Nic Salts

Nic salts are the e-liquid format that made small pod kits work. This collection holds 1285 of them, all in 10ml bottles, spanning fruit, ice, menthol, dessert, drinks and tobacco profiles from brands including Elux Legend, Elf Bar, Bar Juice, Just Juice, Crystal Clear, Vortex, OXVA, Juice N' Power and R and M Tornado. Single bottles open around £2.19.

The name causes more confusion than anything else in vaping. A nic salt is not salty and it is not a different nicotine. It is the same nicotine with an acid added to change how it behaves in the bottle and in the coil. That one change is what allows a 20mg strength to sit comfortably in a device the size of a lighter. The sections below explain the chemistry in plain terms, then cover strength, hardware and the mistakes that catch people out.

What a nic salt actually is

Standard e-liquid uses freebase nicotine, the chemically pure form. It works well enough. It is also alkaline, which is what produces the scratch at the back of the throat. As you raise the strength that scratch becomes a burn, which is why freebase realistically stops around 12mg per ml.

A nic salt adds an acid to the mix, most commonly benzoic acid. The acid lowers the pH of the finished liquid. Lower pH means a much softer inhale at the same nicotine strength. The nicotine content on the label is identical. Only the harshness changes. That is the whole trick. It is why UK nic salts are routinely sold at the legal maximum of 20mg per ml when freebase at that strength would be close to unvapeable.

Salts also absorb more readily than freebase at low power, which is why they suit the short, frequent draws that pod vaping produces rather than the long draws of a big sub ohm device.

Strengths and what they suit

UK nic salts are sold almost entirely at two strengths. 20mg per ml is the legal ceiling and the usual choice for adults switching from a heavier cigarette habit, typically around a pack a day. 10mg per ml suits lighter smokers, anyone stepping down from 20mg or anyone using a slightly more powerful mouth to lung device. Some ranges also offer 5mg for people further along that path.

Getting the strength right matters more with salts than with freebase, precisely because the harshness that normally warns you off is absent. If you feel lightheaded or slightly queasy, the strength is too high for the device you are using and you should drop a step. If you are drawing on the device constantly without ever feeling settled, it is too low. The device changes the answer too, so a 20mg salt that is right in a low powered pod can be too much in a more open MTL tank.

Which hardware nic salts belong in

Salts are made for low powered mouth to lung devices. That means refillable pod kits, pre-filled pod kits and MTL pens running coils rated above 1.0 ohm at roughly 10 to 20 watts. The 50/50 VG to PG blend used in almost every salt is thin enough to wick through the small ports those coils use.

They are the wrong choice for sub ohm hardware and this is worth being blunt about. A coil below 1.0 ohm vaporises several times more liquid per puff than a pod coil does. Put a 20mg salt through one and the nicotine per puff goes far past what the strength was designed to deliver. It will also taste unpleasant. Sub ohm devices belong with high VG shortfills at 3mg or 6mg.

Salt shortfills and salt fills

A small number of products blur the line. Salt fills are larger bottles sold with nicotine salt shots included rather than standard freebase shots, so the finished mix is a salt at a lower strength suited to a slightly bigger device. They are worth knowing about if you want salt smoothness in a format larger than 10ml. They are still not intended for sub ohm coils.

The flavour range

Nic salt flavour development moved fast after June 2025. When single use vapes were withdrawn from sale across the UK, the brands behind those devices reissued their flavour profiles as bottled 10ml salts so that people moving to refillable hardware kept the taste they knew. ELFLIQ from Elf Bar and the Elux Legend salt range are two of the clearest examples. The various bar salt lines from Bar Juice, Crystal Clear and Juice N' Power follow the same logic.

Across 1285 bottles the profiles group into recognisable families. Mixed berry and sour fruit blends are the largest, with Blueberry Sour Raspberry and Strawberry Cherry Raspberry showing up under several different brands. Iced and on ice variants shadow most fruits for a cooling finish, as in Banana Ice or Blueberry On Ice. Mint and menthol run from a clean Green Mint to a Fresh Menthol Mojito. Beyond that sit drinks profiles such as Cherry Cola, shisha blends such as Double Apple Shisha, citrus options like Pink Grapefruit, plus dessert, candy and tobacco.

Nic salts and coil life

Salt liquids are not inherently harder on coils than freebase. The sweetener is what does the damage. Dessert, candy, cola and bakery salts carry more sucralose, which caramelises onto the wick and can halve the working life of a pod or coil. Light fruit, citrus, mint and menthol salts are noticeably kinder.

Priming is the other half. Drip a few drops onto the exposed cotton, fill the pod, then leave it standing for five minutes before the first draw. On a refillable pod, topping up before it runs dry rather than after prevents most burnt hits. If a pod tastes burnt within a couple of days, the culprit is nearly always a sweet recipe or a dry first puff rather than a faulty pod.

Nic salt against freebase: choosing between them

Pick a salt if you want a higher nicotine strength without harshness, if you are using a small pod kit or if you are coming off a bar style device and want something familiar. Pick freebase 50/50 if you actively like a firm throat hit, if you are vaping at 3mg to 12mg or if you are using an older pen or clearomiser. Both come in 10ml bottles capped at 20mg, both fit the same hardware and both are pre-mixed with no steeping required. The difference is entirely in how the inhale feels.

The rules behind every bottle here

The Tobacco and Related Products Regulations set the limits. Nicotine strength cannot exceed 20mg per ml. Any bottle containing nicotine is capped at 10ml. Every nicotine e-liquid must be notified to the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency before it can be sold. Packaging must include a child resistant closure, tamper evidence and the required warning. Pre-filled tanks and pods are separately capped at 2ml. Nothing here may be sold to anyone under 18.

Delivery and advice

UK delivery is free on orders over £20, which three or four 10ml bottles alongside a pack of pods will usually clear. Orders placed on working days are picked and dispatched quickly. If you want help matching a strength to your device or finding a salt close to a flavour you already like, the team is on 07827 210361 between 8.30am and 4.00pm.

Nic salt questions answered