E-liquids change color as a result of degradation that can be accelerated by exposure to light and oxygen. If you’ve ever noticed your vape juice turning brown, this is why it happens.
For reference, the browning is less the result of nicotine’s degradation than it is the result of other ingredients contained within the e-liquid degrading.
As a result, some e-liquid manufacturers suggest keeping an airtight lid on your e-juice bottles, using dark glass containers to store them, and always keeping them in a cool dark place like a fridge or freezer. This is also why you might not to load much excess into your vape tank or cartridge at a time (because they allow light and oxygen to potentially mix with your juice, causing it to undergo the degradation process more rapidly).
Separately, some are advising against using plastic bottles to store e-liquids as such containers have been known to leach into the liquid that they’re storing.
As for the color change seen in aging vape juice, some suspect that it’s actually the flavorings used in e-juices that are primarily responsible.
Notably, some vapers have been known to intentionally expose their vape juices to air and light in a deliberate attempt to alter the flavor.
In some cases, vape juices can turn so brown that they actually become almost black in appearance.
Is Brown E-Juice Expired?
While it may look it, it’s not necessarily bad. A quick smell may offer more of an indication than a quick glance at an e-juice’s color when it comes to determining whether or not its worth vaping.
Given that there’s no industry standard on e-juice expiration dates, some believe it safe to assume that the shelf life of the ingredients used in e-juice blends can be used as a benchmark for setting an expiration date. And based on the fact that most e-juices contain either propylene glycol (PG) or vegetable glycerin (VG), if not some combination of the two, some have assumed e-juices to expire after approximately two years as both PG and VG have two-year shelf lives.
Ultimately, it may simply be up to the vaper to determine whether or not a given juice is good to vape or ready to be replaced.
At what point do you consider e-juice expired?
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