One of the most exciting aspects of vaping is how you can personalise your vape juices and UK vape accessories to suit your tastes and needs as a vaper. With a wide range of vape juices out there aiming to make your vaping experience more flexible than ever before, it’s no surprise that companies such as Element have come up with liquids using nicotine salt. These juices are known for bringing a revolutionary new dimension to vaping, and have now branched out into DIY vape juices, making them all the more exciting. Whether you’re looking for a pre-made nicotine salt juice, or you want to have a go at making your own, here’s everything you’ll need to know before getting started.
What are nicotine salts?
To understand nicotine salts, we need to understand the chemical process of standard e cig liquid nicotine. When we talk about standard e liquids, we are usually focussing on “freebase” vape juices. These liquids use the freebasing process to create the potent “hit” of nicotine we expect from a premium e liquid. Freebasing is a chemical process which has been implemented since the mid-20 th century, first flirted with by cigarette companies such as Phillip Morris. The idea is to have natural nicotine react with ammonia salts, creating a more pleasurable vaping experience.
In contrast, nicotine salt vape juices are as close to natural forming nicotine as we can get. Natural nicotine would have to be heated at incredibly high temperatures to get the same effect though, and so we add benzoic acid to it to make sure it can be vaped. Unlike the kick of ammonia, the addition of benzoic acid to nicotine lowers the alkaline level of the nicotine, creating a much smoother experience.
What makes nicotine salts important for vapers?
Nicotine salts are especially important for heavy ex-smokers. The pack a day addiction won’t necessarily be quelled by an 18 mg vape juice, heavy users might need more than is permissible in a free based vape juice. That’s where nicotine salts come in; the smoothing out of the nicotine hit means that you can use more in your vape juice, ensuring that if you need it, you can use more than 20 mg nicotine juices.
What is DIY vape juice?
Of course, according to the 2016 TPD laws, we are only allowed a maximum of 20 mg of nicotine per 10 ml bottle. This means that legally, pre-filled bottles are not allowed over this limit. This leaves heavy nicotine users at a loss. Luckily DIY vaping, the process of creating your own vape juices, curtails the potency of these laws and allows you to up the nicotine level as you see fit. This is especially useful for heavy nicotine users who want to use nicotine salt-based juices.
How do you make DIY nic salt juice?
So now you know why nicotine salts are so important, it’s now time to get making your own. First off, ensure that you are wearing protective gloves and goggles when handling concentrated nicotine, which can be an irritant and poisonous if ingested.
First off, create your nicotine base solution by adding propylene glycol and vegetable glycerine together. Usually the ratio of PG to VG is 50-50 to ensure you still get the throat hit smoothed out by the benzoic acid.
Add your flavourings to the juice. This should make up about 10 percent of the solution and can be a medley of any flavours you want.
Next, add the salt nicotine bass to the mixture. With many to choose from online and in vape shops, the usual amount added is 5 ml for every 10 ml of vape juice. Of course, this may change depending on how much nicotine you want in your liquid