How to Choose Your E-Liquid: A Buyer's Guide for Cautious Switchers
26th Jan 2022
Last Updated: 14th May 2026
Vaping products are for adult smokers and existing vapers only. Not suitable for non-smokers or those under 18.
Most people who give up on vaping do so because of the e-liquid, not the device. The wrong liquid feels harsh, tastes off, leaves you craving cigarettes, and convinces you that vaping is not for you. The right liquid does the opposite. The difference is almost entirely in three decisions you make before you buy.
This article is for the reader at that decision point - whether this is your first time choosing an e-liquid or your second attempt after a first try that did not work. We have helped a lot of people through this conversation over the years, and the same patterns come up again and again. What follows is the version of the advice we wish we could give every customer before they buy their first bottle.
The Three Decisions That Actually Matter
There are dozens of variables you could think about when buying an e-liquid. Most of them do not matter much for your first bottle. Three of them matter a great deal:
Nicotine strength. Get this wrong and you either feel harsh discomfort or get no satisfaction. Get it right and most other things sort themselves out.
Flavour profile. Pick something you will actually want to vape several times a day. Cravings come back fast if you do not enjoy the taste.
Format and PG/VG ratio. This sounds technical. It is not. It just needs to match the device you are using.
The rest is detail you can pick up later. Let's take each in turn.
How Much Nicotine Should You Start With?
Match your nicotine strength to your previous smoking habit. Most people get this wrong by starting too low, feeling unsatisfied, and going back to cigarettes.
If you smoked 20 or more a day, start at 20mg in a nicotine salt or 18mg in freebase. If you smoked 10 to 15 a day, 10mg nic salt or 12mg freebase is the sensible starting point. If you smoked socially or only a few a day, 6mg freebase or 5mg nic salt will probably feel right.
The reason this matters is that nicotine is what stops the cravings. Vaping at the wrong strength is the single biggest reason people go back to cigarettes after a few weeks. Too low and your brain keeps asking for what it is not getting. Too high and you cough, feel light-headed, and conclude vaping is not for you.
You can step down later. Many vapers gradually reduce their nicotine strength over time once they are comfortable with the routine, and it is much easier to come down from 20mg than to claw your way up when 6mg has left you craving cigarettes for a fortnight.
A note on terminology: nicotine salts (nic salts) are smoother on the throat at higher strengths and are now the standard format for new vapers. Freebase nicotine has a sharper throat hit. If you want a strong nicotine hit without the harsh feeling, nic salts are almost always the right call.
What Flavour Should You Try First?
This depends entirely on what you smoked.
If you smoked regular cigarettes, start with a tobacco flavour. A good tobacco e-liquid does not taste like the inside of an ashtray. It tastes like the satisfying part of what you actually enjoyed about smoking, without the bitterness. Our Red Tobacco is the flavour we point smokers toward more often than any other. It is the closest thing in the Platinum range to what most cigarette smokers expect.
If you smoked menthol cigarettes, you have a more specific need. A standard tobacco flavour will not satisfy you. You want something cool and clean. A good menthol e-liquid is cleanly refreshing rather than just minty.
If you smoked rolling tobacco or stronger cigarettes, Congress and Sahara are worth considering instead of or alongside Red. Congress sits slightly richer and smoother. Sahara has a more earthy character. The three of them together cover most of what a tobacco smoker is looking for.
If you used to vape disposables and are coming back to refillables, you are in a different category and should be looking at bar-style nic salts like Bar Juice 5000 or Elfliq, not the Platinum range. These are designed specifically to replicate disposable flavours and will feel much more familiar to you than a tobacco liquid.
One piece of practical advice that comes up constantly: buy a 10ml bottle to start. Even if you think you know what you want. Even if the bigger bottles look like better value. Flavour is personal and there is no way to know if you will like something until it is in your device. 10ml is enough to test a flavour properly over several days. If it works, the 30ml and 50ml versions are there.
Match the Liquid to Your Device
This is the part that trips most people up. The wrong liquid in the wrong device will burn coils, produce dry hits, leak, taste burnt, or feel weak. None of those things are the device's fault. They are the liquid's fault.
