What Is in a Vape? The Ingredient List, Brand by Brand
Every disposable vape we stock runs on the same short recipe: propylene glycol, vegetable glycerin, flavoring, and, in the 5% editions, nicotine salt. What differs from brand to brand is how much of that recipe the brand actually publishes, and whether it says anything about diacetyl. This page reports what Geek Bar, Foger (often spelled Fogger), RAZ, Lost Mary and Flum disclose, explains what each ingredient does, and shows how to read an ingredient line on the box. It describes contents. It does not hand out safety verdicts. Published September 17, 2026.
Quick Answer
What is in a disposable vape: a liquid made of propylene glycol (PG), vegetable glycerin (VG), food-grade flavor compounds, and nicotine salt, which is nicotine bonded to an acid, usually benzoic acid. Many recipes add sucralose for sweetness and a cooling agent such as WS-23 for "ice" flavors. Around the liquid sits a lithium-ion battery, a mesh coil, a cotton wick and a sealed tank.
What the brands publish: Foger publishes the most detail, including a per-batch lab certificate that tests for diacetyl. Geek Bar, RAZ and Lost Mary each publish a four-ingredient list and each states that diacetyl is not used. Flum, Off-Stamp, Nexa and Lost Angel publish no ingredient list on their brand sites that we could find, so for those brands the honest entry is "not published by the brand."
What is not in any of them: tobacco leaf, THC, CBD, or vitamin E acetate. Nicotine is addictive and no vape is risk-free; the brands themselves say the second part in almost those words.
The E-Liquid Base: PG, VG, Flavoring and Nicotine Salt
Start with the liquid, because that is what "ingredients" means to most people asking. Whatever the brand, the reservoir of a nicotine disposable holds four ingredient classes, and the first two make up almost all of the volume.
Propylene glycol (PG) is the thinner of the two carrier liquids. It dissolves flavor compounds well, wicks quickly through cotton, and produces the sensation at the back of the throat that vapers call the hit. RAZ and Geek Bar both describe their PG as USP grade, the purity specification used in pharmaceutical and food manufacturing. Vegetable glycerin (VG) is thicker and faintly sweet on its own. It is what turns into the visible cloud. Foger, RAZ and Lost Mary all describe their blends as VG-leaning; Lost Mary puts the typical range at 60 to 70 percent VG for most of its models, and Foger says the ratio is set to suit its dual-mesh coil. If you want the long version of how those two liquids trade off against each other, our PG/VG guide covers it.
Flavoring is the line that reads "natural and artificial flavors" on nearly every box and hides nearly all of the chemistry that makes one flavor differ from another. Every brand on this page describes its flavorings as food-grade, meaning the same compound families used in candy, drinks and baked goods. Two additives commonly ride along in this line. The first is a sweetener: RAZ and Foger both name sucralose, a non-caloric sweetener, and both say plainly that there is no sugar in the liquid. Sugar would caramelize on a coil long before it reached the mouthpiece. The second is a cooling agent. The cold feeling in an "ice" flavor usually comes from a synthetic cooling compound such as WS-23 rather than from menthol, which is why an iced watermelon tastes like cold fruit rather than like gum; the difference between mint, menthol and ice is its own subject in our mint vs menthol vs ice explainer.
Nicotine salt is the fourth ingredient in a 5% device. Freebase nicotine at 50 mg/mL would be harsh to inhale, so manufacturers bond it to an acid to lower the pH and smooth the draw. RAZ describes its nicotine salt as freebase nicotine plus benzoic acid; Foger says its salt form is benzoate or lactate depending on the batch. Either way, "5%" and "50 mg/mL" on a box mean the same concentration. Lost Mary is the one brand here that also lists a 2% (20 mg/mL) tier on select MT15000 Turbo flavors. Geek Bar's Burj 80K, a shisha-style device, is listed at 0.5%. Everything else in these catalogs is either 5% or 0%.
