What Are The Different Types Of Eliquids? Shortfills, 10ml and TPD Explained.

The Law

Juice containing nicotine for vape devices used to come in many different sized bottles but changes in the law stopped this practice.

While the United Kingdom was in the European Union, we had to adopt the EU’s Tobacco Products Directive (TPD) into our own legislation.

The TPD demanded that nicotine containing e-liquids could only be sold in 10ml bottles and had to contain a warning on the packaging. The industry had (by and large) already voluntarily adopted the practice of using child-proof caps on the bottles already.

It remained legal to supply nicotine-free eliquid in larger volume bottles. Consumers were able to buy these and then add a nicotine solution to them. The large bottles of nicotine-free e-liquid became known as “shortfills” and the nicotine solution (supplied in 10ml bottles) became known as “nic shots”.

The UK government is currently reforming the legislation now we have left the European Union. It is likely there will be changes to the law applicable to shortfill eliquids but we will not know what until sometime around November.

Are there issues with 10ml bottles?

One thing the EU failed to consider in its TPD was the impact of waste by changing how people could buy e-liquid.

Recyclable 30ml to 100ml glass bottles were replaced by millions of disposable 10ml plastic bottles. All of this plastic waste now gets deposited as landfill. Making up 100ml of 3mg e-liquid using a shortfill and 10ml nic shot bottles means throwing away two plastic bottles, two cardboard packaging and the warning leaflets contained within.

If people were allowed to buy larger volume nicotine containing bottles again it would be possible to reduce the impact on the environment again.

Shortfills for Direct To Lung Vaping

Manabush provides a range of e-liquids aimed at either the direct-to-lung (DTL) vaper or MTL Vapers – our 50ml Base Zero, Cola Divergent, and Coconut Divergent shortfills can all be used with either a 50/50 Nic Shot for MTL or a 100VG Nic Shot for DTL.

The MTL/DTL shortfills come as a 50ml shortfill that will use one nic shot to produce 3mg

We also supply a range of 30ml shortfills that contain 20ml of liquid. Adding one nic shot to these will produce a 6mg shortfill.

On top of this - in certain ranges (mainly our Tobacco Ranges) we also do a 30ml shortfill that contains 10ml of liquid and uses 2 Nic Shots to create a finished 12mg Liquid.

DTL shortfills tend to contain more Vegetable Glycerine (VG) than Propylene Glycol (PG) as VG produces bigger clouds.

Shortfills for Mouth To Lung Vaping

MTL vaping was often overlooked when it came to shortfills and so we created a range for the mouth-to-lung vaper – our 30ml shortfills.

For those looking for a 6mg e-liquid, 20ml is provided in a 30ml bottle and a single nic shot will create a 6mg shortfill. 

For 12mg vapers, the 30ml bottle contains 10ml of more concentrated liquid to which the user will add two nic shots and create a 12mg shortfill.