Before getting to the two main rules, there is a simpler option worth mentioning. If you are using a cigalike system - a device that uses pre-filled cartridges rather than a bottle of liquid you pour yourself - none of the decisions below apply yet. The cartridge contains the right format at the right strength already. This guide becomes relevant when you decide to step up to a refillable kit, which most cigalike users eventually do once they are comfortable with the routine of vaping.
For everyone else, two rules cover almost every situation.
If you are using a pod kit or any simple MTL starter device - which is what almost every cautious switcher should be using - you want either nicotine salts or a 50/50 freebase liquid. Both have a thin enough consistency to wick properly through the small coil. Anything thicker will produce dry hits and a burnt taste within days.
If you are using a sub-ohm or DTL device - high wattage, big clouds, low-resistance coils - you want a high-VG shortfill at 70/30 or above. Thinner liquids in these devices will flood the coil, leak, and deliver a harsh nicotine hit you do not want at the strengths needed.
The first situation describes most readers of this article. If you do not know what kind of device you have, it is almost certainly a pod kit or simple starter, and you want a nic salt or 50/50 freebase. The bottle will say one of those two things clearly. If it just says "shortfill" or "high VG", it is the wrong format for your device.
A Word on Why Some E-Liquids Cost More Than Others
If you have looked at the e-liquid section of any vape site, you will have noticed the prices vary considerably. A 10ml bottle can cost anything from £1.99 to £6 or more. The difference is rarely about safety - every legal UK e-liquid has passed the same TPD and MHRA notification process. The difference is about other things worth understanding.
Curation. Cheap brands tend to carry huge ranges - 40 or 50 flavours - because they have not done the work of cutting the ones that do not deliver. Premium ranges tend to be smaller because the bad ones got removed. A shorter flavour list is usually a sign that someone has tasted everything and made decisions.
Freshness. E-liquid sat in a warehouse for nine months tastes different from e-liquid bottled three weeks ago. Smaller, more considered brands hold less stock and turn it over faster. You can feel that in the flavour intensity and the consistency over the life of the bottle.
Sweeteners and additives. Cheap e-liquids often use high levels of sucralose to make the first puff taste impressive. The cost shows up in your coil two weeks later, gunked beyond recovery. Better-made liquids use less sweetener, and you replace coils less often as a result. The bottle costs more, but the running cost works out level or lower.
Track record. Some e-liquid brands have been around for over a decade with a stable customer base who buy the same flavours habitually. Other brands appear, sell hard for eighteen months, then disappear or change formulation. Longevity is the most reliable quality signal in this market because customers do not stick with bad liquid.
Our V2 Platinum range is one of the longest-running UK e-liquid brands - over ten years, with a consistent customer base who treat it as their everyday vape rather than a flavour they try once. The tobacco line is what built that reputation. When demand for menthol grew, we kept testing samples until we had a menthol flavour that sits alongside the tobaccos rather than below them. That is why our Menthol Platinum has become almost as popular as Red Tobacco. It earned its place by being good, not by being the only option.
A 10ml Platinum bottle costs £5.99, with modest savings on the multipacks once you have found a flavour you know you will reorder.
If you want to explore the range, the V2 Platinum E-Liquid flavours page is the place to start. For most smokers switching across, the starting point we would suggest is Red Tobacco in a 10ml bottle at whatever nicotine strength fits your previous smoking habit. For ex-menthol smokers, Menthol Platinum is the equivalent.
If You Tried Vaping Before and It Did Not Stick
This part is for the returner.
The most common reason vaping does not stick is the first liquid being wrong. Usually one of three things happened:
The nicotine was too low and you spent two weeks craving cigarettes constantly, eventually concluding vaping does not work for you. It does work. You needed more nicotine.
The flavour was wrong. You bought a fruit or dessert flavour because the menu looked exciting, when what you actually wanted was something that tasted like a cigarette. Or you bought a tobacco flavour from a cheap brand and discovered that bad tobacco e-liquid tastes terrible.
The device-liquid pairing was wrong. You put a shortfill in a pod kit and got dry hits within days, or put nic salts in a sub-ohm device and got a harsh nicotine hit. The hardware burned through coils, the experience felt unpleasant, and you blamed vaping.