Vape Ingredients Table: 5% Disposables vs 0mg Editions
The table below lists every ingredient class you will meet in a mainstream disposable, what it does, and whether it appears in the nicotine version and in the zero-nicotine edition of the same device. Geek Bar, RAZ and Lost Mary all sell 0mg editions of existing hardware, and each says the 0mg liquid is the same base with the nicotine salt removed. That is the logic behind the two right-hand columns.
| Ingredient | Role | Present in nicotine disposables? | Present in 0mg editions? |
|---|---|---|---|
| Propylene glycol (PG) | Thin carrier; dissolves flavor, wicks fast, gives the throat feel | Yes | Yes |
| Vegetable glycerin (VG) | Thick carrier; produces the visible vapor and a mild sweet base | Yes | Yes |
| Flavor compounds | Food-grade natural and artificial flavors that define the profile | Yes | Yes, usually the same concentrate |
| Sucralose | Sweetener; boosts candy and fruit profiles without sugar | In many recipes (RAZ and Foger name it) | In many recipes |
| Cooling agent (WS-23 or similar) | The cold sensation in "ice" flavors without a mint taste | In ice flavors | In ice flavors |
| Menthol | Mint-flavored cooling in menthol-labeled flavors | In menthol flavors | In menthol flavors |
| Water | Trace component of food-grade PG/VG; thins some recipes | Trace | Trace |
| Nicotine | The active, addictive ingredient | Yes, 50 mg/mL at 5% (20 mg/mL at 2%) | No, 0 mg |
| Benzoic acid (or lactic acid) | Bonds with nicotine to form nicotine salt | Yes, in salt formulas | No |
| Diacetyl | Buttery flavor compound; the ingredient people ask about | Not used, per Geek Bar, Foger, RAZ and Lost Mary | Not used, per the same brands |
Read the last two ingredient rows together and the 0mg story is simple. A zero-nicotine edition drops the nicotine and, because the acid has no job without it, drops the acid too. Nothing is swapped in. The Geek Bar Pulse 15K Zero Nic is the clearest example: Geek Bar says it is the same Pulse chassis and the same flavor selector with the nicotine salt left out. You can browse every 0mg device we carry in the nicotine-free vape collection.
Geek Bar Ingredients: What Is in a Geek Bar
"Geek bar ingredients," "what is in a geek bar," "what is a geek bar made of" and "geek bar ingredients list" are the same question in four wordings, and Geek Bar answers it with a four-line list on its ingredients page. The e-liquid is propylene glycol, vegetable glycerin, nicotine salt, and flavor compounds. Nicotine salt is 5% (50 mg/mL) on the standard devices, which Geek Bar names as the Pulse 15K, Pulse X 25K, CLR 50K and Mate 60K, and 0% on the Pulse Zero Nicotine. The brand states that no tobacco leaf is used: the nicotine is delivered as a salt, not as any part of a plant.
Geek Bar also publishes the grade of its carriers. The VG and PG are described as USP grade, with specific limits on water content, heavy metals and microbial contamination, and the brand notes that the nicotine salt in 5% devices is purity-tested. On the "geek bar pulse ingredients" question specifically, the Pulse line uses the same liquid as the rest of the lineup; what changes between Pulse, Pulse X and CLR is the hardware and the flavor menu, not the base recipe. Our Geek Bar Pulse flavor rankings cover the menu side.
Two absences that Geek Bar states outright: formaldehyde is not an ingredient in the liquid, and ethanol is not a listed ingredient, though the brand acknowledges that flavor concentrates used across the industry can carry trace ethanol as a carrier solvent. On hardware, Geek Bar describes a plastic chassis, a stainless-steel mesh coil and a lithium-ion battery, and asks buyers to send the battery to e-waste recycling rather than household trash.
Do Geek Bars Have Diacetyl?
This is the single most-searched ingredient question in the whole vape category, and it arrives in at least eight spellings: "do geek bars have diacetyl," "is diacetyl in geek bars," "does geek bar have diacetyl," "do geek bars contain diacetyl," "is there diacetyl in geek bars," "does geek bar use diacetyl," "geek bar diacetyl" and "diacetyl in geek bar." Geek Bar's published answer to all of them is no. The brand says its e-liquid formulations are diacetyl-free per Geekvape manufacturer specifications, that diacetyl is excluded from its recipes across the whole catalog, and that buyers wanting documentation can request the Material Safety Data Sheet from Geekvape customer service. The MSDS, per Geek Bar, lists the explicit absence of diacetyl, acetoin and acetyl propionyl, the three related compounds usually grouped together.
Here is what diacetyl is and why people ask. Diacetyl is a naturally occurring compound with a buttery taste, used for decades in food flavoring. In the 2000s, workers at microwave popcorn plants who inhaled large amounts of heated butter flavoring developed bronchiolitis obliterans, a serious lung condition that picked up the nickname "popcorn lung." In the early 2010s, diacetyl turned up in some e-liquids, mostly custard and dessert profiles, and the topic became permanent search demand. Mainstream disposable makers have formulated without it for years, and Geek Bar, Foger, RAZ and Lost Mary all say so. The candid caveat, which Geek Bar's own retail-side page makes, is that "diacetyl-free" is a manufacturer statement; only Foger among these brands points to a per-batch lab certificate you can look up yourself.
