Nicotine salt e-liquids are the newest trend in vaping, and they’re quickly gaining popularity among Australian vapers. Nicotine salt e-liquids have a higher nicotine content than regular vape juice, so you need to use less to experience the same effects as traditional vape juices.
With nicotine salts, you can enjoy an experience closer to smoking without any harsh throat hit or dry mouth sensation that some find unpleasant. And now, it just got easier! This blog post will provide information on what nicotine salts are, how they work, and where you can find them in Australia.
We also offer reviews of our favourite brands so you can make an informed decision about which brand suits your needs best!
1st Place
Simply Salts
Great fruit flavours nic-salt range of vape juice, blended in New Zealand to suit Australian vapers.
Best Nicotine Salts For Australia
If there’s one thing you can be sure is going to perk up a vaper’s interest, it’s a new type of e-juice. Now, nicotine salt has only been in the vape community for a relatively short time, but it’s grabbed some significant attention.
Right now, we’ll be going over our overall best nicotine salt e-liquids on the market. But if you want to know a little more about why this new juice has got vapers talking, see the buying guide below.
#1 Simply Salts
PRO’S
- Sweet, sublime, and refreshing
- Doesn’t have that menthol burn
- Comparable to breathing a sorbet
CON’S
- Not recommended for sub ohming
Simply Salts is a brand that is well known for their delectably scrumptious flavors. Critically acclaimed throughout the vaping community, their nic salt lineup doesn’t disappoint. Coming in at nine different flavours, Simply Salt is available in 35 and 50mg worth of nicotine.
Now I know not everyone is a fan of menthol, but there’s just something about the mix of light, fruity flavours blending seamlessly with a fresh feeling exhale. The Brain Freeze provides exactly that.
Starting from the tip of the tongue, the most notable tasted is the sugary crispness of strawberry mixed with the juicy bubbling of crushed kiwi. Going further down, the slightly sour tartness of pomegranate marks the first stirrings of breezy menthol that tickles the throat.
Unlike what you might get in a freebase e-juice or a cigarette, there’s a surprising absence of that uncomfortable sensation of a simultaneously freezing and burning throat hit. It’s more like sitting on top of a freshly snowed mountain with nothing around you.
It’s an amazingly satisfying combination.
#2 CRFT SALT
PRO’S
- Simple, but bold flavor
- Doesn’t drown you in sugar
- Steeping greatly enhances the taste
CON’S
- There are few customization options
- Not meant for sub ohm use
- Flavour lacks some complexity
CRFT’s SALT line comes into this competition with a respectable ten flavours. This broad selection doesn’t go for anything fancy, but the word basic feels misleading to use.
Rather than that, I’d like to describe the flavours as being stripped down and refined to reflect into a standard selection that anyone can immediately purchase without too much thought.
If you like an apple flavor, get the CRFT SALT APPLE. If you like mint flavors, pick that one. Butterscotch candy? It’s a no brainer.
Instead of complicating the process of trying to understand a flavour profile based on an overly asinine name, CRFT makes it easy to just pick your favorite taste and move on.
In my case, I opted for CRFT’s SALT Mango. Like every other bottle, these come sized at 30mls and have a set nicotine strength of 40mg per dose. The first thing I picked upon after opening the bottle was the strong scent of ripened mango.
The taste was expectedly outstanding. I don’t often eat mango’s, but I am a huge fan of juice and smoothie products based on said fruit. This e-juice however, doesn’t fall into the trap you see most mango beverages fall into. The taste remains sweet, but it doesn’t feel like you’re guzzling down a cup of sugar with each draw of nic salt.
#3 Dinner Lady Salt
PRO’S
- Just as good as the original
- Choice between nicotine level
- Super smooth throat hit
CON’S
- Longtime fans might chain vape
- Not meant for sub ohm devices
- Juice container is not see through
Dinner Lady has reinvented three of their most popular flavours Blackberry Crumble, Cola Shades, and Lemon Tart for their new nicotine salt line.
While they don’t offer as quite an extensive list as other brands, what they do offer are fan favourite salt nic renditions of their notoriously wholesome products.
Coming in at 30mls to the bottle, this line offers a 50/50 PG to VG blend with a varying nicotine strength of 30 to 50mg.
I’m one of those vapers that has a difficult time just sticking with one nicotine dosage. Feeling a little frisky, I went ahead and got myself a bottle of a 50mg Lemon Tart so I could get that added kick to my day.
And woah. I think I might have overestimated my body’s tolerance for nicotine after a few weeks of 6mg because I immediately felt a bit lightheaded from the get go.
