What Is E-Liquid (E-Juice)?

E-liquid, also called e-juice, is the liquid every vape heats to produce the vapor you inhale. It's already sealed inside a disposable or pre-filled pod, but it's also sold on its own in bottles for refillable hardware, which is what this catalog's E-Juices category actually is. Health Canada's own description is direct: it's an aerosol produced by heating a liquid, not the "water vapour" it's sometimes casually called.

E-liquid is a base of propylene glycol (PG) and vegetable glycerin (VG), plus flavouring and, in most products sold in Canada, nicotine. PG carries flavour more sharply and produces a tighter, more noticeable throat sensation; VG is thicker and produces bigger, softer vapor with a smoother draw. Most e-liquids blend both rather than using either alone, and a study of Canadian vaping products between 2017 and 2019 found an average of roughly 22 chemicals per product, including around 9 flavouring chemicals, on top of the PG/VG base and nicotine.

Nicotine comes in two chemical forms in e-liquid. Freebase is the older formulation, and it produces a noticeably harsh throat hit at higher concentrations, which is why it's typically sold at lower strengths for refillable hardware with more open airflow. Nicotine salt is chemically adjusted to be weakly acidic, which lets it absorb more smoothly at higher concentrations without the same harshness, and it's the standard formulation behind nearly every disposable and pod on this site. Our full explainer on Canada's 20 mg/mL nicotine cap covers this distinction in more depth, including why the two formulations ended up serving different device types rather than competing head-to-head at the same strength.

Flavour Beast runs the widest single-line flavour selection in this category, 46 flavours in a 30mL bottle plus 14 more in 60mL, all at 20 mg/mL nicotine salt. Gcore covers 9 flavours in both 30mL and 60mL bottles at the same strength. Kapow Salt offers 15 flavours in a 30mL bottle, and Koil Killz Salt currently carries 4. Lemon Drop spans 16 flavours across both 30mL and 60mL bottles, though its nicotine strength isn't listed on its product pages yet, worth checking before you order if that's a deciding factor. Vice Salt rounds out the real lineup with 12 flavours in a 30mL bottle.

Every nicotine-containing e-liquid legally sold in Canada is capped at 20 mg/mL under Health Canada's Nicotine Concentration in Vaping Products Regulations, in force since July 2021. Nicotine is addictive, and these products are intended for adults who already use tobacco or nicotine products, not a starter habit or a smoking-cessation method. The minimum legal purchase age is set by your province (18 in Alberta, Manitoba and Quebec, 19 elsewhere we ship to), and we verify real government-issued photo ID at delivery, not just at checkout.

If you're buying bottled e-liquid, it's because you own refillable hardware, since disposables and pre-filled pods already come sealed with their own e-liquid and can't be refilled or swapped between brands. Add it through the device's fill port without overfilling past the marked line, and let a freshly filled tank sit a few minutes before the first puff so the coil has time to saturate. Our full how-to guide covers this alongside setup for the other two device types.