Todd Sumamno
Vape juice has always been the most important commodity in the vaping industry – and when vaping became an international phenomenon in the early 2010s, the number of e-liquid makers increased in a big way. There are probably hundreds of companies around the world making vape juice today, and each one has its own distinctive branding. While the vape juice industry is full of flavor variation, though, design conventions have evolved over the years and have helped to give the products a consistent visual appearance. The designs have evolved so slowly, though, that you may not have noticed the changes unless you were observing the industry closely.
So, how have vape juice bottles evolved since vaping began about 15 years ago? Here are some of the biggest changes that have taken place since then.
The Original Vape Juice Bottles were Fairly Nondescript
The first e-liquid bottles were often fairly plain compared to the products of today. Companies typically used the same label design for all of their products, and the flavor names on the bottles were often the only differences between two products from the same manufacturer. The fact that the early e-liquid bottles were so plain probably had a lot to do with the fact that the first vaping products to exist were simple e-cigarette kits imported from China. The manufacturers often made many different types of products and didn’t necessarily specialize in vape juice. The lack of product specialization meant that the packages often looked fairly utilitarian.
During the early years of vaping, small e-liquid bottles with capacities around 10-15 ml were standard. Since the vaping devices available during that time produced fairly small clouds, a small bottle could last several days – so there was little demand for larger bottles. Many people in those days didn’t even buy bottled e-liquid at all, preferring to use e-cigarettes with pre-filled flavor cartridges instead. Until about 2011, child-resistant bottles were very rare. Also, most e-liquid bottles didn’t have outer boxes.
Child-Resistant Packaging Quickly Became the Norm
In the early 2010s, the United States became the first market in which vaping really began to take hold. Most vaping hardware was still made in China, so entrepreneurs in the United States who wanted to enter the vaping industry often did so by becoming vape juice makers. During this time, most of the e-liquid companies in the United States quickly began using bottles with child-resistant caps for safety and in anticipation of future government regulation.
E-liquid bottles also started to become larger during the early 2010s, with most companies switching from bottles in the range of 10-15 ml to 30-ml bottles. Because so many new e-liquid brands appeared at around the same time, the competition between brands was fierce. Companies were forced to lower their prices as a result. Selling vape juice in larger bottles allowed companies to make around the same amount of money while charging lower prices per ml.
Glass Bottles Came to Signify Premium Products
As the competition between e-liquid brands began to heat up, companies increasingly needed to find ways to differentiate their products from those of their competitors. Around 2012-2015, higher-priced brands began to switch from plastic to glass bottles as a way to make their products more appealing for the premium segment of the market. Filling a vape tank with an eyedropper was somewhat inconvenient, but the vaping devices of that time didn’t hold as much e-liquid and didn’t produce as much vapor per puff as the devices that people use today – so it wasn’t necessary to refill tanks as often as it is now.
During this time, it also became more common for e-liquid bottles to have outer boxes in order to protect the delicate glass. Although the majority of vape juice bottles are now plastic rather than glass, some companies still package their bottles in cardstock boxes because a box allows greater room for branding.
As Bottles Got Bigger, Preferences Returned to Plastic
After about 2015, sub-ohm vaping truly began to take hold. Vaping devices rapidly increased in power, and many people began to use lower-nicotine e-liquids because their devices had such enormous vapor production. The 30-ml e-liquid bottles of the past were no longer large enough for many people, so bottle sizes of 100 and 120 ml became more common. Since glass bottles of those sizes were impractical, most e-liquid companies switched back to plastic bottles at this point. Although glass bottles were previously thought to signify premium products, most people had no issue with the switch back to plastic because it’s much easier to fill a large vape tank with a squeeze bottle. The price of vape juice per ml decreased rapidly during this period.
During the period from about 2015-2019, vape juice makers worked hard to outdo one another with increasingly bright and colorful labels that stood out on store shelves. It was common during these years for vape juice labels to parody the designs of popular foods and beverages. After 2019, though, that marketing strategy rapidly fell out of favor.
Vape Juice Label Designs Have Changed with the Times
Starting around 2019-2020, vape juice bottle designs evolved into the more understated and mature style that’s most commonly seen today. Bright colors became less common. Vape juice makers generally stopped parodying popular food and drink labels because those companies began to notice the potential trademark infringements and complain about them.
Today, the world of vape juice has a design language all its own. There are now two forms of e-liquid. There’s nicotine salt – which tends to have higher nicotine strengths and ship in smaller bottles – and there’s freebase nicotine, which has lower strengths and ships in larger bottles. Regardless of the nicotine type, virtually all e-liquid bottles are now plastic. Companies have created labels that are distinct and recognizable from a distance, even though those labels generally don’t use bright colors and don’t attempt to look like existing candy, cereal or beverage brands. It’s likely that this is the direction in which the vape juice industry will continue to evolve for the foreseeable future.
Brittany