Foger (Fogger) Vape Ingredients
One spelling note first: Foger is the brand name on the box, and Fogger is the way many people search and say it. Both words mean the same devices, the Bit 35K disposable and the Switch Pro 30K pod system, and this section uses both. Foger publishes the most detailed ingredient disclosure of any brand on this page, which is why "foger vape ingredients," "what is in a foger vape," "fogger ingredients vape" and "foger vape ingredients list" all resolve to the same clear answer.
Foger lists four ingredients: USP food-grade vegetable glycerin, USP food-grade propylene glycol, nicotine salt at 5% (50 mg/mL), and food-grade flavor concentrates, with trace water as a natural component of the carriers. The salt carrier is benzoic acid (benzoate) or lactate depending on the batch. Sweetness comes from the flavor concentrates plus a small amount of sucralose; Foger states there is no sucrose, glucose or fructose in the liquid. The blend is VG-leaning and matched to the dual-mesh coil in the Switch Pro and Bit. Every Foger SKU is 5%; the brand says it makes no 0%, 2% or 3% edition, so if you want a zero-nicotine device you are looking at a different brand. Foger's flavor menu itself lives on our Foger vape flavors guide.
On the "do foger vapes have diacetyl" and "do fogger vapes have diacetyl" questions, Foger's answer is no, and it is the one brand here that backs the answer with a document. Each batch ships with a Certificate of Analysis that tests for diacetyl, acetyl propionyl and acetoin, with results reported below the lab's detection threshold, which Foger gives as roughly 0.001 mg per puff. The same certificate reports formaldehyde below detection under a standard puff regimen. Foger states the liquid contains no vitamin E acetate, no THC, no CBD and no cannabinoid of any kind. The certificate for a specific batch is reached by scanning the QR code on the pod's cellophane and looking it up on Foger's authenticity page, which is also how the brand answers "what is in foger vape juice" for the exact pod in your hand.
RAZ and Lost Mary Ingredients
RAZ and Lost Mary publish similar four-line lists, and both add explicit statements about what is left out, so they fit together in one section. Both also sell zero-nicotine editions, which matters for the "what is in a nicotine free vape" question further down.
RAZ vape ingredients. RAZ describes exactly four core ingredients with no fillers or cutting agents: USP pharmaceutical-grade vegetable glycerin, USP pharmaceutical-grade propylene glycol, nicotine salts, and food-grade flavorings sweetened with sucralose. Nicotine is 5% (50 mg/mL) on every standard device; RAZ says it sells no concentration between 0% and 5%. The Zero Nicotine editions, on TN9000 and DC25000 hardware, use the same VG/PG base and the same flavorings minus the nicotine salts, and are collected on our RAZ nicotine-free page. On "do raz vapes have diacetyl," RAZ states its devices are tested to be free of diacetyl, vitamin E acetate and THC, and its ingredient table adds that formaldehyde is not present, that no sugar is added, and that the hardware includes a rechargeable lithium-ion battery charged over USB-C. RAZ also invites buyers to email for lab test certificates and supplier documents with a device serial, so documentation exists on request even though it is not posted per batch the way Foger's is.
Lost Mary vape ingredients. Lost Mary lists vegetable glycerin derived from plant oils (soy, coconut or palm), propylene glycol, nicotine salts, and food-grade flavorings. Strengths are 5% (50 mg/mL) on most devices, 2% (20 mg/mL) on select MT15000 Turbo flavors, and 0% on the MT35000 Turbo Zero Nicotine, which sits in our Lost Mary nicotine-free collection. The brand states that diacetyl and acetyl propionyl are excluded from all its formulas, that there is no THC or CBD, and that there is no sugar. It puts the typical ratio at 60 to 70 percent VG, and notes that the Ultrasonic 35K, which atomizes liquid with ultrasonic vibration rather than a heated coil, runs a slightly different composition matched to that method. Lost Mary is also the brand that answers "do lost mary vapes have metal in them" directly: none in the liquid, but the coil and contacts in the hardware are metal, as in every vape.
