Vape juice is a slang term for e-liquid, which is specially formulated to work with your vaporizer to create an inhalable aerosol vapor.

The base ingredients of e-liquid are vegetable glycerin (VG), and propylene glycol (PG). VG is often derived from palm or soy, and is a common ingredient in many food products. It's thick, slightly sweet, and largely responsible for the production of visible clouds of vapor when you vape. PG is thinner, viscous, and again a common ingredient in many consumer products including pharmeceutical inhalers. If you've heard e-liquid is made from 'antifreeze' that's the PG, as it's often added to vehicle coolant in order to make the substance less toxic in case an animal finds a spilled puddle of the sweet-smellig liquid on the ground and attempts to drink it. Other e-liquid ingredients include food-grade flavor extract and, optionally, nicotine that's either created in a laboratory or extracted from tobacco leaves.

Yes, e-liquid is available in literally thousands of flavors. While tobacco- and menthol-flavored blends are available, these tend to be by far the least popular choices among adult ex-smokers. The vast majority of vapers go for flavor profiles including fruits, bakery/desserts, candy, or recreations of popular beverages.

While many e-liquids do contain nicotine, most liquid manufacturers also offer nicotine-free options for users seeking to curtail their nicotine use or those who've already stopped using nicotine but choose to continue to vape.

The PG/VG selection will be based on a combination of personal preference and your device's demands. Vapers who prefer a smooth inhale and thick, fluffy clouds will want a VG-heavy liquid, while those who don't care about cloud production but want more of the 'throat hit' combustible cigarettes deliver will look instead toward liquids with more PG. To consume a lot of VG without overwhelming your coil, you'll probably want an advanced mod with a sub-ohm coil, while PG-dominant liquids are thinner and will perform well in smaller, low-powered devices like cigalikes, pen vapes, and pod mods.

The proper nicotine levels vary a lot based on the device you're using, nicotine type, and how much you currently smoke or formerly smoked. With modern high-powered advanced devices, most users will start off using 6-12 mg of nicotine per ml of e-liquid, though 3 mg or less is more common for those who've been vaping a while. With smaller cigalike and pod mod devices, you'll consume less liquid and produce less vapor, so that limited amount of vapor will be more potent. Instead of traditionally-extracted nicotine, these devices will use a salt-based nicotine at a potency anywhere from five to 20 times as strong as a typical mod. If you're using a device that allows you to choose your own nicotine level, it's always best to start out low and only increase if you're having a hard time fighting cravings to smoke. Once you've fully switched to vaping, you can start gradually adjusting your nicotine consumption if your goal is to quit nicotine entirely.

Choosing the right e-liquid is both one of the biggest challenges and the greatest pleasures of vaping. While you may want to start off looking for a tobacco liquid, we'd suggest grabbing at a fruity or dessert flavor that sounds appealing to try out as well. Keep in mind that your first favorite likely won't be your last - as your senses of taste and smell both improve dramatically in the weeks and months after switching from smoking, you'll likely want to seek out new, more complex flavor profiles and combinations. Some people eventually land on a favorite ''all-day vape'' flavor, while others may be try out new bottles and blends even years after making the switch.

While most manufacturers will specify a shelf life of six months to a year, e-liquid stored under the right conditions can be preserved for two years or more.

Yes and no. While many different tobacco blends do exist, they tend to taste more like a fresh, natural tobacco leaf than one that's been lit on fire and left to smolder along with a paper wrapper and thousands of added chemicals. The hardest thing to realize about vaping for many ex-smokers is that you won't find a vapor that tastes exactly like your brand of cigarettes. Those who stick with tobacco flavors (the vast majority of adults find they don't like tobacco's taste at all after quitting) tend to add accents like honey or vanilla for a more pleasant experience.

Nicotine salts are kind of a misnomer - they're not salt at all, but this is a way to describe the chemical makeup of a fairly recent method of extracting nicotine. Salt-based liquids mask the harshness and 'throat hit' of nicotine in a way that traditional nicotines don't, allowing a vaper to consume a lot more nicotine than they would otherwise be able without irritating the throat and lungs. While traditional e-liquids typically contain between 0-6 mg of nicotine per ml of liquid, salt-based liquids can have 15, 30 or even 60 milligrams packed into each milliliter. Learn more about nicotine sales.