What are nicotine salts? You may have heard the term before at a local vape shop or on different vape forums. We will get into the details and differences. Additionally, we will talk about how nicotine salts, or nic salts, are extracted. But before we get too far into this, let’s do a quick summary on why nic salts are an option for some vapers.
Nicotine salts. What is that all about and why do some people like to vape salt nic e-liquids? Vaping nicotine can be harsh. On the other hand, nicotine salts are smoother to inhale. In essence, you can vape more nicotine more smoothly. Also, you can get more nicotine in less vapor, which makes nic salts a good option for smaller, less powerful vape devices.
If you enjoy the lightheaded buzz feeling from vaping similar to your first cigarette in the morning, but don’t want to chain vape, nicotine salts might be the right choice for you. They seem to be the new craze in vaping. But what exactly are nicotine salts and how the heck are they different? To understand this, we must learn what is the difference between nicotine salts and freebase nicotine.
Freebase Nicotine
The nicotine used in the e-liquids that we are accustomed to today is a freebase nicotine. Freebase nicotine is the purest form of nicotine and the pH balance is been changed to become more potent. Freebase nicotine has been used by tobacco companies since the 1960’s. It absorbs much faster in your lungs and brain when heated. This is why you will usually see it in a much lower milligram or percentage in e-liquids such as 3mg (or 0.3%).
Big tobacco companies discovered that nicotine by nature has a very weak charge. They found that if they were to change the pH balance by giving it a negative ionic charge, the nicotine could absorb into your lungs much better and much faster.
Nicotine Salts
Nicotine salts are the purest and simplest form of nicotine that is found in tobacco leaves. They can be absorbed in the body at much lower temperatures. Also, devices used for salt based nicotine are usually a lot less high tech, as those devices are a bit unnecessary for them.
At this point, I am sure many readers are confused as I had mentioned before freebase nicotine absorbs easily, but I just mentioned that salt nicotine absorbs easily at lower temperatures as well. The key into stabilizing nicotine salts is benzoic acid. Benzoic acid lowers the salt nicotine’s pH levels making easy to absorb in the lungs and will actually make the nicotine much smoother for an easy and enjoyable hit.
This means you could vape 50mg (or 5%) nicotine strength with a desirable throat hit at a much lower temperature and not cough up a lung! Smaller, easy to use pod vapes like the PHIX vaping system is an excellent example.
All in all, the choice comes down to the user. I still have my high tech devices that I use traditional freebase nicotine liquids, but when I want something easy to use and do not feel like chain vaping, a smaller and simpler device using salt nicotine is the way to go. There is no right or wrong way to enjoy yourself. There is no right or wrong way to vape.
Stay cloudy my friends,
Cyrus World-Peace