Ingredients by Brand: Who Publishes What
This is the table people actually want when they search "geek bar ingredients" against "raz vape ingredients" against "lost mary ingredients." It reports only what each brand publishes on its own site as of our September 2026 review. "Not published by the brand" means exactly that: we could not find an ingredient line or a diacetyl statement, and we are not going to invent one. It is not a statement that the product contains anything in particular.
| Brand | What the brand publishes about ingredients | Diacetyl statement |
|---|---|---|
| Geek Bar | Four-ingredient list (PG, VG, nicotine salt, flavor compounds); USP-grade carriers; 5% standard, 0% Pulse Zero Nicotine, 0.5% Burj 80K; no tobacco leaf; formaldehyde and ethanol not listed ingredients; hardware described as plastic chassis, stainless-steel mesh coil, lithium-ion battery | Published: not used, per Geekvape manufacturer specifications; MSDS available on request |
| Foger (Fogger) | Four-ingredient list (USP VG, USP PG, 5% nicotine salt, food-grade flavor concentrates) plus trace water and sucralose; benzoate or lactate salt carrier; VG-leaning ratio; no 0% SKU; no vitamin E acetate, THC or CBD; per-batch Certificate of Analysis via QR code | Published: below detection for diacetyl, acetyl propionyl and acetoin on each batch certificate; formaldehyde below detection |
| RAZ | Four core ingredients (USP VG, USP PG, nicotine salts, food-grade flavorings); sucralose, no sugar; 5% standard and 0% Zero Nicotine editions on TN9000 and DC25000; no vitamin E acetate, THC or CBD; formaldehyde stated not present; lab certificates available by email with device serial | Published: tested diacetyl-free |
| Lost Mary | Four ingredients (plant-derived VG, PG, nicotine salts, food-grade flavorings); 5%, 2% on select MT15000 Turbo flavors, 0% MT35000 Turbo Zero Nicotine; 60 to 70 percent VG typical; no THC, CBD or sugar; Ultrasonic 35K uses a different composition for coil-free atomization | Published: diacetyl and acetyl propionyl excluded from all formulas |
| Flum | Not published by the brand. The Flum site points readers to the FDA's tobacco products information and carries user reviews, but no ingredient line | Not published by the brand |
| Off-Stamp | Not published by the brand | Not published by the brand |
| Nexa | Not published by the brand. Nexa's site discusses battery and charging guidance with FDA references but no ingredient line | Not published by the brand |
| Lost Angel | Not published by the brand beyond a general statement that its products meet ingredient regulation; no ingredient line | Not published by the brand |
| Reign Bar | Not published by the brand; sold here as a 0mg line | Not published by the brand |
The pattern is worth stating plainly. The brands with the largest search footprints are the ones that publish, and the disclosure is nearly identical across them because the recipe is nearly identical. Where the table says "not published," the ingredient classes are almost certainly the same PG, VG, flavoring and nicotine salt as everyone else, but "almost certainly" is not a citation, so the table does not say it. If a brand in that lower group publishes a list, we will update the row. Readers comparing the two most-searched brands head to head can use the Geek Bar vs Foger comparison, which now has the ingredient side covered here.
What Is Not in a Nicotine Vape
The absences answer a large share of the "what is in a fogger vape" and "is olit hookah bad for you" style searches, because many of those searches are really asking whether the device is something other than a nicotine product. It is not. A mainstream nicotine disposable from any brand on this page contains none of the following.
Tobacco leaf. No vape contains leaf, cut tobacco, or smoke. The nicotine in a 5% device is extracted from tobacco or made synthetically and then delivered as a salt in liquid. Geek Bar, Lost Mary and RAZ each say so in their own words, and a tobacco-flavored liquid is a flavor blend, not an extract of the plant. THC, CBD or any cannabinoid. Foger, RAZ and Lost Mary each state this outright, and Foger adds that its batch certificate confirms it. Cannabis vapes are a separate product category with separate hardware; a Foger, a Geek Bar or a RAZ is a nicotine device or a 0mg flavor device, never a cannabis one. Vitamin E acetate. This thickening agent was tied to the 2019 EVALI lung injury outbreak and was found in illicit THC cartridges, not in nicotine e-liquid. Foger and RAZ both state it is not in their products, and it has no function in a PG/VG liquid, which needs no thickener. The FDA's page on e-cigarettes and other ENDS products is the reference point for how these products are defined.
