Question about Short Fills and Nicotine

[Bravoroni]

Hey Guys,

Where I live nicotine is banned in vaping. Meaning you cannot buy or import e-liquid with nicotine. Local vape shops still do add nicotine under the table though.

I have been buying 0MG short fills (100ML e-liquid, in a 120ML Bottle) of e-liquids online for about 6 months. I would always then take the short fills to a local friend that works at a vape shop and he would add some nicotine for me to make it 3MG.

The nicotine he uses (and the same that all the other local shops use) are not nicotine shots. I don’t think they are pure nicotine, But i think they are a mix of nicotine with a little PG / VG. After he has added the nicotine to the short fill. The bottle is still not even close to being full. So that how i know he is not using standard 10ML 18MG shots.

So here are my questions:

- What type of nicotine is he most likely using? When he adds it, he puts the bottle of e-liquid on a small digital scale. Then he adds the nicotine to the short fill bottle. I have seen the liquid and its brown in color. When I asked him he just said its a mix of VG/PG and nicotine.

- Should I ask him to also add some plain unflavored VG? Because as I understand, short fills are more concentrated versions of the e-liquid. Meaning the flavor is about 20% stronger to compensate for people adding an additional 20ML worth of nicotine shots. Is this true? Do most companies do this?

- Ive been vaping short fills without extra VG for about 6 months now and i do find that some seem a little sweet. But overall nothing to hard to deal with. As mentioned above i have just been ordering the short-fills 0MG online, and then having my friend add his nicotine to it.

- I once was able to get my hands on 10ML 18MG VG nicotine shots (2 of them). I added them to a 120ML short fill (120ML bottle with 100ML liquid). I shook the bottle and waited about a day. Then when i vaped it, i felt like it was harsh and it made me kind of light headed.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks!

 

[smacuser]

Prohibition sucks.

You have to put trust in your supplier. How many shops are close by?

 

[SlowTalker]

Nicotine is generally diluted with PG, VG or both so that it safe to work with. If your friend were using pure nic he'd have to use full lab gear including breathing protection. Only a very small amount, nowhere near enough to fill your 120ml bottle or to even be visually noticeable, is required to turn 100ml 0 nic into 3mg nic.

 

[Bravoroni]

Thanks for the replies guys, Yeah I’m guessing he’s using 100MG/ML or 48MG/ML mixed with PG or VG. Just wondering if i should try and find some plain VG and top off my bottles so they are full to 120ml? Or would the difference be very minor?

 

[Bravoroni]

Prohibition sucks.

You have to put trust in your supplier. How many shops are close by?

Unfortunately only 2 shops. They both seems to use the same type of nicotine. I’m assuming it’s probably 100MG/ML or 48MG/ML or something like that.

 

[Superuser187]

As it seems u have no other options...if i was you i would tell him or buy for myself some vg and pg and i would add a little so that the bottle fills all the way up just so i can have more diluted flavour but also and more juice as it was meant to be anyway...
Ofc the flavour would be a little less strong...and the nicotine will be little less than 3mg then

Seems the vape shop owner uses something more than 20mg nic base and thats why he ads only little bit of that so there is room left in the shortfill

U can also tell him to add pg and vg at the vape shop so that the bottle fills all the way up but ofc he will charge you more cause he will also add more nicotine to achieve the 3mg for 120ml full bottle..

That time u bough and used 2 bottles of 18mg nic shots and it was harsh i guess it was nicotine that had gone bad for some reason maybe even tho i had vaped a nicotine that was very dark colour meaning it was bad and it had a peppery taste but wasnt harsh.... Other reason maybe it was the flavourings of that shortfill u used then. Sometimes flavourings can be harsh on the throat

 

[Superuser187]

Thanks for the replies guys, Yeah I’m guessing he’s using 100MG/ML or 48MG/ML mixed with PG or VG. Just wondering if i should try and find some plain VG and top off my bottles so they are full to 120ml? Or would the difference be very minor?

I would do it cause i dont like strong flavour but depends how much space there is left on the 120ml bottle to fill...
If its like 10ml more or 15ml then i think its not bad to have more juice

 

[Bravoroni]

As it seems u have no other options...if i was you i would tell him or buy for myself some vg and pg and i would add a little so that the bottle fills all the way up just so i can have more diluted flavour but also and more juice as it was meant to be anyway...
Ofc the flavour would be a little less strong...and the nicotine will be little less than 3mg then

Seems the vape shop owner uses something more than 20mg nic base and thats why he ads only little bit of that so there is room left in the shortfill

U can also tell him to add pg and vg at the vape shop so that the bottle fills all the way up but ofc he will charge you more cause he will also add more nicotine to achieve the 3mg for 120ml full bottle..

