e-Liquid Reviews
We look at three of the most popular vape juice brands in the UK. KIK e liquid, V2 Platinum e liquid and Vsavi pure VG ECO-vape e juices.
Jump straight to our best 3 e liquids >>
Why are we reviewing UK e-liquids? Know what your inhaling!
I believe wholeheartedly that switching to Electric Cigarettes from tobacco cigs is a good thing but getting the right e liquid is a critical part of the process of trading your old habit in for vaping.
The World Health Organisation do not yet support vaping as a smoking cessation technique, although more recently the NHS has got fully behind vaping. But there are reservations and this is mainly down to the unknown health risks and the unknown chemicals in some E liquids.
Our article on e-liquid safety highlights the World Health Organisation concerns:
WHO. “Many studies found that the product labels did not show the ingredients (e.g. flavours, solvent, nicotine) or that the declaration did not correspond with the concentrations found (e.g. nicotine)“.
UPDATE: Eventually (PHE) Public Health England accept that e liquids are less harmful than tobacco and that they can be helpful for smokers who want to stop smoking
“…e-cigarettes are significantly less harmful to health than tobacco and have the potential to help smokers quit smoking.” – see the full report here at www.gov.uk
E liquid origins
E Cigs and e liquids are notorious for being made in China and other unregulated regions. Users often have limited knowledge regarding the ingredients of the vape juice they use as regulation at this time is not stringent. While TPD calls for certain tests on e cigarette and vape devices, full disclosure of all ingredients is not a requirement.
If you are inhaling e liquid in vapour form you need to know what you are inhaling. Therefore you need to be able to TRUST your e juice brand.
What is in your vapour?
Some e-liquids are far better than others though with some brand listing exactly what is in them. A few vape brands even conduct batch tests for each batch of E-liquids. Some e liquid however are prepared in warehouses no doubt and a some in proper laboratories.
Quality e-juice brands can be slightly more expensive but does that not make you think? Why do they cost a bit more? Vaping is a lot less expensive than smoking and has health benefits so paying a few pence more is worth the peace of mind gained by knowing exactly what the ingredients are.
It is a worrying factor and nobody wants a repeat of how tobacco cigarettes have affected our society. When cigarettes first became popular there was virtually no information on the impacts on health or what exactly was contained in the tobacco and cigarette – déjà vu?
It is a matter of TRUSTING your e liquid brand and this means transparency.
A review of the best three e juices
The E liquids we are going to review are:
- Platinum E Liquid manufactured by V2
- Vsavi e liquid by Vsavi – 100% VG e juices, organic too!
- Kik liquids manufactured by Supreme Imports
All brands are pretty big, they all ship to other countries too.
Our e juice testing method:
- We test all liquid under the same conditions:
- Brand new standard cartomizer for each liquid
- 1 full refill used at least with each liquid to ensure vape production lasts and get a real feel for the liquid.
- A standard high quality vape battery at 4.2 V
- For this instance we will use all basic tobacco flavours, to keep it as fair as possible.
All liquid is medium strength close to 18 mg as we can get.
The best e-Liquid. Summary
#1. Vapour2/V2 Platinum e Juice
For us the real runaway winner is V2 Platinum E-Liquids, with the highest quality e-liquid, batch testing and complete openness about the ingredients. Simply the cleanest and best e-juice out there. There is no chemical aftertaste like you have with many e liquids!
V2 are the largest on-line distributor of e-cigs in the USA, the quality of the components is second to none including their liquid ingredients. V2 offer the full range of vape juice ideal for beginners or advanced vaping including a sub ohm range. See our best Best UK Vape Pen Reviews here.
#2. Vsavi pure e Liquids – best VG e liquids
For a pure VG option, Vsavi offers the cleanest, purest range of great tasting VG e liquids. Ideal for those who want lots of vapour or those with a PG intolerance.
Best Nicotine Salts
Vsavi also offer a full range of vape juice ideal for beginners or sub ohm vaping. Vsavi Nic Salts are without doubt the best nic salts available and their Smooth Tobacco offers the most authentic experience.
