Finding Your Strength: A Guide to E-Liquid Nicotine Levels

If you’re someone who’s used disposables up to now, or someone who has recently made the switch to an open system, welcome! This post is for you.

Understanding Nicotine in E-Liquid: Salt, Freebase, and None at All

Not all e-liquids are created equal and when you’re making the switch from disposables to an open system, understanding your nicotine options is key to setting yourself up for success.

Let’s break it down:

🧂 Nicotine Salt 

• Found in most disposables, also available bottled at various strengths

• Smooth, fast-acting, and satisfying at high strengths (usually 25mg–50mg)

• Closely mimics the nicotine delivery of cigarettes

• Best suited for lower-wattage pod systems
  

🧊 Freebase Nicotine (Regular) 

• Found in most bottled e-liquids for open systems

• Comes in a range of strengths: 2.5mg-20mg

• Offers a stronger throat hit and slower absorption than salt

• Allows for more flavor variety, bigger clouds, and mostly importantly, step-down control

• Ideal for standard and sub-ohm open systems
  

🍃 Zero Nicotine (0mg)

• No nicotine at all — just flavor and vapor

•  

  Great for those who want to stay social or stress-manage without returning to nicotine

• Also a useful tool to help break the psychological dependency while keeping the sensory satisfaction
  

  • Used by people who:

    • Have already weaned down

    • Want to keep the hand-to-mouth habit without the stimulant

    • Enjoy the ritual or flavor of vaping

Matching Strength to Habit:

When someone visits one of our stores, we never take a one-size-fits-all approach. We ask questions:

• How many cigarettes did you used to smoke (if any)?

• How many disposables are you going through per week?

• Do you crave strong hits or prefer gentle puffs?

• Are you trying to maintain, reduce, or eliminate nicotine entirely?
  

Based on your answers, we’ll recommend a strength and setup that fits you, not just your habit, but your goals.

Here’s a general guide to get started:

Important: No one knows your body and brain better than you. These are just starting points. You’re in control, we’re just here to guide and support. If you're on a disposable, starting with open system salt that matches your current level of nicotine or as close as possible to that level is a good starting point. Then you work down, one strength step at a time, at your own comfort level from there, if you want to. 

How to Know When You’re Ready to Step Down

Some people transition from smoking to vaping and stay at a certain nicotine strength for years. Others use vaping as a way to gradually reduce their intake, either intentionally or as a natural result of habit change.

Here are a few signs you might be ready to step down:

• You’re vaping more out of routine than craving

• Your current strength feels a bit too much

• You’re thinking more about control, not just comfort

• You’re curious what lower or zero nicotine feels like
  

Many people step down one strength at a time, for example, from 15mg to 10mg, then 5mg, and so on. Others jump straight to 0mg when they’re ready. Some even alternate bottles (one with nicotine, one without) to ease the process.

There’s no wrong way to do it, there’s only your way. It may take some trial and error. 

Switching Isn’t Just About Nicotine — It’s About Flexibility

Whether you’re switching to open systems to save money, get more control, or lessen your environmental impact, you’re making a choice that supports freedom and flexibility.

• Less waste: Open systems + bottled e-liquid produce a fraction of the trash of disposables

• Lower cost: Bottled juice is significantly cheaper per mL than single-use vapes

• More options: Flavors, device types, and nicotine levels, including none at all

If you’ve ever felt stuck in a cycle of high-nicotine disposables, we’re here to show you there’s another way that fits your pace, your budget, and your values.

Your Journey, Your Rules

Nicotine use is personal. Quitting or cutting back is personal. Nobody can make that decision for you. It has to come from you.

But when you’re ready, whether it’s to reduce, to switch, or just to get curious, we’re here to help you find what works.

Ask us questions. Try a new setup. Stay at your current strength or drop down to zero. It’s all valid, and it’s all up to you.

We’re not here to pressure. We’re here to empower and to help.

VISIT US IN STORE FOR PERSONALIZED SUPPORT