That time u bough and used 2 bottles of 18mg nic shots and it was harsh i guess it was nicotine that had gone bad for some reason maybe even tho i had vaped a nicotine that was very dark colour meaning it was bad and it had a peppery taste but wasnt harsh.... Other reason maybe it was the flavourings of that shortfill u used then. Sometimes flavourings can be harsh on the throat

Hey thanks for the reply. Yeah unfortunately i dont have any other options.

Regarding the Nic shots, I ordered some shortfills from the UK, and even though I asked for NO Nic shots they for some reason still included them in my parcel. Miraculously they made it through customs with no issue. So i decided to give them a try.

I first vaped the juice at 0mg and it was smooth and tasty. I then added 2 X of the Nic shots (10ML 18MG max VG) as per the instructions. I shook the juice like crazy and waited 48 hours. Then when i vaped it i tasted harsh / heavy on my lungs. It wasn’t peppery, just tasted like 6MG or something. And it also made me a little light headed. I checked the box they came in and they expire in 2024. So I’m really not sure what happened.

 

[SlowTalker]

Just wondering if i should try and find some plain VG and top off my bottles so they are full to 120ml? Or would the difference be very minor?

Depends. Are the short fills you're ordering flavored? If so you are better off ordering full bottles to start with and getting nic added to that so you don't dilute the flavor. 3mg e-liquid is only 0.3% nicotine, so there will be more than enough room.

For me personally, too much VG gives me breathing problems. Some other folks are more sensitive to PG. Lots of things to consider.

 

[Bravoroni]

Depends. Are the short fills you're ordering flavored? If so you are better off ordering full bottles to start with and getting nic added to that so you don't dilute the flavor. 3mg e-liquid is only 0.3% nicotine, so there will be more than enough room.

For me personally, too much VG gives me breathing problems. Some other folks are more sensitive to PG. Lots of things to consider.

Hey thanks for the reply.

how would I know if they are flavored? I mostly vape brands like sadboy, supergood and jam monster short fills (100ml in 120ml bottles)

unfortunately I can only get juice shipped to me from the UK. So I have no options but short fills.

I normally Vape 70/30 or 75/25 VG/PG and have never noticed it being harsh.

 

[mcduffy]

You need to ask your friend about it.

If he's adding about 3.1ML of 100MG/ML to make the shortfill 3MG/ML and you add 16.9ML of VG, the resulting 120ML of e-juice would be about 2.58MG/ML. If he's assuming you will be topping it up to 120ML with VG, then he will be adding about 3.6ML of 100MG/ML.

 

[Bravoroni]

You need to ask your friend about it.

If he's adding about 3.1ML of 100MG/ML to make the shortfill 3MG/ML and you add 16.9ML of VG, the resulting 120ML of e-juice would be about 2.58MG/ML. If he's assuming you will be topping it up to 120ML with VG, then he will be adding about 3.6ML of 100MG/ML.

Would you say it’s worth the trouble? Or should I just live with the 100ml short fills + the nic he’s been giving me?

 

[mcduffy]

2.58MG/ML would be close enough for me.

 

[Bravoroni]

2.58MG/ML would be close enough for me.

I mean is it really worth adding VG? Or better to just go without the VG and let him mix the nic directly into the 100ML / 120ml bottle and vape it like that?

 

[mcduffy]

That depends on whether you find the flavor too strong for your liking or not.

 

[mcduffy]

You could also pour off 3ML from the shortfill and replace it with 3ML of VG before giving it to him.

 

[tj99959]

Why not just DIY your liquids & be done with it?!

 

[UncLeJunkLe]

What type of nicotine is he most likely using? When he adds it, he puts the bottle of e-liquid on a small digital scale. Then he adds the nicotine to the short fill bottle. I have seen the liquid and its brown in color.

He's using severely oxidized nicotine. It starts out rather clear and colorless and gets brown as it oxidizes. So he's not using the freshest nicotine as he probably doesn't keep it cool enough and it's also constantly exposed to light and air.

Whether he is using regular freebase nicotine or salts, I cannot say, but he's using one or the other and no, it' snot likely pure nicotine, it's probably 100mg/ml (aka 10%) or weaker. DIYers in the USA tend to use 100mg/ml but in the EU (or maybe it's UK, can't remember) I believe they use 72mg/ml (aka 7.2%) because laws prohibit the sale of anything stronger than 72mg/ml.