E-Liquid Guide: Everything a New Vaper Needs to Know

The Five E-Liquid Rules Worth Remembering

If everything else on this page eventually falls out of your head, these five points will get you surprisingly far.

What Is E-Liquid?

E-liquid is the fluid that a vape heats to produce the aerosol you inhale. You'll also see it called vape juice, vape liquid or e-juice. Those terms all mean essentially the same thing.

Most e-liquid contains three or four basic components:

• Propylene glycol (PG): A thin carrier liquid that helps transport flavour and contributes to throat hit.
• Vegetable glycerine (VG): A thicker, slightly sweet carrier that produces dense vapour and a smoother-feeling inhale.
• Flavourings: These create everything from tobacco and mint to fruit, lemonade, custard and sweets.
• Nicotine: Optional. E-liquid can contain nicotine or be completely nicotine-free.

Your vape's coil heats the liquid held in its wick. The e-liquid becomes an aerosol, which is what you're inhaling when you take a puff.

Start with Your Device, Not the Flavour

The easiest beginner mistake is to pick a bottle because the flavour sounds fantastic and only later discover that it's completely wrong for the coil.

Different vapes process very different amounts of liquid.

A tiny MTL pod might operate around the low end of the wattage scale and produce a modest cloud. A powerful DTL tank can vaporise many times more e-liquid in the same amount of time.

That affects both liquid thickness and nicotine strength.

If MTL, RDL and DTL are completely new terms to you, our guide to how to inhale a vape explains the three styles and how they relate to airflow, coils and e-liquid.

PG vs VG: What Do Those Ratios Mean?

You'll see ratios such as 50/50, 60VG/40PG and 70VG/30PG printed on vape juice.

They're telling you how much propylene glycol and vegetable glycerine the liquid contains.

Why Is 50/50 E-Liquid So Common?

A 50VG/50PG blend balances the characteristics of both ingredients. It's thin enough for most small refillable pods while still producing satisfying vapour.

That's why 50/50 has become one of the standard formulations for nic salts and traditional 10ml e-liquid.

Why Is 70VG/30PG Common in Shortfills?

High-powered DTL coils have larger wicking openings and vaporise a lot of liquid. A thicker 70VG blend suits that hardware well and produces the dense vapour that many DTL users prefer.

Our full VG vs PG guide covers viscosity, flavour, vapour production and PG sensitivity in much more detail.

Freebase Nicotine vs Nic Salts

Once you've chosen an appropriate PG/VG ratio, the next question is nicotine.

There are two main nicotine formats in modern bottled e-liquid: freebase nicotine and nicotine salts.

Nic salts are particularly useful for people switching from cigarettes because a small pod can deliver a satisfying amount of nicotine without requiring a large cloud.

That doesn't make freebase obsolete. Many long-term vapers still prefer it, particularly at lower strengths or when they enjoy a more noticeable throat hit.

How Do You Choose the Right Nicotine Strength?

There isn't a perfect conversion chart that can tell you the correct e-liquid strength from the number of cigarettes you used to smoke.

Smoking patterns differ, cigarettes differ and vape devices differ enormously.

The more useful principle is:

If you're using vaping to move away from cigarettes, nicotine strength isn't something you should deliberately keep too low in the hope that "less must be better." The NHS advises choosing enough nicotine to manage cravings and withdrawal symptoms. If you're constantly thinking about cigarettes, your current vape or nicotine strength may not be doing its job.

For more detail, see our guide to choosing e-liquid nicotine strength.

How Do You Know If Your Nicotine Is Too Strong?

You may find the vape unpleasantly harsh or simply feel that you don't want to use it very often. If vaping makes you feel unwell, stop using it and reassess the strength and device combination.

How Do You Know If It's Too Weak?

The clearest sign for someone switching from smoking is that the vape isn't satisfying cravings and you continue wanting cigarettes despite using it regularly.

How Do You Choose an E-Liquid Flavour?

This is the fun part — and the part where nobody else's opinion can completely solve the problem for you.

Most vape flavours fit broadly into a few families.

Do You Have to Start with Tobacco?

No.

Some new vapers like tobacco because it's familiar. Others find that choosing something completely different helps separate vaping from smoking.

If apple, berry or lemonade sounds more appealing than tobacco, start there.

A Note About Cooling

Modern fruit and candy nic salts are heavily influenced by the flavours found in prefilled devices. That means some have a cooling finish even when words such as Ice or Frozen aren't in the name.

If you strongly dislike cooling, read the flavour description rather than judging by the product name alone.

