# Choosing an e-liquid: PG/VG, nicotine and flavour > PG/VG ratio, nicotine strength, salts or freebase, bottle formats: how to match an e-liquid to your kit and your palate under British rules. Choosing an e-liquid is where most people lose their bearings, because a single bottle carries four separate decisions at once. Base ratio, nicotine strength, nicotine form and flavour profile all sit on the same label, usually in small print, and only one of them is about taste. The good news is that three of those four are settled by your hardware rather than by preference. Once you know what your device asks for, the shelf narrows very quickly and you are left with the enjoyable part. ## Choosing an e-liquid: the short answer Match the base to the kit first, then set the strength, then pick a flavour. A small pod with a tight draw wants a balanced or PG leaning base with nicotine salts; an airy sub ohm setup wants a VG heavy base with freebase nicotine at a low strength. Get that pairing wrong and nothing works properly. A thick VG liquid starves the wick of a small pod and burns it, while a thin high PG liquid in a sub ohm tank leaks and delivers a throat sensation most people find harsh. Everything below explains why those pairings hold, so you can judge an unfamiliar bottle rather than memorising a table. ## What the PG/VG ratio actually does Propylene glycol is thin, carries flavour compounds well and produces most of the sensation felt at the back of the throat. Vegetable glycerine is thick and sweetish, produces the visible vapour and softens that sensation considerably. A fifty fifty base is the British default and the safest purchase when you are unsure. It wicks into almost any coil, reads clearly on flavour, and behaves in both pod kits and mid range tanks without complaint. Above roughly seventy percent vegetable glycerine you are in sub ohm territory. Those liquids need wide wicking ports and real power behind them, which is the domain of larger tanks rather than pocket pods. Our comparison of [pod and box mod formats](/uk/pod-vs-box-mod/) sets out which category your kit belongs to. ## Nicotine strength and the British ceiling Nicotine containing e-liquid sold in the United Kingdom may not exceed 20 mg/ml, and a refill container of it may not exceed 10 ml. Both limits come from the government guidance on e-cigarettes as consumer products, and no legal British retailer sells above them. Within that ceiling, higher is not better. The right strength is the one that leaves you using the device at a rhythm you are comfortable with, and it interacts directly with your hardware: the more vapour a device produces per draw, the less strength you need in the liquid. As a rule of thumb, tight drawing pods work at the upper end of the range, mid range kits in the middle, and airy sub ohm setups near the bottom. Moving hardware without adjusting the bottle is the most common cause of an unpleasant week. ## Salts or freebase nicotine The two forms behave differently at the same figure on the label. Nicotine salts feel notably smoother in the throat at higher strengths, which is exactly why small pods and salt liquids arrived together and remain paired on British shelves. Freebase nicotine is the older form. It is firmer in the throat at equal strength, which is unpleasant at high figures and perfectly pleasant at low ones, so it belongs on airy hardware that delivers a lot of vapour per draw. Neither form is stronger than the other in any meaningful sense. The number on the bottle means the same milligrams per millilitre in both cases; what changes is how the throat reads it. ## Choosing an e-liquid by flavour family Four families cover nearly the whole market: fruit, dessert and bakery, mint and menthol, and tobacco profiles. Fruit and menthol are the easiest to live with day to day, because they stay legible after hours of use. Dessert and bakery profiles are the ones that fade fastest, both because the palate adapts and because sweetened liquids clog coils quicker than clean fruit blends. If you like them, expect to change the coil more often. Most settled vapers keep one everyday liquid and one or two occasional ones. Buying a single bottle at a time is the cheapest way to find yours, and nicotine free versions exist across every family, as our round up of [fruit flavours without nicotine](/uk/nicotine-free-fruit-e-liquids/) explains. ## Bottle formats you will see in Britain The 10 ml bottle is the standard format for anything containing nicotine, because the 10 ml cap applies to nicotine containing refill containers specifically. That is why a British shelf looks like a wall of small bottles. Larger bottles do exist, and they are not illegal. A shortfill contains nicotine free liquid, so the 10 ml limit does not apply to it, and it is sold partly filled with headroom left in the bottle. That headroom is the whole point of the format. One change is already scheduled. A Vaping Products Duty takes effect across the United Kingdom on 1 October 2026, applying to vaping liquids whether or not they contain nicotine, together with a duty stamps scheme, so bottle labelling is going to look different by the end of the year. ## Keeping e-liquid in good condition Store bottles closed, upright, away from light and heat, and out of reach of children and animals. Heat and daylight degrade both flavour and colour, which is why liquid kept on a sunny windowsill turns brown far faster than the same bottle in a drawer. Steeping is real but modest. Some dessert and tobacco profiles round out after a few days standing in the dark, while most fruit and menthol blends are at their best from the day you open them. Respect the date printed on the bottle, and keep an eye on colour. Darkening well ahead of that date usually means the bottle has been sitting somewhere warm. ## Frequently asked questions ### What PG/VG ratio suits a pod kit? A balanced fifty fifty base, or something close to it. Thin enough to wick reliably through the narrow ports of a small coil, thick enough not to weep out of the airway when the pod is warm. ### Salts or freebase for a small device? Salts, in almost every case. They stay smooth at the strengths that suit a low powered pod, whereas freebase at the same figure tends to feel harsh in the throat. ### How do I soften a throat sensation that is too strong? Drop a step in nicotine strength, or move to a base with more vegetable glycerine in it. If you are on freebase, switching to a salt liquid at the same figure also changes how it reads. ### How long does an e-liquid keep? Several months when stored closed, cool and dark, and the bottle carries a date to follow. Storage conditions matter more than the calendar in practice. ### Why are some bottles bigger than 10 ml? Because the 10 ml cap applies to nicotine containing refill containers. Nicotine free liquid, including shortfills, is sold in larger bottles and remains perfectly legal in Britain. ## Putting it together at the shelf Choosing an e-liquid comes down to three checks in a fixed order. Does the base suit the coil, does the strength suit the way that device delivers vapour, and does the flavour hold up after several hours rather than for the first two draws. Do those in order and the fourth question, brand, matters far less than the shelf suggests. Two bottles with the same base, the same strength and the same profile behave very similarly whatever the label says. If your kit is still undecided, settle the hardware before the bottle: our [starting guide for adult readers](/uk/vaping-for-beginners-uk-guide/) covers that first choice, and comes back to choosing an e-liquid once the device is in your hand. Editorial content for adult readers only. Vaping products usually contain nicotine, a substance that causes addiction. Not for sale to under-18s in the United Kingdom. This article is not a buying recommendation.