DIY Prog — Supplies

This is effectively at-home industrial chemistry. It is possible to spend a lot of money getting exactly the right equipment to Do It Right.™️ But maybe you have more self-guinea-pig nature than you have money? Regardless, this undertaking requires some willingness to experiment on yourself.

You may have most of the equipment you absolutely need at home—though investing in the ideal equipment can simplify the process, get you more consistent results, and inspire more confidence in those results. I started without a lot of fancy lab equipment and with some of the improvisations described below to prove the concept. So it is possible to do with mostly stuff I had around the house—but am upgrading as time goes by.

Whatever you decide, you assume the risk of what you put into your body. So keep that in mind.

Links to products are neither endorsements nor affiliate links. Just examples.

Minimum equipment list (+ nice to have in bold italics):

  • Suppository molds
  • Stirrer that you can clean, won't absorb oil, and you can get prog on (not wood!)
    • Silicone spatula, or
    • Glass rod, or
    • stir plate
  • Two inert vessels with heating methods that allow you to raise the temperature slowly. 
    • Double boilers, or
    • Improvised double boilers (Stainless Steel bowls atop saucepots are what I used), or
    • Heat and stir plate, 2 glass beakers (minimum 300 and 600 ml volumes)
  • Spreading tool
    • Silicone spatula, or
    • Small squeegee, or
    • Metal spatula, or
    • State ID, maybe one you have a grudge against. Clean it first.
  • Means to accurately measure
    • Weight in grams
      • accurate to at least 0.1 g, or
      • a less accurate kitchen scale
    • Volume in ml
      • Pipette, or
      • you can improvise by weighing x grams of water in a narrow vessel, where x = the number of ml you need, and marking the level.
    • Temperature of a heated oil
      • Thermometer (if proceeding without a thermometer, results will be more unpredictable), or
      • Eyes to observe state change and a really good gut feeling
  • Respirator (no matter how careful you are, some fine prog particles will become airborne) (you still have N95s around, don't you?)
  • Refrigerator for final cool and storage
  • Ingredients