What is E-Liquid

What is E-Liquid

What is EJuice?

E-juice, also called e-liquid and many other names, is the liquid you put into your vaporizer for vaping. When heat is applied to e-juice, vapor forms and carries the flavor with it. You then inhale the vapor and enjoy it.

E-juice is pretty simple in composition. There are usually 3-4 core ingredients:

• An active ingredient (flavoring, nicotine, etc.)

• Water

• Propylene Glycol (PG) and/or Vegetable Glycerin (VG))

Water thins the e-juice for vaping and the active ingredient is whatever flavor or nicotine concentration is in there. But the PG and VG are the stars and play a crucial role in the vaping experience. Let’s look at each of them.

Propylene glycol, or PG, is a thick, clear, mostly odorless liquid with a faintly sweet taste. It is used in many foods like ice cream, coffee-based drinks, and syrup sweeteners. It is generally considered safe by the FDA. The primary purpose for PG is to act as a carrier for flavorings and drugs inside of the e-juice. However, some people do have an allergy to PG and cannot vape using e-juices with high concentrations of PG. PG is also the chemical used in things like concert fog machines and in smoke simulation machines in firefighting training.

Vegetable glycerin, or VG, is quite similar to PG in properties. It also acts as a carrier for flavoring and tastes sweeter than PG. When these ingredients are passed over a heat source after atomization, vapor is released.

Here are the core differences in experience. PG-heavy mixes have a throat-burn feel that mimics what smokers feel when they use a cigarette. This “throat hit” is also magnified by the presence of nicotine in e-juice. For smokers who are trying to quit or want to transition to vaping full-time, this same throat burn might be a necessary part for full enjoyment. PG also tends to dry out the mouths and throats of all users. Flavors are also much stronger when used in PG mixes than in VG liquids. Additionally, PG is thinner than VG, which means you have to clean your vaporizer less when you vape PG-heavy liquids.

Some vapers prefer a smoother throat feel. or are allergic to PG, so they use VG instead. VG vapor tastes sweeter and produces thick and heavy clouds of vapor. These thicker clouds can make the throat feel congested. Also, the sweeter flavor can change the flavor of nicotine or other flavorings which can make some flavors difficult to enjoy with a heavy VG mix. However, very few people are allergic to VG.

Many e-juice manufacturers use blends of PG and VG in different things to counter the different properties of PG and VG. Therefore, one of the first things you’ll need to try is different blends until you find a vapor experience that works best with you and your vaporizer, regardless of flavor. 70 PG/30 VG is a very common blend. You can also find e-juice that uses 100% of PG or VG. There is no best mix, so you have to experiment.

What About Nicotine?

Nicotine is added to many e-juices and is usually sold by concentration. Here is a breakdown of the common amounts:

36 mg: unfiltered cigarettes/2+ packs per day

24 mg: rolled cigarettes/more than a pack a day

18 mg: a usual cigarette/pack-a-day smoker

12 mg: light-flavor

6 mg: ultra-light flavor

0 mg: no nicotine

If you’re just starting out, we recommend starting with 24 mg. Most smokers fall into this category. If you are a smoker using vaping to cut down, you need to start high as well. Jumping immediately to a lower dose can make it difficult to transition to vaping. Again, experimentation helps. There are brands that sell even higher concentrations of nicotine e-juice, even up to 54 mg! These are for people who have a very high tolerance to nicotine and aren’t recommended for the casual vaper.

Nicotine does not mix well with PG, VG, or water, which is why you must shake e-juice containing nicotine before filling your vaporizer. Make sure you do this every time. Otherwise the nicotine will float to the top and it will taste strange.

If you choose a heavy VG mix or you have a vaporizer that specializes in creating lots of vapor at once, you may need to adjust your nicotine level to account for the heavier levels of inhaled vapor.

What Flavors Are Available?

Quite a lot! Just take a look at our e-liquid page. The sheer number of flavorings is pretty dizzying. That’s part of the fun of vaping! Let’s go through the list of our current top picks and what their flavors are:

As you can see, many of the flavors tend toward the sweet end of the spectrum so they mix well with the sweetness of PG and VG. For those who do not want a fruity/sweet flavor, there are blends that mix in tobacco flavoring to more closely mimic the taste of cigarettes, like Euro Gold.

With this information, you’ll be ready to wade through our huge list of e-juices. We hope that you enjoy your experimentation!