Need inspiration? Our roundup of the best vape juice flavours covers tobacco, menthol, fruit, sweets and drinks across several different e-liquid formats.

What Are Shortfills?

Shortfills are larger bottles of nicotine-free e-liquid that deliberately leave space for nicotine shots.

The classic examples are:

• 50ml of e-liquid in a 60ml bottle
• 100ml of e-liquid in a 120ml bottle

A standard 50ml shortfill plus one 10ml 18mg/ml nicotine shot gives you 60ml of finished liquid at 3mg/ml. A 100ml shortfill plus two of the same shots gives you 120ml at 3mg/ml.

Shortfills became popular with higher-output vapers because DTL hardware consumes much more e-liquid than a small pod. Large bottles are considerably more convenient than carrying a pile of 10ml containers.

You can also use a shortfill at 0mg without adding nicotine at all.

Read our full guide to shortfill e-liquid for nic-shot calculations, bottle sizes and deviceeliquid">shortfill e-liquid for nic-shot calculations, bottle sizes and device compatibility.

Are Shortfills DIY E-Liquid?

In a limited sense, yes. The flavour and PG/VG ratio have already been made for you, but you decide whether to add nicotine and how much.

If you'd like to go further, our DIY e-liquid guide explains one-shot concentrates, base liquids, nic-shot maths and full recipe mixing.

How Do You Put E-Liquid in a Vape?

Most refillable pod kits make this very simple.

1. Remove the pod if necessary.
2. Find the filling port, often covered by a silicone stopper.
3. Open the port.
4. Insert the e-liquid nozzle into the filling opening.
5. Fill the pod without pouring liquid into the central airflow chimney.
6. Leave a little air space rather than filling absolutely to the brim.
7. Close the filling port securely.

Different pods and tanks open in different ways, so our illustrated guide to how to refill a vape is useful if you're not sure where your particular filling port is.

How Do Coils and Wattage Affect E-Liquid?

The e-liquid is only half of the flavour equation. The coil determines how much of that liquid is vaporised at once and how warm the vapour becomes.

Low-Powered MTL Coils

These vaporise relatively little liquid per puff. The result is modest vapour production, low e-liquid consumption and good compatibility with higher nicotine strengths.

Higher-Powered RDL and DTL Coils

These vaporise substantially more liquid. You'll get larger clouds and often warmer, fuller flavour, but you'll also empty the bottle faster.

If you're interested in the high-output end of vaping, our sub-ohm vaping guide and cloud-chasing guide explain how coils, airflow, high-VG e-liquid and low nicotine work together.

Don't Choose Wattage by Guesswork

Refillable pods and replacement coils normally have a manufacturer-recommended wattage range. Use that range rather than assuming that more power automatically means better flavour.

Running too hot can scorch the wick. Running far too low can produce weak vapour and may contribute to flooding or gurgling with some coils.

Why Doesn't My E-Liquid Taste or Vape Right?

When something feels wrong, the liquid isn't necessarily the problem.

If a favourite liquid has apparently lost all of its flavour, our guide to vaper's tongue explains why a gunked coil can sometimes be the real culprit.

How Should You Store E-Liquid?

E-liquid doesn't need special refrigeration or a laboratory cupboard.

A sensible storage location is:

• cool;
• dry;
• away from direct sunlight;
• away from excessive heat; and
• securely out of reach of children and pets.

Keep the cap firmly closed when you're not using the bottle.

Does E-Liquid Expire?

E-liquid ingredients can gradually change with time and exposure to oxygen, heat and light. Nicotine-containing liquid may darken as it oxidises, and flavour can weaken or change.

Use the manufacturer's best-before or expiry information rather than assuming every bottle lasts for an identical number of years.

If an old bottle smells dramatically different, has changed unexpectedly or no longer seems normal, replacing it is generally a better plan than conducting a bravery experiment.

What Are the UK Rules for E-Liquid?

For ordinary consumer vaping products in the UK, nicotine-containing refill liquid is subject to several important restrictions.

Among them:

• Nicotine-containing refill bottles can contain no more than 10ml.
• Nicotine strength can be no higher than 20mg/ml (2%).
• Nicotine-containing products must use child-resistant and tamper-evident packaging.

You can read the current requirements in the UK government's e-cigarette regulations guidance.

Those rules are also why shortfills exist. Large bottles can be sold because the e-liquid itself contains no nicotine; the nicotine is added separately from compliant 10ml shots.

Your First E-Liquid Shopping Checklist

Frequently Asked Questions