Sugar. Sweet flavors taste sweet because of sucralose and flavor compounds. RAZ, Foger and Lost Mary all say there is no sugar in the liquid. Diacetyl, covered above, is stated as absent by every brand that publishes. Formaldehyde as an ingredient. Geek Bar, Foger and RAZ all say formaldehyde is not in the liquid; Geek Bar and Foger both explain that it can form in any vape if a coil overheats or runs dry, which is what a burnt taste signals, and that their draw-activated firing and coil design are meant to keep normal use below those conditions. That last point is a description of how the hardware is built, not a guarantee, and the brands frame it that way.
The Hardware: Battery, Mesh Coil, Cotton Wick, Tank
"What is in a geek bar" and "whats inside a geek bar" are sometimes literal: people want to know what they are holding, not only what they are inhaling. A disposable is a small sealed appliance with five parts, and the parts do not change between the nicotine and 0mg editions of a model.
The battery is a rechargeable lithium-ion cell, charged over USB-C on every current device from these brands. Geek Bar describes a metal cell casing and asks for e-waste disposal; RAZ notes the same cell type and asks buyers to keep devices away from heat and fire. The coil is a mesh heating element, a thin perforated sheet rather than a wound wire, because mesh heats a wide surface evenly at low temperature. Geek Bar specifies stainless steel; Foger uses a dual-mesh layout in the Switch Pro and Bit. Lost Mary's Ultrasonic 35K is the exception that proves the rule, replacing the heated coil with an ultrasonic transducer that vibrates liquid into aerosol. The wick is cotton or a cotton blend that carries liquid from the reservoir to the coil by capillary action; when it runs dry, you get the burnt taste. The tank, or reservoir, is the sealed plastic cavity that holds the e-liquid; Foger gives its Switch Pro pod as 19 mL and the Bit 35K as 21 mL. The shell is molded plastic, in most current devices with a small screen or LED that reports battery and liquid level.
The reason to know this: "do geek bars have metal in them" and "do lost mary vapes have metal in them" are answered by the hardware, not the liquid. The liquid contains no metal. The coil and the battery contacts are metal, and that is true of every vape ever sold. Lost Mary states that its coil materials are tested against material standards; RAZ describes non-reactive coil and housing materials. Neither is a lab report you can read, so the table above does not treat them as more than what they are: statements by the brand.
How to Read an Ingredient Line, and the "Are They Safe" Question
US vape packaging is not standardized the way a food label is, but the two lines that matter are consistent enough to rely on. The strength line is printed on the front and usually repeated on the side: 5% or 50 mg/mL for a full-strength device, 2% or 20 mg/mL on the few reduced-strength tiers, and 0mg, 0%, or "Zero Nicotine" on a nicotine-free edition. The ingredient line, when the brand prints one, reads something like "propylene glycol, vegetable glycerin, nicotine, benzoic acid, natural and artificial flavors" on a 5% liquid and drops the middle two entries on a 0mg liquid. A box that says "nicotine free" on the front but lists nicotine on the side is mislabeled, and a box carrying the nicotine addiction warning is a nicotine product whatever the front panel says. If an ingredient line is missing entirely, that brand belongs in the "not published" rows of the table above, and the brand's site is the place to ask.
Now the searches this page keeps attracting: "are foger vapes safe," "are foger vapes bad for you," "are raz vapes safe," "is foger vape safe," "are foggers safe vape," "are non nicotine vapes safe." We are going to answer them the way the brands answer them, because it is the only honest way. RAZ writes on its own homepage that no vape is risk-free and that RAZ does not claim to be. Geek Bar's retail page says the same thing in its first paragraph. This page can tell you that a Foger contains four ingredients and that its batch certificate reports diacetyl below detection; it cannot tell you that inhaling heated PG, VG and flavor compounds every day for years is without consequence, because that question is still being studied and no retailer is qualified to settle it. Nicotine is addictive, full stop, and a 5% device holds a large total amount of it. The NIDA DrugFacts page on vaping devices is a plain-language starting point if you want the research side rather than the ingredient side.
On the 0mg variant of the question, "what is in a nicotine free vape" and "whats in a no nic vape" have a shorter answer: PG, VG, flavoring, and any sweetener or cooling agent, with the nicotine and its acid removed. Geek Bar, RAZ and Lost Mary all say the 0mg liquid is the regular liquid minus the salt, and Reign Bar and Geek Bar's zero-nic editions are the two 0mg lines we sell most. Removing nicotine removes the addictive ingredient. It does not turn the rest into water vapor, and it does not make the "are non nicotine vapes safe" question go away; it changes what the question is about.