None of these things are your fault. They are common starting mistakes that nobody warns new vapers about. If your previous attempt fell into any of these categories, the version of vaping you tried is not the version you would have if you started again now with better information.
The simplest way to give yourself a second chance is to remove as many variables as possible. For most returners, that means a cigalike system rather than a pod kit. The Vsavi Classic Starter Kit is what we point most returners toward - it uses pre-filled cartridges, so there is no liquid decision to get wrong, no PG/VG ratio to worry about, no settings to configure. You pick a flavour and a nicotine strength, and the rest is handled. If your previous attempt failed because of any of the three traps above, the cigalike route bypasses all of them.
If you have used a cigalike before and want to move straight to a refillable, a simple MTL pod kit with a tobacco or menthol nic salt at the right strength for your previous smoking habit is the next-easiest setup. The decisions in the earlier sections of this guide apply directly.
Common Mistakes That Ruin the First Bottle
A handful of practical things that come up constantly:
The 50ml bottle of something you have never tried. If you are wrong, you have spent £15 on liquid you will not finish. Stick to 10ml until you know.
Sweet dessert flavours in a pod kit on day one. Sweet flavours kill pod coils faster than anything else. They are not a problem in the right setup, but in a beginner pod kit they will have you replacing the pod every five days and wondering why.
Choosing a nicotine strength that is too low because higher numbers sound scarier. The opposite is usually true. 20mg nic salt feels smoother than 12mg freebase, despite being the higher number. The salt formulation is gentler on the throat.
Chain-vaping like you would chain-smoke. Vaping does not work the same way. Taking puffs every few seconds will overheat the coil and produce a burnt taste. A few puffs, then put it down, then a few more in ten minutes. The nicotine will hold you.
Direct sunlight or heat exposure for stored bottles. Light and heat break down nicotine and flavour. A cool dark cupboard is fine. The bottle does not need to be in the fridge, but it should not be on a sunny windowsill either.
FAQ
What is the best e-liquid for a complete beginner? For most smokers switching across, a tobacco-flavoured nicotine salt at 10mg or 20mg in a simple MTL pod kit. The familiarity of the flavour and the smoothness of the nicotine delivery makes this the combination most people find easiest to stick with. Our Red Tobacco Platinum is the specific flavour we recommend most often for first-time switchers.
Can I use any e-liquid in any device? No. The single most common beginner mistake is using thick high-VG shortfills in pod kits, or thin nic salts in sub-ohm devices. Match the format to your device. Pod kits and starter kits need 50/50 freebase or nicotine salts. Sub-ohm devices need 70/30 or higher VG shortfills.
How long does an e-liquid bottle last? A 10ml bottle typically lasts a moderate vaper around four to seven days, depending on how often you vape and how efficient the device is. Heavier vapers may go through one in two to three days. If you are using sub-ohm shortfills you will go through liquid considerably faster, which is part of why those formats are not recommended for cautious starters.
Do I have to like fruit flavours? I want something that tastes like a cigarette. No. The vaping conversation can sometimes feel like everyone is supposed to be vaping bubblegum and watermelon. They are not. The Platinum range was built around tobacco flavours specifically because that is what most smokers want when they switch. Red, Congress, and Sahara are all proper tobacco profiles, not fruit blends pretending to be tobacco.
What if I do not like the first liquid I buy? Try a different one. Flavour is personal and even good liquids do not suit everyone. This is why we recommend starting with 10ml bottles rather than 50ml ones - the loss if you do not like it is minimal. If you are unsure what to try next, our customer service team will happily point you toward something different based on what you did not like about the first one. We would rather you ask than waste another bottle.
Will vaping cost more after October 2026? Yes. The new Vaping Products Duty adds £2.20 per 10ml from 1st October 2026, taking a £3.99 nic salt to around £6.63 once VAT is included. Vaping will still cost significantly less than smoking, but it is worth knowing about. Our full guide to the October 2026 vaping duty covers the numbers by format.
Last updated: May 2026 Vaping products are for adult smokers and existing vapers only. Not suitable for non-smokers or those under 18.