Shopping for E-Liquid? This is the most important part of your vaping experience, you have a nice device and some freshly wicked coils and now you are ready to conquer the juice part. We know that shopping for the best vape juice is fun, but may be an overwhelming experience as well. With so many flavours on the market it can quickly become confusing and frustrating. We’ve designed a guide below to help you through the process of choosing the right e-juice for you.
What does e-liquid consist of?
All e-liquids consist of the following: Vegetable Glycerine, Propylene Glycol, Flavour, Nicotine (Optional)
The most common formula and ratio of e-liquid is illustrated in the chart. The VG portion of the e-juice is usually infused with Nicotine and the PG portion is what carries that awesome flavour! However some manufacturers use VG based Nicotine which are marketed as 100% VG Juices, where base and flavouring is all Vegetable Glycerin based.
E-Juices containing Salt Nicotine are also becoming popular, due to the industry demand for pod devices like the JUUL.
How to choose the best vape juice?
Now that you know what e-liquid consists of it’s time to make some decisions, we will split this part into 3 sections.
FLAVOUR
With hundreds of flavours what do I choose?
Jump to FlavorNICOTINE STRENGTH
What Nicotine Strength should I get?
Jump to StrengthBOTTLE SIZE
Should I get the biggest bottle?
Jump to SizeWhat flavour should I choose?
This is the most common question for smokers that are venturing into the world of vaping. We get hundreds of customers that are new to vaping and need guidance.
Countless amount of smokers that enter our doors, all ask the same thing: “Do you have a Belmont or Marlboro e-liquid?” Our usual answer to this question is no. Reason being that although there are e-liquids that try to replicate the taste of a specific brand of cigarettes, it is not the best as what you are actually tasting when you are lighting up your cigarette is burned paper and dry tobacco with many different additives, which is difficult to replicate without combustion.
There are plenty of great Tobacco Flavoured E-Juices available today, we usually recommend Desert Blend, which is a Virginia Blend Tobacco inspired flavour and has great notes of smokiness to it.
Holy Moly, why are there so many fruit e-juices?
I know what you are thinking – Hey I am a smoker, why in the world would I want to vape a ripe mango or creamy strawberry eliquid? Well through our observations and expertise in the business (Since 2013) we know that majority of smokers that switched to vaping with their first flavour being Tobacco flavor, all came back within a week asking to try those fruity and sweet e-liquids.
See when you smoke, you suppress your taste buds, you are conditioned to the taste of smoke, so for you it’s almost a turn off when you hear you will be inhaling fruity flavoured vape clouds.
It is a known fact that after you quit smoking, you start to regain your sense of smell and taste buds. So don’t worry we know that it’s only a matter of time that you will be back asking for that ripe mango ejuice.
What Nicotine percentage should I start with?
How much do you smoke?
If you are a pack a day smoker, which is about 20 cigarettes a day. You are considered a heavy smoker. Depending on the device you currently have this question will have a variable answer.- You have an All in One type device like the Aspire Breeze NXT
- We recommend to stay between 3mg to 6mg – as sub-ohm devices produce more heat and vapor which creates a much stronger throat hit effect.
- Never use Salt Nicotine in sub-ohm/high wattage devices. Salt Nic comes in much higher concentrations than free base nicotine therefore it should not be used in your high powered setup.
UPDATE ON SUB-OHM NIC SALT
After writing this guide, we have released a Sub-Ohm Nicotine Salt line of E-Liquids by Exotix. All of these flavors are specifically designed for high wattage devices and sub-ohm tanks, thanks to the much lower Nicotine concentrations like: 3mg, 6mg, 12mg and 18mg.
You are a social/casual smoker and you only smoke light cigarettes
In this scenario you still want to follow the same principles as mentioned above, but we recommend to aim towards the lower strengths of nicotine that is suggested based on the device you have.
Heavy Smoker
20+ Cigarettes a day-
Device: UWELL Caliburn
RECOMMENDED SALT NIC
20-35 MG
Social/Casual Smoker
1 - 5 Cigarettes a day-
Device: STLTH Starter Kit
Is a 120mL bottle too much?
This one fairly simple. E-liquid comes in different bottle shapes and sizes. For the US & Canada market the most common bottle sizes are 30mL and 60mL e-liquid bottles. However based on the European TPD requirements the size of bottles containing ejuice is limited to 10mL.
It is also worth noting that TPD also restricts the capacity of vape tanks to 2mL, in light of this many manufacturers are forced to develop compliant versions of their devices specifically for the European market. Sorry Europe we feel your pain.
Glass e-liquid bottles were a thing, back in 2013 that is. Now a days it is much more common to see manufacturers of eliquid switching to PET squeeze bottles or Chubby Gorilla Bottles
Glass bottles do have a premium look and feel to them, and they are pricier since glass is more expensive to produce. But don’t let this fool you, after all the important thing is the e-liquid inside that bottle.
We used to produce our VapeLoft brand eliquids using 30mL glass dropper bottles, however we made the switch to Chubby Gorillas for a few good reasons:
- It is much easier to fill your vape tanks, pods and cartridges (Thanks to it’s magical needle nose design and the function of squeezing your palm)
- Squeeze bottles are much more convenient to carry around due to their form factor and light-weight.
- They don’t make a mess and don’t leak, which is what the glass e-liquid bottles are known for.
Now you know that the squeeze bottle e-liquid is a better choice, the only other things to consider are:
- Is your device sub-ohm? If so it will evaporate the e-liquid faster, as opposed to lower powered devices and higher resistance tanks. Hence you will guzzle through your e-liquid faster.
- Do you really like the eliquid? If so it may be a better choice to go for a larger size if available, since the cost will be cheaper per ml as opposed to getting a smaller size bottle.
- You already love your e-liquid and it just so happens to come in a larger format.
- You are are a pack a day smoker – It may be better to go for a larger size, so you don’t have to keep running back to the store. Unless you enjoy frequenting a vape shop, we love having you here, no seriously we do.