EcigClick Chats With Super Mom and Vape Reviewer Simone Hamill

She might be one of our newest vape reviewers on the EcigClick review team but Simone Hamill is fast becoming one of the most popular.

Her reviews are detailed, beautifully written and offer up thoughtful reasoning behind her likes or dislikes for any piece of vape gear she’s reviewing.

She’s also not afraid to mix it with the boys either and I’ve laughed out loud at some of her put-downs and banter with the blokes on a certain postman’s FaceBook page lol – this lady ain’t for messing with!

Simone has suffered heartbreak along the way to motherhood but is now the proud mom to three children, two of whom she needs to go the extra yard for. I’ll let her explain why and trust me she’s extremely modest in her answer.

OK let’s see what makes this lady tick and find out how she got into vaping, her worst and favourite bit of vape gear and yeah there is a photo of her in her bra – kind of – ha!

First up a little about yourself – how old are you – are you married – single – looking – kids?

I’m 31 (but feel 21) and I’ve been with my long suffering other half Armando for 13 years.

We have 3 beautiful children together – Eva who’s 11, Damon who’s just about to turn 9 and Nero who is 2.

Nero is actually the reason I started vaping and vaping is the reason Nero is here with us alive and well today. Had I still smoked throughout his pregnancy, he most certainly wouldn’t have survived.

What’s your current job?

I’m a housewife / “carer” for my eldest son who has Autism and my youngest who has Cerebral Palsy. I’m not a massive fan of the term “carer” though as I’m only doing what any mum would do to look after their kids.

Previously I was a body piercer, a youth worker, and most recently I ran a little coffee shop.

When did you start smoking and how long did you smoke?

I have vague memories of being in Primary 7 (around 11) and hiding behind a school trying a cigarette for the first time but I didn’t properly start smoking until 13/14.

Since then I was barely ever without a cigarette in my hand for the next 15 years.

Wow, I didn’t actually realise it was that long.

When and why did you decide to quit and was vaping your first choice?

In March 2016, I stared in complete disbelief as two pink lines appeared on a pregnancy test and knew instantly that I had to quit.

Unfortunately, I had two stillborn little girls in 2012 and in 2014 where I had tried and failed (using NRT) to quit and I knew I couldn’t fail again so I visited my local vape shop and I’ve never looked back.

Smoking wasn’t the reason my babies had died but I was sure it hadn’t helped and within a week of starting my vaping journey, the carbon monoxide test the midwife performed was producing the results of a non-smoker.

What was your first vape kit and nic strength juice?

My first ever kit was an Aspire ETS tank with a little pen style battery which I used for around a week before I upgraded to the Innokin Coolfire IV, matching green tank and mod of course haha.

E-Liquid was a Vaporized own 50/50 VG/PG called Luke Skyvapor which was 18mg in nicotine strength to begin with but I slowly cut down until I was using 6mg. That liquid is the very reason I can’t stand mango flavours now but at the time I loved it!

How long did you MTL before moving to DTL?

I stuck to that little set up for a solid year, reminding my partner quite often that he looked ridiculous with his big clouds from his Cleito Tank and tutting if he blew them towards me haha.

I just couldn’t wrap my head around the technique to Direct to Lung (DTL) and would choke anytime I tried.

What was your first DTL set-up?

After much persuasion, I bought the Smok Brit Mini Kit and the flavour difference totally blew me away!

Within about a month I was the proud owner of a Smok Alien 220w mod and the TFV8 tank became the firm favourite.

I couldn’t believe it had taken me so long to make the switch to DTL and I loved all the new flavours of E-Liquid I could experiment with.

What was the first rebuildable you used and did you find building easy?

My first ever RDA was a little velocity style, paint splattered thing that I bought from a friend with some wire for £5.

I genuinely had no idea what I was doing but was intrigued by it all. After maybe 3 hours of ‘how to’ videos on YouTube, I gave it a go and, lots of swearing later, I had a working RDA.

I made a few rookie mistakes, mostly whilst wrapping the coils but enjoyed it so much and pretty soon put my beloved TFV8 tank to bed and acquired an admirable collection of rebuild-able atomisers.

