What is Vape Liquid?

In its simplest form, e-liquid consists of four main elements; nicotine, flavour, diluent and water. Let’s take a look at some of these individual ingredients a little more closely.

The main stimulant and addictive substance that is found in traditional cigarettes. At The Electronic Cigarette Company we work hard to ensure we utilise the best quality nicotine bases for all of our e-liquids. We only use UK manufactured pharmaceutical grade nicotine from our trusted suppliers, to ensure complete customer safety and satisfaction.

Nicotine by itself has no flavour. In order to produce the taste in your e-liquid a flavour needs to be added. There are a wide range of tobacco and non-tobacco flavours that can be used to enhance the flavour of e-liquid. We believe we produce the highest quality ranges with the finest tasting flavours, designed to take full advantage of your e-cigarette.

The diluent found within e-liquid performs two essential functions. Firstly it is added to dilute the mixture of nicotine and flavours to the correct strength. Secondly, it provides the part of the solution which produces the vapour that is inhaled and ‘transports’ both the flavour and nicotine from the electronic cigarette to the vaper. The most common diluents used in our e-liquid products are:

Propylene Glycol (PG):

Our Propylene Glycol is high-quality pharmaceutical grade. Propylene Glycol helps to produce what we refer to as ‘throat hit’ in combination with nicotine and flavours. It is this diluent which helps to create the sensation of smoking.

Vegetable Glycerine (VG):

Glycerine is included to help produce more dense clouds of vapour and adds a complimentary sweetness and smoothness to the e-liquid.

Aqueous Glycerine (AG):

Our Aqueous Glycerine is high-quality pharmaceutical grade and is diluted with de-ionised water to keep the e-liquid viscous, which can help e-cigarette coils more easily absorb the e-liquid through the wicking material.

The diluents found above can be present in e-liquids at different ratios, as a rough guide the higher the PG content the more throat hit, the higher the VG/AG content the more vapour is produced. Look for the PG:VG ratios on the e-liquid listings. In short, if you wish to prioritise the closest possible sensation to smoking, you would be better served using a higher PG liquid, whilst if you prefer to exhale large clouds of vapour, with less throat hit, then a higher VG e-liquid would be more preferable. If you prefer something inbetween, then an equal amount of both PG and VG would be better suited.

The strength of an e-liquid is essentially how much nicotine the fluid contains in a set volume of e-liquid. The ranges we currently offer express the amount of nicotine as either a percentage or as mg per ml of total fluid. For example, fluid with a strength of 1.8% is equivalent to 18mg, while a strength of 0.6% is equivalent to 6mg.

This depends on a number of personal factors, however, as a simple rule of thumb the more traditional cigarettes you smoked, the higher the nicotine strength you should start with. But this is not true for all people. If you are a new to vaping, you will quickly realise that there is no simple comparison to conventional cigarettes as the variety, freshness and uniqueness of our flavours often make the basic comparison of nicotine content less important than the overall experience you will enjoy. Often it is a case of trial and error until you find your fluid of choice.

Our partner company Totally Wicked developed the concept of allowing vapers to create and mix their own fluids in order to satisfy an increasing demand for new flavours and customers preference for how their e-liquid performed. The Electronic Cigarette Company is proud to offer Totally Wicked's unique and internationally unrivalled ‘Mix Your Own’ products.

Mixing your own e-liquid is relatively simple and once you understand the component parts and their role in making the e-liquid, the rest is fairly easy. The possibilities in terms of flavour and tailoring your e-liquid are endless and only limited by your imagination.

Everything you will ever need to mix your own unique e-liquids to your desired strength and flavour can be found right here in our DIY E-liquid section including our mixing guide.