The feeling was definitely something comparable to burning down a cigarette after months of strictly vaping, so I had to continue my review with a sense of caution.
The funny part about that added slowness is that once I got used to the nicotine’s strength, I nearly forgot about my cautious approach. Now, I’ve tried Lemon Tart before, and it was mind blowingly good.
This version of Dinner Lady’s famous e-liquid flavour was just as crumbly, sweet, and delightfully sour. I had to remind myself on multiple occasions to slow down before I had to park my unprepared rear down on the curb for a few minutes!
#4 SOLACE Salts
PRO’S
- Great placebo for morning coffee
- A subtly good kind of flavour
CON’S
- Not actually a coffee substitute
- Might cause chain vaping
Making a decision here was tremendously difficult. Though SOLACE Salts follow the same type of marketing pattern as CRAFT, this brand’s lineup boasts an impressive 12 different flavours.
These bottles come in either 15 or 30mls, and you also have a choice between 30 or 50mgs of of nicotine.
So first off, there are a lot of flavours to pick from. All of them are simple, offering short descriptors of the exact taste you’ll be getting for your money. Ironically, I had a difficult time actually picking a flavour that I wanted to try out.
Faced with indecision, I went with Latte because it felt poetic. Sit down, drink some coffee, and wait for the next exciting event of your life to come knocking. Funny enough, that’s how I would describe this particular flavour.
I can’t say that anything in particular about SOLACE’s Latte jumped out at me, but that isn’t a negative in my book. Sometimes you just need a moment to wake up, get your head together, and a nice cup of hot caffeine to get you ready for the day.
One of the first things I do after waking up is to grab my device for the day, put some grinds in the coffee maker, and numbly sit by the counter in a daze while blankly puffing away.
I barely even noticed what I was doing, and was halfway into drinking my coffee while frying up some breakfast before realising I needed a free hand to crack an egg.
Turns out that my coffee was still waiting to be poured and I’d had my pod in my hand the whole time. Pretty spiffy.
#5 I Love Salts
PRO’S
- Low and high nicotine options
- Initial taste is good if sweet
CON’S
- No inbetween nicotine dosage
The new high nicotine line from Mad Hatter comes in a variety of different flavours including Spearmint Gum, Fruit Cereal, Sweet Tobacco, and the product I picked, Blue Raspberry.
This line comes in 30ml bottles with your choice of 25 or 50mg worth of nicotine.
This particular blend comes at a 50/50 PG to VG ratio, and like the other salt liquids I’ve tried, is a very smooth ride.
Sadly I can’t say the same about the flavour. It’s not terrible or anything, but there is a little too much sweetness for my taste which makes it tastes like candy with a hint of blueberry.
This wouldn’t be too large of an issue for me, but there is a strong, sweet aftertaste that slowly fades into something I’d consider to be mildly unpalatable.
It’s nothing having some water on hand won’t fix and the juice is otherwise fine, but this one isn’t my favorite of the bunch.
#6 Caktus Salts
PRO’S
- Suitable for pod vaping
- Thick liquid lasts longer
- Great throat hit
CON’S
- No dessert flavours
The Caktus Salts line offers 10 fruity and tobacco flavours of nic salt vape juice. Able to be purchased in 30ml bottles, what puts this brand on the list is the year round bundle deals that are available.
The regular stuff comes in 20 or 40 mgs, with discounts on 4 or more bottles.
Deciding to buck the trend, for this one I decided to take a shot at one of ten 20mg flavours I could find. Specifically, I chose Strawkiwi.
At 50/50 VG to PG, I expected this e-juice to offer a slightly harder throat hit compared to other 50/50 salts, but I found myself pleasantly surprised. If there was any noticeable difference compared to the other products I’ve been reviewing, I can’t point to anything obvious.
The flavour was expectedly good as well. The citrusy tang of the kiwi and strawberries were delicately offset by just a touch of sweetness that really put this one up on the “try again” list.
#7 Beard Salts
PRO’S
- Excellent and smooth taste
- Great for former smokers
CON’S
- Lock away that “emergency” lighter
Beard Vape is well known and fun brand of e-juice that provides any number of “beard flavours” to match your palette.
Like other brands, they’ve recently opened a line of nicotine salt e-liquid that goes by the expectantly on the nose name of “Beard Salts”. Their bottles come in the standard 30ml size and a choice between 30 and 50mgs of nicotine.
Well, I’ve tried latte so I might as well round it up with a cappuccino type flavour. Much as I did with the latte, I woke up, picked up my pod, and went to town while brewing my morning coffee.