How did you get into reviewing and why?

I felt like I had a lot to say on some of the devices and atomisers I was using but wasn’t really sure on how to get my opinions out there.

Making videos isn’t really for me, I much prefer to be behind the camera.

As soon as I found Ecigclick I knew it was exactly what I’d been looking for so I got in touch and crossed my fingers and toes that I’d be able to join the team.

I love giving people advice on the best kit to use and I’m proud to say I’ve helped a couple of people on their way to quitting cigarettes.

That’s what it’s really all about in my opinion.

What’s the worst and best item you’ve reviewed?

I’ve only got 11 reviews under my belt so far but the Medo Pod drove me to despair.

If it wasn’t the pods not fitting in, it was dry hits or mouthfuls of liquid!

My favourite item I’ve reviewed is a toss-up between the Hellvape Passage RDA and the Smok Morph mod. Both excellent bits of kit that I’m still using regularly and together.

What would you really like to review and why?

I’d love to review the new Topside Dual with the Yihi chip.

I’ve never tried regulated squonking and if you’re gonna start somewhere then you might as well go all in! Plus I love all the options you get with a Yihi chip and would really enjoy diving into the menu and settings. It helps that it’s absolutely gorgeous too!

What’s your go-to vape set-up right now?

For a good few weeks now I’ve barely managed to put down the Geekvape Zeus X RTA which I’ve been running on top of my green camo SX Mini G-Class but my Steam Crave Titan Kit is a close second!

What are your thoughts on the UK vape review scene?

Hmmm…

I feel like the review scene has changed a lot since I really discovered it just over a year ago.

There’s definitely a lot of help and support available if you’re looking for it and the community that comes along with it are second to none.

However, I can’t help but feel lately that there’s a few god complexes that believe it’s their word or nothing.

Minus the odd troll or two I have never felt anything other than welcome though and know I’d be able to reach out to almost any of the other UK reviewers and have their support and guidance.

What’s the future of your YouTube channel? [Ooops guess who added the wrong question HA!]

There isn’t one haha.

I’ll maybe continue to make little build videos from time to time but YouTube just isn’t my thing.

I’m more than happy writing and staying on the opposite side of the camera but, (just in case this comes back to haunt me) never say never!

How does your partner feel about the amount of time spent on vaping and do they vape?

We both started vaping at the same and he is probably more active in the vaping community than I am!

He runs his own Facebook group and does regular live streams from it.

I’m really grateful for the support and encouragement he continues to give me as I venture further into reviewing and the vape community as a whole.

What’s the future for vaping in general?

It’s a scary time for vaping but here in the UK I think we have a good outlook with the backing of health professionals.

I’d love to see a time where the number of vapers overtakes the number of smokers but with the way things are going in America, that might be an impossible dream!

I think in the next few years we’ll see vaping being offered as a smoking alternative more than the traditional NRT patches and lozenges, etc which will hopefully keep vaping alive and well for many years to come, in the UK anyway.

Where can people find you on social media?

You can find me on my Instagram, Facebook and Twitter which I’ll link below!

• Instagram: Pretzel Pants Vapes
• Facebook: Pretzel Pants Vapes
• Twitter: shmoney001

Anything else you’d like to add!

I wanna say a massive thank you to Mr Ecigclick (Jonny) for giving me the chance to start reviewing and always being on hand to help when I was first starting out!

And a massive thank you to all my friends across the vaping community for their support and encouragement!

I’m looking to forward to seeing where this reviewing journey takes me 🙂

Thanks Simone!

On behalf of Jonny and all of us here at EcigClick I’d like to thank Simone very much for taking the time out of her extremely hectic mom and housewife duties to take part – how does she find the time!

I’m sure like me you’d love to see her step in front of the camera and start putting her reviews on videos – I reckon we’ve got a natural on our hands here 😉

Make sure you go check her out on social media – she has a real knack for photography too – in particular her Instagram pics – loving that new masked vaping gif – very cool.

OK I hope you enjoyed that interview as much as I did and stay tuned for many more from the world of vaping!