VSAVI are a brand recommended to me after trying my regular E-Liquid. They use proper laboratories, proper testing on all their e-liquid which incidentally is all UK & EU made. Vsavi have everything from CBD vape oils, short fill e liquids, shisha e liquids and are the UK e liquid specialists.
#3. KiK e-Liquid
Kik e liquid are backed by Supreme Imports and have a range of e liquids including a “VG” range that is not really VG – it also contains PG e liquid? It is a high (80%) VG e liquid but not pure VG. Their prices start at £6.99 for 10 ml for their high VG range.
Kik are relatively new, they have just hit the scene and looks like they have a very expensive marketing budget and a premium (PR!) feel about their products. They use organic flavourings but say nothing about using medical grade ingredients in their product that I can find.
Like Vapour2 they also offer high PG and a 50/50 VG/PG option which are sold in 5 x 10 ml packs for £11.00. Their e liquids represent a reasonably good selection for both standard and sub ohm vaping.
Full e-Liquid reviews
#1. V2 e-Liquid
From V2 we received some “Platinum E liquid” of “Red” and “Congress”. These are 2 of the 3 tobacco e liquid flavours they offer – they also have the menthol bases covered – Mint Tea Menthol and Peppermint !
The best E-Liquid of choice
V2 or Vapour 2 in EU is the #1 selling e cigarette brand in the USA, so they have certainly got the e-liquid side of things sorted. More loyal customers means more demand for proper tobacco flavours and full ingredient transparency. An e liquid company you can trust!
Firstly smoke or vapour production, this was excellent accompanied by a really good throat hit. The Nicotine level is 18 mg and they are displayed in % on the bottles. For instance this is sold at 0.6 to 1.8 mg strength. There is also 0 mg nicotine variants in all flavours, when transitioning to electronic cigarettes you should work towards vaping the 0 % version over time. That being said the throat hit of these was first-rate, really made me feel like I was smoking, though there is only a tiny bit more nicotine than the other brands. Really happy with that.
Vapour2 e-Liquid ingredients
Information on liquid this time round is astounding, absolute transparency with every e -liquid sold having its own batch number and full on-line lab test report. The FAQ section has tons of info, including a comparison between their e liquid flavours and traditional Cigarettes, perfect if your trying to quit and your brand is listed:
Guide on which V2 e-liquid flavours is the best match to your previous smoking brand
- V2 Red has a similar flavour profile to the following traditional tobacco brands:
Lambert And Butler. Marlboro®1, Pall Mall®2, Benson & Hedges, Winston®2, Basic®1, Lucky Strike®3, Doral®2 and Chesterfield®1.
- V2 Congress has a similar flavour profile to the following traditional tobacco brands: Parliament®1, Silk Cut, Marlboro®1 Lights, Viceroy®3, Benson & Hedges®1, Merit®1, Kent®3, and L&M®1,
- V2 Sahara has a similar flavour profile to the following traditional tobacco brands: Camel®2, Kent®3, American Spirit®4, Merit®1, and many European cigarette varieties.
- V2 Menthol has a similar flavour profile to the following traditional tobacco brands: Kool®2, Salem®2, Newport®5, Marlboro®1 Menthol, and Basic®1 Menthol.
Obviously e liquid won’t taste exactly the same as tobacco, there is a slight variation. But the match is very very good and after a couple of days vaping, smoking will actually taste harsh. There are many popular cigarette brands listed here alongside the corresponding e liquid flavour which should really help you when you quit smoking.
In addition to that there is a full breakdown of all ingredients used, and batch reports for every batch of e liquid produced for you. View an example here, if you want more info check out the FAQ. I can find no other e-liquid supplier who goes this far to evidence the quality of their e-liquid products.
I think the biggest difference between V2 and the other brands is their target audience is the serious vaper or the ex-smokers who demands the highest quality vaping experience. Gourmet e-liquids.