The difference was that this juice had a little bit more of a kick with the taste of tobacco mixed in. Speaking from experience, the wake up cigarette is the crowning portion of a smoker’s day.
The rush of nicotine fortifies your heart, clogs up your lungs with spine strengthening grit, and the ever present veil of smoky aroma lets everyone know that you’re in business.
Tobaccoccino does much much the same without filling up your lungs with tar. Or letting everyone you walk past know that you just came from a smoke break.
It even provides the nostalgic aftertaste of coffee and a cigarette to put you in that do or die mindset.
My Overall Winner
NKD 100 Salt Brain Freeze is my top choice here. While it’s not my absolute favourite flavour, that being the Tobaccoccino, taste isn’t my main qualifier here.
My primary use for nicotine salt is for those times where I can’t afford to sit around and chain vape all day. The Brain Freeze is perfect for this task. It’s tasty enough to be pleasant, hits strong enough for me to get my necessary nicotine, and then I’m back to work.
If I were to go with the coffee and tobacco blend, I’d be jittering at my desk just counting down the time for my next vape break instead of focusing on the stuff I need to get done.
NICOTINE SALT JUICE BUYING GUIDE
What is Nicotine salt, Anyway?
Well, let’s get one thing straight first. Nicotine salt might sound like something that would signal the return of a certain high school teacher gone bad might use as a returning plot device, the reality isn’t anything quite so exhilarating.
No Suspicious Cooking Here! It’s All Naturale!
Sorta.
The term “nicotine salt e-liquid” is something of a misnomer since you can find it in your regular cigarette. The important part about why freebase liquid has been the standard for so long is that you can’t vape pure nicotine salt straight up without coughing your lungs out. You need something to help neutralise the harshness.
In this case, benzoic acid would be that catalyst.
Is anyone getting melted tub flashbacks yet?
Jokes aside, nicotine salts have been around pretty much since tobacco leaves have been a thing. The reason is that nicotine salt is the natural state you would find said chemical if you closely examine a tobacco plant.
Regarding e-juice, the standard type of PG/VG liquid that most people use in their vape pens is freebase nicotine.
This type of e-liquid was initially developed because nicotine salt is considered a more stable form of the chemical. However, it requires a higher temperature to vaporise properly than its freebase form.
So, why even use Salt-E at all?
Breaking Out the Chemistry Books
Opposite what you would think, adding a small amount of benzoic acid to nicotine salt results in less throat hit.
Why though?
Interestingly enough, the chemical reaction that irritates the throat has to do with PH level. The higher the PH, the harsher the throat hit, and freebase nicotine has a high alkalinity value of around 7-8 PH.
So by adding a small amount of the very same acid you’d find in cranberries, you can lower that PH value to create a smoother vaping experience.
Better yet, this doesn’t affect the strength of the nicotine inside the liquid. This acidic additive is also what causes the formation of nic salt.
Advantages of Nicotine Salt over Freebase
Beyond a much smoother vape hit, using e-salt fluid has another significant advantage.
You can absorb a much higher volume of nicotine per pull when compared to the freebase stuff. Beyond there being nicotine on average inside salt liquid, it’s been proven that nicotine juice gets into the bloodstream faster than its contemporary rival.
This is good news for former smokers who haven’t had luck switching to vaping.
The rate of nicotine absorption into the bloodstream more closely resembles that of a cigarette compared to a vape pen using freebase e-juice.
If you or someone you know has been having difficulties transitioning to vaping, it wouldn’t be a bad idea to try out e-salt.
Vaping in this way is much closer to lighting up a smoke.
If the primary reason you haven’t been able to swap over wholly is that you aren’t getting the same “feeling” of a cigarette, I think it’s worth at least trying out this avenue before calling it quits.
How to Vape Nicotine Salts
There are a couple of things to go over before heading over to your local vape shop and buying a bottle of nic salt.
The most important tip to remember is that the amount of nicotine you’ll be breathing in will be way higher than you’re going to be used to.
I do not recommend using nic salt with a high powered sub-ohm device. At least, not unless you purchase fluid designed for sub-ohm devices.
It’s not so much of a problem if you’re going to be buying locally from vendors you’re familiar with, but it’s doubly important to do your research before making an online purchase.
If you’re going to sub-ohm, get a juice with a lower nicotine level of 6mg to 15mg. This is especially the case if you chain vape or are looking to puff out entire cloud formations at ground level.
I wholly endorse smokers looking to switch to try nic salt with a low powered pod vape.
Said vapes better emulate the mouth to lung technique that many smokers use, and there is less danger of nicotine poisoning even if you use a higher salt strength of 25mg or 50mg.
