Understanding the Difference Between Nicotine Salts and Freebase Nicotine

When exploring e-liquids in the UK, you’ll often come across two main types of nicotine: nicotine salts and freebase nicotine. While both deliver nicotine effectively, they create very different vaping experiences. Knowing the difference can help you decide which is better suited to your needs when shopping at an electronic cigarette online store.

What is Freebase Nicotine?

Freebase nicotine has been the industry standard for decades. It’s the purest form of nicotine, created by converting nicotine from its natural state into a base. This process makes it more potent and ensures faster absorption into the body. Freebase is typically used in traditional e-liquids and provides a stronger throat hit, which many long-term vapers enjoy.

However, higher strengths of freebase nicotine often lead to harshness, which can be off-putting for some users. If you’re sensitive to throat hit but still need higher nicotine levels, freebase might not be ideal.

What are Nicotine Salts?

Nicotine salts occur naturally in tobacco leaves. Unlike freebase, they are more stable and smoother to inhale. The addition of benzoic acid allows them to vaporise at lower temperatures, reduces throat harshness, and improves absorption. This makes nicotine salts feel closer to traditional smoking, offering higher nicotine levels without discomfort.

They’re particularly popular in pod systems and compact devices like the ePuffer XPOD and SHIFT, which are designed for convenience and simplicity.
 

Key Differences Between Nicotine Salts and Freebase Nicotine

• Throat Hit: Freebase is harsher at higher strengths, while salts remain smooth.

• Absorption: Nicotine salts are absorbed more efficiently than freebase.

• Device Use: Freebase is common in larger, high-power mods; nicotine salts are ideal for smaller, low-power pod systems.

• Experience: Salts mimic the feel of smoking more closely, which appeals to many users shopping to buy vapes UK.

Which is Right for You?

• Choose Freebase if you enjoy customising your vape setup, prefer bigger clouds, and like a strong throat hit.

• Choose Nicotine Salts if you want smoother inhales, higher nicotine levels, and an experience closer to smoking.

Both have their advantages - it simply depends on your preferences and vaping style.