Pros:
- Best vapour production of all the brands
- Best Flavour and throat hit
- Full and transparent information about their liquids available to consumers.
Cons:
- Slightly limited flavour selection if you wanted to try extreme or the more obscure flavours – possibly due to how meticulous they are with ingredients?
- Security Bottles harder to open
#2. VSAVI e-Liquid review. 100% VG vape juice
I want to know what is going into my body, I want the purest liquid, with pure ingredients, pharmaceutical grade, nothing less. Is that too much to ask for something I’m inhaling?
Update: VSAVI e liquid re-branded from EcoVape
Vsavi vape juice purity
Vsavi appear to agree with this, they only use pharmaceutical grade e-Liquid, the purest ingredients, and I like this. They focus on producing the best tobacco e-liquids for the purist. The new ECOvape VSAVI e-Liquid range also has a good range of flavours for the SHISHA Pen user and regular Vapers.
Vsavi also boast ORGANIC ingredients.
The smoke production is great, the flavour I tried is a bit sweet for me but still a really nice smoke. For those who have a reaction to PG e-liquid, VSAVI are clean 100% VG e-liquids and the number one UK VG brand.
VSAVI is without any doubt the best VG e-liquid in the UK. View Here
Pros:
- Fewer ingredients – all medical grade quality
- 100% VG so maximum vapour for cloud chasers!
- Tested in EH/UK at bio-science facility at the university of Manchester
- Full European MSDS Certification
- Thinner VG liquid – wont clog up tanks
- Good throat hit
- Big vapour production
- Best alternative to PG E liquid
- CBD Oil – Pure, Organic CBD Vape Oil
KiK e-Liquid review
According to their website Kik e Cigs prides themselves on “quality, service & satisfaction”. We got hold of some Kik liquid and we tested with the basic ecig set-up as laid out above – standard CE4 Atomizer and standard battery of high quality.
We tested their top range “Gold Tobacco 16 mg” from Kik, filled our tank and got vaping.
First impressions were okay, smoke production was fairly typical, an improvement over the cheap ones you get at the supermarket, but definitely not in the same league as the other two e liquids.
The KIK flavour was really good, really smoke like taste with a hint of something else. Couldn’t put my finger on what it was.
KiK vape juice ingredients
Looking further into the information regarding the liquids from Kik I found the following information:
“Four ingredients. There’s more ingredients than that in a loaf of bread“. And they list 4 ingredients, however one of them is “flavourings”! Since they have over 20 flavours the term “flavourings” means that there are a number of ingredients withing the “flavourings” and these are not listed.
That is pretty much all the information I could find, this really worries me. I want to know what I am inhaling. Even more of a puzzle is that they do the”Gold” version of e-liquid which is supposedly better in every way. “This stuff is the gold standard of e-liquid.” So what makes their Cloud juice and the Kik Standard e liquids inferior to their Gold vape juice then?
Again this raises more questions than it answers, what does the regular KIK e liquid contain, and is that not mixed by master chemists? Just regular chemists for the regular liquid then…
I like transparency in a company, I don’t see this with KiK – I think they are targeting the “cool” market and want to come across stylish, is sufficient attention given to the quality of all the Kik e liquids? Perhaps this image of Helen Flanagan says it all:
Pros:
- Prices are reasonably very low
- A massive array of KIK liquids & Flavours
- Price vary from £2.49 – £11.00
Cons:
- The information on KIK liquid is far too limited
- No idea what testing is done on the liquid
- No idea what is even in the liquid with any certainty
- Lower quality than competition?
Conclusion
For us the real runway winner is V2 e liquid, with the highest quality gourmet e-Liquids, batch testing and complete openness about the ingredients.
If you like or need pure VG or just like big vapour clouds, Vsavi offer the cleanest purest range of VG e liquids.
If you are experimenting with obscure flavours then you could try really funky flavours at any of the recommended on-line e-juice shops. But buyer beware you wont get to know exactly what you are vaping – stick to V2 juice for a great consistent vaping experience. You can Find out more about V2 e juices here.