One important thing for first-time vapers to understand is what a nicotine salt is and nicotine strength – how much nicotine you’re taking in when you vape. Different people prefer different strengths, so you need to find the one that suits you.
What are e Liquids made of?
Vuse e Liquids are all made from almost exactly the same 5 ingredients: vegetable glycerine (VG), propylene glycol (PG), flavourings, nicotine and water. Different flavoured e Liquids contain different flavourings of course, and some e Liquids are made without water or nicotine. Otherwise, the only variation is the quantities of each ingredient used.
Our e Liquids have been developed bespoke to the Vuse ePod and formulated specifically to offer the most satisfying vaping experience. These are how they vary in our different e Liquids:
The nicotine strength of our e Liquids and flavour pods are clearly marked on each pack. Our Vuse e Liquid flavour range comes in 1.6% (18mg/ml) and 2.5% (28.5mg/ml) strength.
What are Nicotine Salts?
Traditionally, nicotine in e Liquid is ‘freebase’ in liquid. Nicotine salt is the natural form of nicotine found in tobacco – nicotine is protonated with an acid. Nicotine salt is the result of a chemical reaction (freebase nicotine + Benzoic acid = nicotine salts). In tobacco leaves this occurs naturally. e Liquids do not contain tobacco, so we need to form nicotine salts by adding the acids back into freebase nicotine.
The state of nicotine influences sensory perceptions and the degree of absorption. Nicotine in “salt” form is more stable and typically delivers a smoother throat sensation than the nicotine in Freebase Nicotine e Liquids.
What is a nicotine salts pod?
Our line of nicotine salts pods, currently available for the Vuse Go Reload consists of pods that contain e Liquid with a nicotine salt formulation.
WHAT IS FREEBASE NICOTINE?
Freebase nicotine is a form of nicotine commonly used in the e Liquid or vape juice for e-cigarettes or vape pens. When nicotine is extracted from tobacco leaves, it converts to a “Freebase” state which means it’s nicotine in its base form. Nicotine as a Freebase is an alkaline, which can provide a harsher throat hit when vapourised, compared to Nicotine Salts.
What Does the % Nicotine Strength Mean?
Many open system vapers will be used to lower numbers of nicotine labelling on their bottles – because they are used to high-powered, larger devices and lower levels of freebase nicotine required (eg 3-6 mg/ml)
Generally, the larger the device, the lower the nicotine content required to deliver a satisfying experience – and equally for modern, small pod systems with much less battery power or wattage, you'll see them opting for higher nicotine concentration.
Don't be confused by a % figure and think that means mg/ml. The % means the percentage nicotine volume by weight. The packaging will also detail the volume of nicotine by milligram for every millilitre. For example, 4% nic strength is 47mg/ml
Nicotine content is usually stated on vaping products as a concentration (i.e. how many milligrams (mg) of nicotine per millilitre (ml) of liquid). An example of this can be seen in how 18mg/ml means there is 18mg of nicotine in every 1ml of e Liquid. This being said, an alternative way to state nicotine or nicotine salts concentration is in percentage. A 18mg/ml e Liquid could therefore also be correctly stated as containing 1.5% (w/w) nicotine.
Hence, the “w/w” means the percentage is based on the weight (w) of nicotine contained in the total e Liquid weight (w). Therefore, 1.5% (w/w) nicotine strength means that 1.5% of the total weight of the e Liquid is nicotine.
Either way of stating concentration is correct, however many leading pod systems containing nicotine salts are adopting the percentage approach.
It’s difficult to suggest which strength will work best for you. A whole range of factors influence how much nicotine a person will take in with a single puff – from which device you’re using, to how much vapour you take in per inhalation, to the user’s metabolism.
Where to start?
If you're used to nicotine, you might want to start off with something like our 2.5% e Liquids. Nicotine is absorbed differently when vaping, and affects people at a different speed. The key is to try out some different nicotine strengths and e Liquid formulations like freebase or nic salt, to work out which one you prefer.
Check out more information about what is e Liquid?
Now that you know what the numbers on the bottle mean we hope you’ll be able to find the right Vuse vape flavour for you.
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