Nic Shots vs Nic Salts: What’s the Difference?

If you’re looking for E-Liquid to buy online, then you may well end up getting a bit overwhelmed by the vast array of options available.

While having choice in flavour and style of E-Liquid is wonderful, for newbies in the world of vaping, it can be a bit confusing knowing where to start!

And with new products emerging in the vape world all the time, even those experienced with vaping may become lost when searching the wide variety of products available nowadays.

While most people can get their heads around using standard bottles of E-Liquid or pods, more knowledge is needed to successfully use nicotine salts and nicotine shots in the UK.

Although these are two pretty different ways of using E-Liquid, we will take a look at what each type offers and how they should be used.

 

Nicotine and The Vaping Industry

Before we explore the differences between nic shots and nic salts, we need to understand how nicotine is used in E-Liquids.

A standard bottle of E-Liquid that can be directly used in a vape pen will contain freebase nicotine.

While freebase E-Liquids are wonderful at lower strengths, they can be quite harsh as you approach higher nicotine strengths. The throat hit doesn’t appeal to everyone, so nicotine salts were developed as an alternative.

As vaping grew in popularity in the UK, more and more restrictions began to appear. This limited people to the strength of E-Liquid they could purchase, as well as the size of the bottle. Today in the UK, you can only purchase 10ml bottles of E-Liquid that contain up to 20mg/ml of nicotine.

This caused problems with some vapers who found the strength too limiting and the ability to only purchase smaller bottles financially unviable. Previously, larger, more economical bottles of E-Liquid were available, but with the 10ml rule, some could no longer afford to vape. As a consequence of this, nicotine shots were developed.

What Are Nicotine Shots?

Nicotine shots, or nic shots, are 10ml bottles of pure and unflavoured nicotine.

Nic shots are used alongside a shortfill. Shortfills are larger bottles of 0mg E-Liquid, which contain no nicotine. Because they are nicotine-free, the shortfill bottles are not restricted by the size rules. Shortfill bottles can be found in sizes between 20ml and 100ml.

The shortfill bottle will have a bit of spare space at the top so that the nicotine shot can be poured into the E-Liquid.

While a pre-mixed E-Liquid is limited to 10ml, by selling the nicotine shot (which can be 10ml of pure nicotine) and the flavour base separately, you can get far more E-Liquid for your money!

Typically, adding a nic shot to a shortfill will leave you with an E-Liquid with either 3mg or 6mg strength. Therefore, if you are or were a heavier smoker, and need a higher strength E-Liquid to stave off the cravings, then nicotine salts are likely to be a better option for you.

However, if you are wanting to reduce your nicotine intake, or already use a lower-strength vape, then using nic shots and shortfills can be a more economical way of vaping at lower strengths.

What Are Nicotine Salts?

Nicotine salts are one of the newest additions to the vaping market, but it has quickly caught on to be an increasingly popular option for vapers.

As mentioned, freebase nicotine can feel quite harsh on the throat at higher strengths, so to overcome this, E-Liquid manufacturers add benzoic acid to it, which creates nicotine salts.

Nicotine salts feel smoother, greatly reducing the harshness of the throat hit. This means that people can vape a much higher nicotine strength without the uncomfortable feeling that would accompany if using a freebase E-Liquid.

Another perk of nicotine salts is that they are more absorbable than freebase nicotine, meaning that the nicotine enters your bloodstream faster than a standard E-Liquid. This helps to ward off cravings faster, giving you a satisfying nicotine hit.

Because of this, it can even feel like the strength is more than the max of 20mg/ml! This is perfect for vapers who enjoy vaping higher strength nicotine.

Nic salts are available in lower strengths too and can be enjoyed by many types of vapers.

Despite its name, nic salts won’t make your vape taste salty, nor will it increase your sodium levels!