Quick Answer: A shortfill is a bottle of e-liquid that isn’t filled to the top — a 50mL shortfill usually comes in a 60mL bottle, and a 100mL shortfill in a 120mL bottle. That empty space is deliberate: it’s exactly enough room to add a 10mL nic shot, a small bottle of unflavoured high-strength nicotine, so you can bring the e-liquid up to a vapeable strength yourself.
Table of Contents
- What Is a Shortfill E-Liquid?
- What Is a Nic Shot?
- The Maths: How Much Nicotine Do You End Up With?
- How to Mix a Shortfill at Home
- Real Examples: Shortfills at VShop Dubai
- FAQs
Pick up a 60mL e-liquid bottle and give it a shake, and sometimes it sounds like there’s less liquid in there than the label suggests. That’s not a packaging shortcut — it’s a shortfill, and the gap is there on purpose.
What Is a Shortfill E-Liquid?
A shortfill is an e-liquid bottle filled short of its full capacity, leaving empty headroom inside. The most common sizes are a 50mL fill in a 60mL bottle, and a 100mL fill in a 120mL bottle — in both cases, the gap works out to roughly 10-20mL of free space. Most shortfills ship at 0mg nicotine (or occasionally a light 3mg), since the empty space is there specifically so you can add nicotine yourself rather than buying it pre-mixed at a single fixed strength.
What Is a Nic Shot?
A nic shot is a small 10mL bottle of unflavoured e-liquid at a high nicotine concentration, usually 18mg or 20mg freebase. You pour it into a shortfill bottle to raise the overall nicotine strength, and because it’s unflavoured, it doesn’t noticeably dilute or change the shortfill’s actual flavour — it just adds nicotine to the mix.
The Maths: How Much Nicotine Do You End Up With?
The ratios are fixed by the bottle sizes, so the maths is straightforward once you know the starting numbers:
| Shortfill size | Nic shots added | Final bottle size | Final strength |
| 50mL (0mg) | 1 × 10mL (18mg) | 60mL | ~3mg |
| 100mL (0mg) | 2 × 10mL (18mg) | 120mL | ~3mg |
One standard 18mg nic shot added to 50mL of 0mg e-liquid dilutes down to roughly 3mg across the combined 60mL — the nicotine gets spread across a much larger volume, so the final strength ends up far lower than the nic shot’s own concentration. Adding a second nic shot (where the bottle has room for it) pushes the final strength higher, but most shortfills are only sized for a single shot.
How to Mix a Shortfill at Home
- Check the headroom first. Only add as many nic shots as the bottle has empty space for — forcing in more than it can hold risks leaks and overshoots the intended strength.
- Pour the nic shot in, then cap and shake. A thorough shake spreads the nicotine evenly through the full volume rather than leaving it concentrated near the top.
- Let it settle for a few minutes before vaping. This isn’t full steeping, just enough time for the mix to even out.
- Label or date the bottle if you’re mixing several at once. Once mixed, a shortfill looks identical to any other bottle of e-liquid — easy to lose track of which one has nicotine added.
Real Examples: Shortfills at VShop Dubai
Shortfills aren’t a single fixed format — VShop Dubai carries both the classic 0mg-plus-nic-shot version and a lighter variant that ships partway there already:
Nasty Juice Slow Blow is the textbook example: a 50mL fill of pineapple, lime, and soda flavour in a 60mL bottle, shipped at 0mg with the full 10mL of headroom free for your own nic shot.
Pod Salt Cuban Creme takes a different approach — it ships already at a light 3mg rather than 0mg, but still leaves room for a 10mL nic shot if you want a stronger hit than that base 3mg gives you. Worth checking which version you’ve got before assuming every shortfill starts at zero.
Shop Shortfill E-Liquids
Browse real shortfill options and pick the nicotine strength that’s right for you.
FAQs
Why don’t shortfills just come pre-mixed at the strength I want?
Mostly flexibility — shipping one 0mg (or light) base bottle lets a single product serve vapers who want 0mg, 3mg, or higher, rather than stocking a separate SKU for every strength.
Can I vape a shortfill without adding a nic shot?
Yes — if it’s a 0mg shortfill, it vapes fine with no nicotine at all. Adding a nic shot is optional, not required.
What happens if I add two nic shots to a 50mL shortfill with room for only one?
You’ll either overfill the bottle or end up with a stronger final strength than the headroom was designed for — stick to the amount of empty space actually in the bottle.
Does the nic shot change the flavour?
Not noticeably — nic shots are unflavoured on purpose, so they add nicotine without meaningfully diluting or altering the shortfill’s own taste.
Is a mixed shortfill the same as buying pre-mixed nicotine salt e-liquid?
No — nic shots are freebase nicotine, not nicotine salt, so a mixed shortfill behaves like a freebase e-liquid, typically with a stronger throat hit at the same mg than an equivalent salt nic.
How long does a mixed shortfill last before the nicotine degrades?
Once mixed, treat it like any other freebase e-liquid — typically around a year in good storage conditions, cool and out of direct light.
For more on how nicotine types compare, see our freebase vs nicotine salt guide, or browse the full e-liquid range at VShop Dubai.