word "celestial" however, is, apart from the way it slithers pleasantly off the tongue, a word that at once conveys associations of stellar significance, the spirit world and more interestingly, to me at least, a descriptor of a particular race of terrestrial people. The Chinese are not the only people to claim descent from stellar origins. Another group who spring to mind, who claim this are the Dogon people of Mali, Africa. This notion of descent from the stars is called Panspermia and is probably most familiar to those who saw the clumsily written film, Prometheus. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1446714/ I encourage you to google both Panspermia and Prometheus (the Ancient Greek Titan, not the film). A little research is handsomely rewarded.
In the meantime, let's have a look at Virgin Vapor's Organic Celestial Honeydew. Virgin Vapor describe Organic Celestial Honeydew as "Pure, sweet extract of honeydew fresh from the garden!" http://www.virginvapor.com/products/organic-celestial-honeydew-e-liquid
Virgin Vapor http://www.virginvapor.com/ is an award winning, small company based in the United States, run by Annette Rogers and her team. While there may be others who do the same, Virgin Vapor is the first company I've come across who offer 100% organically flavoured e-liquids. They offer two ranges; Virgin Vapor Line, within which the flavour essences are suspended in an ethyl alcohol base (Ethanol?); and the Absolute Virgin Line which offers an ethyl alcohol free alternative. Virgin Vapor are keen to point out that the ingredients for their liquids are sourced for the most part, from within the US. The flavourings for the Absolute Virgin Line are sourced from the EU. The nicotine used in all their liquids is sourced from hand picked tobacco leaves grown in North Carolina. Furthermore, none of their liquids contain "artificial colors, artificial flavors, artificial sweeteners or any other additives." http://www.virginvapor.com/pages/frequently-asked-questions
The Virgin Vapor Line is a range of eighty eight e-juices with flavours ranging through tobaccos, desserts, fruits, beverages and confectionary to the more exotic floral offerings. The Absolute Virgin Line offers forty liquids with a similar to, though obviously less extensive spectrum of flavours than the Virgin Vapor Line.
Virgin Vapor e-liquids are available in 1/4 ounce (7.39ml)($6.99), 1/2 ounce (14.78ml)($11.50) and 1 ounce (29.57ml)($19.99) bottles at nicotine strengths of 0 (zero), 5 (Extra Low), 8 (Low), 12 (Medium), 18 (High) and 24mg (Extra High) with PG/VG ratios of 0/100 or 50/50.
The bottle is brown glass. This gets the Vapour-Taster seal of approval: brown glass stops UV light from degrading the nicotine content. The black plastic, screw top cap has an inbuilt glass dropper with a pointed tip which makes it easier to direct the flow of liquid into any device with a narrow opening (cartomisers, The Killer, etc). Owners of devices with smaller filling ports like certain cartomiser tanks, or the Kayfun, for example, will need to use a syringe. The label includes the following information: the name of the liquid, the name of the company, nicotine strength, PG/VG ratio, batch number, the company's website address, a notice of age requirement and an admonition to keep out of the reach of children.
The liquid is limpid and very pale; on the colour spectrum it falls somewhere between Champagne Pink http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Variations_of_pink#Champagne_pink and a less saturated Queen Pink http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Variations_of_pink#Queen_pink A short, vigorous shake of the bottle, diffusing miniscule bubbles throughout the liquid sees them defying gravity and the viscosity of the liquid at a snail's pace. A droplet of the liquid rubbed between the tips of my thumb and forefinger is absorbed into my skin within fifty seconds. As with the aroma of Organic Plum Crazy (as reviewed here: http://vapour-taster.blogspot.co.uk/2013/09/organic-plum-crazy-by-virgin-vapor.html), there's the volatile top note of the ethyl alcohol and the remarkable fragrance of banana, which is entirely unexpected in a Honeydew flavoured liquid. You can rest easy; neither the ethyl alcohol or apparent banana manifest in the flavour of the vapour.
I'm vaping Organic Celestial Honeydew in an Igo-L on a Poldiac running on an 18650 battery. I don't have the means to determine the ohms of the coil but it may help you to know that I'm using five wraps of 0.2mm (32AWG) Kanthal wire around three strands of 2mm Silica wick.
I take a few primer puffs to heat the coil; the flavour suspended in this juice seems to benefit from a warmer coil. Users of Variable Voltage or Variable Wattage devices may need to dial up to obtain a hotter coil. As I fire the device, having taken two or three primer puffs, I draw the vapour through my mouth towards the back of my throat. I'm finding that a slow, relaxed inhalation amplifies the flavour; doing so bathes my tongue in a wash of sweetened, fruity mildness. Even at this stage, I recognise the fruit as some type of melon; obviously I know that I'm vaping honeydew, but the taste buds mechanically apprehend flavour on their own terms. At any rate, honeydew is a typically gentle fruit, so I don't expect an assault on my taste buds by any means. When I've inhaled as much vapour as I can, I follow through with a short, sharp breath of air to chase the vapour into my lungs. At this point, as always, the flavour blossoms to it's nearly fullest potential and I experience a flood of honeydew throughout my gustatory system and within my conscious awareness. Exhaling at a slow, measured pace enables the flavour to be experienced retronasally. That is, the vapour journeys through the internal nares in the mouth, upwards to the olfactory neurons located in the Olfactory Bulb which apprehends aromatic molecules. So, the flavour is experienced as aroma as well as taste. That part of the brain which perceives and interprets aroma is hard wired to the Amygdala, the part of the brain which modulates emotional memory. So, for me, vaping this liquid gives rise to very pleasant memories of eating honeydew (and/or cantaloupe with sultanas and ice-cream) as a youngster. Having exhaled, I'm left with a very refreshed mouth and a cleansed palate; there's a gentle sweetness that pervades for a short while.
With many of the sweeter liquids that I've vaped, throat hit is replaced with a mounting of pressure at the back of the throat. This is the case in this instance as well. Vapour production is profuse with dense veils of the stuff pirouetting in the air around me.
As far as I'm concerned, fruit flavoured liquids make for perfect summertime vaping. Or vaping that evokes the sensations and memories of summertime, if vaped at any other time of the year. For me, melons are the summertime food. They're sweet, refreshing and palate cleansing. Food of the very gods themselves and it's a privilege that we can share in the pleasure of the eating (and vaping) of them as well.
