What Are Nic Salts? Nicotine Salts Explained | Ecigone

Every disposable vape sold in the UK before the June 2025 ban had nic salt e-liquid inside it. Every prefilled pod kit on the market right now uses nic salts too. If you've vaped anything in the last three years, you've almost certainly tried nicotine salts already.

What Are Nicotine Salts?

Nicotine salts are a form of nicotine created by combining freebase nicotine with benzoic acid. This lowers the pH of the e-liquid, allowing higher nicotine strengths to feel smoother and absorb faster in low-powered pod kits.

Two forms of nicotine go into the vape juice you buy in the UK. Freebase nicotine came first and it's been around since the early days of vaping. Nic salts arrived a few years later when manufacturers started treating freebase nicotine with benzoic acid to change how it behaves.

Freebase nicotine scratches your throat hard at anything above 12mg, but nic salts don't have that problem. The benzoic acid drops the pH low enough that even 20mg feels smooth on the inhale. Your body picks up nicotine salts faster too, so two or three puffs can satisfy a craving that freebase might take ten minutes to touch.

One thing that confuses people: the word "salt" here is chemistry shorthand for what you get when an acid meets a base. There's no sodium in the bottle, nothing to do with table salt. Nicotine plus benzoic acid equals nicotine benzoate, and that's the nic salt in your juice.

How to Use Nic Salts

You need a pod kit or an MTL tank with a coil rated above 1.0 ohm. Grab a 10ml bottle of nic salt juice and you're sorted.

Fill your pod or tank through the fill port (most nic salt bottles have a fine nozzle tip)
Leave it five minutes so the cotton inside the coil soaks through fully
Draw on it the same way you'd pull on a cigarette, mouth to lung, not a big chest inhale
Give it a few puffs and wait five minutes to see how the nicotine strength feels

Almost every nic salt bottle on the market comes in a 50/50 VG/PG ratio. That thin mix wicks quickly through small pod coils without dry hits. Keep the wattage low, somewhere between 8W and 15W, and let the nicotine do the heavy lifting instead of chasing clouds.

Setting	What to Use
Coil resistance	Above 1.0 ohm for tight MTL
Wattage	8W to 15W (most pod kits handle this on their own)
VG/PG ratio	50/50 (standard for nic salts)
Draw style	Mouth to lung, like a cigarette
Pod capacity	2ml (UK TPD limit for nicotine e-liquid)

Standard MTL tanks on box mods work fine with nic salts too, same coil resistance and wattage rules as pod kits.

Picking the Right Nic Salt Strength

Three strengths cover the UK market: 5mg, 10mg, and 20mg. The formula stays the same across all three, only the nicotine concentration changes.

Your Smoking History	Start Here
Heavy smoker (20+ a day)	20mg
Moderate smoker (10 to 20 a day)	20mg, then drop to 10mg after a couple of weeks if it feels like too much
Light smoker (under 10 a day)	10mg
Social smoker or occasional	5mg
Already vaping, switching to nic salts	Match your current mg strength

Dizziness or a headache after a few puffs means the strength is too high. Vaping constantly all day without ever feeling satisfied means you need to go up a level. See our nic salt strengths guide breaks down the differences between 5mg, 10mg, and 20mg in more detail.

How Nic Salts Compare to Freebase

The short version: nic salts hit faster and feel smoother, freebase hits slower and scratches the throat more. Both contain nicotine, both go into the same kits, but they suit different situations.

Factor	Nic Salt	Freebase
Throat hit	Smooth, barely noticeable	Gets harsh above 12mg
Absorption	Fast, a few puffs to feel it	Slower, takes longer to land
UK strengths	5mg, 10mg, 20mg	3mg, 6mg, 12mg, 18mg
VG/PG ratio	Almost always 50/50	50/50, 60/40, 70/30, 80/20
Best kits	Pod kits, MTL tanks	Any kit depending on strength
Bottle size	10ml	10ml or as nic shots for shortfills

Pod kit vapers and ex-smokers tend to get on better with nic salts. Anyone running a sub-ohm tank below 0.4 ohm should stick with freebase at 3mg or 6mg. High strength nic salts pumped through a big coil will make you feel rough. Our nic salt vs freebase comparison has the full side by side if you're still weighing it up.

