Boosters

What is a nicotine booster?

A nicotine booster is a bottle of highly nicotined liquid that isn’t flavoured. It allows you to add nicotine to an e-liquid or a DIY base liquid.

Nicotine boosters are packaged in 10ml bottles most of the time, which is the maximum quantity allowed by law. Their nicotine content ranges from 18 to 20 mg/ml, which needs to be diluted before consumption. They’re designed to help you quit smoking in a progressive manner, by slowly weaning you away from tobacco.

A nicotine booster is basically a flavourless e-liquid with a high nicotine content. It plays an important role in e-liquid making, especially if you make them yourself.

Indeed, since the implementation of the European Tobacco Products Directive, which regulates tobacco products and, by extension, nicotine boosters, it is forbidden to sell e-liquids in volumes that exceed 10ml, and dosages cannot be higher than 20 mg/ml.

This is why manufacturers such as Arômes et Liquides offer French-made, pharmaceutical-grade nicotine boosters that comply with the current dosage regulation. This solution allows you to add nicotine to large e-liquid bottles that don’t have any, and it also makes your DIY e-liquid making easier.

How to choose your nicotine booster

Don't worry, choosing your nicotine booster isn’t difficult, the only thing that changes is its PG/VG ratio.

If you want to preserve your e-liquid’s properties and not make a mistake, simply choose a booster with the same PG/VG ratio as your e liquid.

As a reminder, know that propylene glycol (PG) thins the liquid and enhances flavours, whilst vegetable glycerine (VG) thickens the liquid and produces more vapour. Also, liquids with a high vegetable glycerine content will clog up your clearomiser coils faster, but they will be less likely to leak.

Therefore, you can use nicotine boosters to slightly alter your e-liquid’s characteristics, depending on whether you want more vapour or more flavour, and the same goes for your DIY base liquids.

How to use a nicotine booster

A nicotine booster must be added to an e-liquid or a DIY base that doesn't contain any nicotine.

We don’t recommend mixing a booster with an e-liquid that already contains nicotine, as it would dilute the flavours, and the resulting nicotine level would be way too high. This can lead to overdosing and side effects like headaches, coughs and dizziness.

If you buy a 10ml bottle of ready-made e-liquid, you don’t have to buy a booster. Just choose the appropriate nicotine level from the start.

Therefore, nicotine boosters are used with shortfill e-liquids and for preparing DIY e-liquids.

Shortfill e-liquids

One of the logical consequences of the TPD regulation, which prohibits the sale of nicotined e-liquids if they’re sold in bottles that exceed 10ml, is the emergence of large bottles of e-liquid that don’t contain nicotine, known as ‘shortfills’ or ‘longfills’.

These shortfills are a bit stronger in flavour, so that you can add one or several nicotine boosters and thus obtain a nicotined electronic cigarette liquid with just as much taste as the ready-made juices.

Most of the time, these shortfill bottles are slightly bigger and allow you to pour one or two boosters straight into them.

However, this solution only works for relatively low nicotine levels, such as 6 or 3 mg/ml. If this dosage is too weak for your needs, we recommend you buy a ready-made 10ml e-liquid instead, whose nicotine dosage can range from 0 to 18mg/ml.

If you feel ready, you can try DIYing. This is the name given to the practice of making your own e-liquids. DIYing lets you make large amounts of e-liquid at the nicotine level of your choice.

Boosters and DIY e-liquids

Boosters are very often used in DIY e-liquid making. It’s a key ingredient in any e-liquid recipe, as soon as you want to add a precise dose of nicotine.

This is what makes DIYing great. You can customise your e-liquid down to the smallest detail, including its nicotine content. You can also choose its PG/VG ratio and add a flavour you enjoy, such as wild berry, tobacco or fresh mint.

To create a DIY e-liquid, you mix one or several flavours and nicotine boosters with a neutral base. The result is a nicotined liquid that tastes exactly how you want it to, costing just a fraction of what the same amount of ready-made e-liquid would. If you’re ready to roll up your sleeves a bit, you’ll see there are only benefits to DIYing!

How many nicotine boosters does my e-liquid need?

Dosing your liquids with nicotine boosters won’t always be done in the same way. There are two specific scenarios.

For shortfills, simply add the number of boosters written on the e-liquid label to reach the desired nicotine level.

Things are slightly different for DIY e-liquids, though. The amount of nicotine needed to reach the desired level will depend on the total amount of e-liquid you’re preparing. There are no limits with DIYing, you can make a whole litre of juice in one go if you wish.

That's why we have a DIY calculator on our website, so that we can guide you through the whole process.

Simply enter the volume of e-liquid you want in the end, your PG/VG ratio and the nicotine level you want. You can also select one or several flavours to add to your preparation and confirm. The calculator takes care of everything and will tell you how much of each ingredient you’ll need to make your DIY e-liquid, easy!

What role does nicotine play in e-liquids?

Electronic cigarettes are tools that help you quit smoking and act as nicotine substitutes.

Indeed, vaping helps you overcome the symptoms caused by nicotine withdrawal and allows you to gradually quit smoking. Unlike many nicotine substitutes, vaping reproduces the feeling of drawing on a cigarette, thus fooling the body at every level. This explains why electronic cigarettes achieve record success rates!

Moreover, the nicotine produces a ‘throat hit’, a phenomenon where the larynx muscles contract when the vapour passes through. This tingling feeling is an unconscious reflex that smokers crave, and e-cigarettes manage to recreate that feeling thanks to the nicotined liquids they vapourise.