Bar Salts and Where They Fit

After the disposable ban, brands like ElfLIQ, MaryLiq, and SKE Crystal took their disposable vape recipes and bottled them as 10ml nic salts. Same flavours, same nic salt formula, just in a refillable format now.

Third party bar salt brands like Drifter, Riot Bar Edition, and Bar Juice 5000 popped up alongside them. These companies make their own takes on popular disposable flavour profiles at a lower price. All use 50/50 VG/PG nic salt formula built for refillable pod kits.

The difference between "bar salts" and "nic salts" is just the flavour angle. Bar salts copy disposable vape flavours specifically, while regular nic salts cover everything from tobacco and menthol to dessert and fruit profiles.

Which Kits Actually Work with Nic Salts?

Kit Type	Nic Salt Friendly?	Notes
Pod kit (Caliburn, Xlim, XROS, Sonder)	Yes	Best match by far. Low power, tight draw, smooth hit.
Prefilled pod kit (Elf Bar, Lost Mary, SKE)	Already using them	Prefilled pods come with nic salt liquid from the factory.
MTL tank (coil above 1.0 ohm)	Yes	Keep wattage low and airflow tight.
RDL tank (coil 0.4 to 1.0 ohm)	Only at 5mg or 10mg	Higher strengths at this resistance can feel overwhelming.
Sub-ohm tank (coil below 0.4 ohm)	No	Too much vapour at high nic salt strength. Freebase 3mg or 6mg only.

Any beginner pod kit from OXVA, Uwell, Vaporesso, or Geekvape handles nic salts without any fuss. The low wattage and tight airflow on a pod kit suits 50/50 nic salt juice better than any other setup.

How Nic Salts Are Manufactured

The process starts with freebase nicotine extracted from tobacco leaf. Benzoic acid goes in at a precise ratio and temperature to create the nicotine salt compound. Get the balance wrong and the mixture crystallises or separates, so the process is tightly controlled.

Most nic salt e-liquids on UK shelves come from either Chinese or British factories. Every bottle sold legally in the UK must be notified and regulated under the UK’s e-cigarette product framework, with a TPD notification number assigned before sale (see official UK government guidance on e-cigarette regulations).

Opened bottles keep for about six months in a cool dark spot with the cap screwed tight. Unopened, the benzoic acid keeps the nicotine more stable than freebase, so sealed bottles hold their flavour for 18 to 24 months.

Frequently Asked Questions

Does nic salt e-liquid contain sodium?

Nothing to do with table salt at all, despite the name. "Salt" is a chemistry term for what happens when an acid reacts with a base. Nic salt juice contains nicotine, benzoic acid, VG, PG, and flavouring, and none of those ingredients contain sodium.

Is nicotine salt actual salt?

Only in the chemistry sense, not the kind you'd put on chips. Table salt is sodium chloride, a totally different compound to the nicotine benzoate in your vape juice. Same word from the chemistry textbook, completely different substances in practice

How is nicotine salt made?

Manufacturers combine freebase nicotine from tobacco leaf with benzoic acid under controlled lab conditions. The acid brings the pH down from around 9 to about 7. That lower pH is the reason nic salts feel smooth even at 20mg.

Can you use nic salts in any vape?

You can physically fill any tank with nic salt juice, but it won't end well in high powered kits. Pod kits and MTL tanks above 1.0 ohm are the right match for nic salts. Put 20mg nic salt juice through a sub-ohm coil at 60W and you'll feel dizzy within a few puffs.

What's the difference between bar salts and nic salts?

All bar salts are nic salts, but not all nic salts are bar salts. Bar salt brands specifically copy the flavour profiles from disposable vapes. Regular nic salt ranges cover a much wider spread of flavour categories.