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FDA E-Liquid Label Information for E-Liquid Manufacturers and Social Media Marketers/Content Creators:

What counts is that you’re smoke-free today! Nothing wrong with a little nicotine, we must say that we are highly addicted to caffeine too and in California, coffee requires a cancer warning. ⚠️ 

For so long now, tobacco warning labels have been on the packs of smokes and other products containing nicotine that we’ve consumed; in over 100 countries, graphic shock images are forced to be a part of packaging on products containing nicotine. So when you think about our warning statement requirements, is it really that severe in comparison to the rest of the world? Most e-liquids contain nicotine that is derived from tobacco. Nicotine is an addictive chemical and is poisonous if handled improperly and can lead to death if over dosed. Regulations are a process every industry goes through and are meant to protect consumers and businesses in the long run. 

It is the manufacturer’s responsibility to make sure all packaging and labeling of their products that contain nicotine pass the FDA checklist and U.S. retailers and U.S. distributors can only sell products containing nicotine that are compliant moving forward. Consumers, influencers/promoters, photographers/film makers, all content producers are not responsible for applying these labels to their published content. It is only when a brand/manufacturer decides to publish the paid work from their contractors/employees, that the warning labels must be applied. It is 100% the manufacturer’s duty to ensure that their advertisements/marketing content is properly labeled and presented.

FDA Warning Label Information for U.S. E-liquid Manufacturers:

Required language must be punctuated, capitalized and centered as shown :

WARNING : This product contains nicotine.
Nicotine is an addictive chemical.

Display Panels : Warning labels must appear on 2 display panels of the packaging comprising 30% of the panels. 

Font : 12 point in Helvetica BOLD or Arial BOLD is best recommended.

Text & box color : If black text is on white background, statement must be boxed in black border with thickness of 3PT-4PT. If white text is on black background, statement must be boxed in white border with thickness of 3PT-4PT.

Packaging/Labeling Information for U.S. E-liquid Manufacturers :

1. Indicate origin of product stated exactly as shown : Sale only allowed in the United States.

2. Indicate accurate quantity of product inside package. Example : Contains 1 bottle of 60ML E-Liquid.

3. Indicate name and place of business of manufacturer, co-packer and distributor. Example : Manufactured for & Distributed by Smax Holdings LLC, Los Angeles, California, 90015, United States.

4.Indicate percentage of tobacco inside product. Example : Contains .3% Nicotine by Volume.

**Manufacturers in California must include latest Prop 65 warning.**

⚠️ WARNING: These products can expose you to chemicals including acetaldehyde, which is known to the State of California to cause cancer, and nicotine, which is known to the State of California to cause birth defects or other reproductive harm. For more information go to www.P65Warnings.ca.gov.

Advertisement Information for U.S. E-Liquid Manufacturers:

Digital or printed content that includes e-liquids in media requires warning labels. Hardware that is not sold with e-liquid does not.

All marketing content such as photos or videos published on social media platforms, e-mail newsletters, websites, marketing signs or printed ads requires warning label to be applied at the top of content comprising at least 20%.

Required language must be punctuated, capitalized and centered as shown :

WARNING : This product contains nicotine.
Nicotine is an addictive chemical.

Font : 12 point in Helvetica BOLD or Arial BOLD is best recommended.

Text & box color : If black text is on white background, statement must be boxed in black border with thickness of 3PT-4PT. If white text is on black background, statement must be boxed in white border with thickness of 3PT-4PT.

Based on the labeling and advertising guidelines provided by Vapor Technology Association and required warning statements by the FDA, we did not find any information that stated warning labels were necessary when published by photographers, influencers, e-liquid reviewers, bloggers, vloggers and all content creators paid or unpaid.

To our understanding, if a U.S. manufacturer decides to publish content they purchased or have permission to use from a paid or unpaid content creator such as a photographer, influencer, e-liquid reviewer, blogger, vlogger etc. then the U.S. manufacturer is required to precisely apply the warning label wherever the content is displayed such as Instagram, Facebook, e-mail newsletters, Youtube, websites etc.

Feel free to check out Grimm Green's VLOG from 8/16/2018 and watch what Nick Green has to say about WARNING LABELS here :

For now, take care of yourself, keep up the great work staying smoke-free, enjoy the things you can’t live without in moderation and know exactly what you’re putting in your body. All we can do during this time is stay optimistic and continue to fight together through this uphill battle so that the government will do the right thing in the end. 

Stay positive everyone! ❤️

For more detailed information, please read Electronic Code of Federal Regulations here, required warning statements provided by FDA here. 

***This is a guideline based off of the requirements that we collected from the Vapor Technology Association and Tobacco Warning Labeling requirements from the FDA. We do not guarantee this information to be 100% accurate. If we are missing any important information, please let us know.***

FDA Label requirements effective: 8/10/2018

There has been a lot going on this year with the changes of our industry and I'm sure many of us have been overwhelmed. For some time now, we have been aware of the necessary labeling/packaging adjustments that was required of our e-liquid products and have been making the changes as we became informed. After going through the FDA Labeling guideline, we can confidently say that our current packaging has met all of the requirements.

For California Only : Our PROP 65 Warnings have recently been updated so we will have this information updated on our new boxes.

Packaging updates for Fall 2018

• 100mLs (released in 2014) will soon be available in GCC compliant bottles.

• Sixties (60mL) will soon be replaced with new (Stubbies) 30mLs boxed in bundles of 2x30mL bottles.

• Super Tubes (30mL)  have been discontinued and will be replaced by Stubbies (30mL). 

TFN Nicotine Discontinuation 

We would also like to inform you that we have reverted back to using regular nicotine for ALL original recipes created in 2014. Unfortunately, the switch to synthetic nicotine altered some of the flavoring based on our customer feedback and we have stopped using it for all of our Smax flavors.

For retail shops : If you need to obtain any additional information from us such as GCCs for our bottles and other FDA product/facility registration numbers (FEI #, License #, and TPs #), please request them at info@smaxeliquid.com

So many changes, but all for the better and we couldn’t be more than happy to see our industry mature and be apart of all of its phases with you! We look forward to serving you in the future and always hearing from you!

Information on FDA Labeling Guidelines from e-CFR can be found here
Additional guidance from VTA can be found here

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Good Vibes 

There’s never enough to go around, so this one is for you guys and gals! Thanks for being the good people that you are and trusting in SMAX!

Sadly, we almost rejected this flavor because one of the extracts from the flavor houses changed and we just couldn’t get it to taste the same as the original recipe again. It was almost trashed for another brand we were working with at the time but I said, “Hey, hold up, NO! Smax needs it!” We adopted the unwanted forbidden fruit punch orphan and named her Good Vibes. It brought so many good feelings to me vaping it the first time and there was no way we could have kept this oldie but goodie from you.

This one is my personal favorite and believe it or not, it currently ranks as our 2nd top seller next to Pony On Acid.

Lick It 

What kind of flavors would Smax have that would make us stand out from the rest? The first thing I did was drive to Target,  and bought a huge bag of Jelly Bellies in an assortment of 49 flavors. These were NOT just any ordinary jelly beans, they were a nostalgic delicacy of my childhood. My dad used to buy them for us when they came in those fancy little gift boxes as a kid and I’ve never ate candy that tasted so accurate to their descriptions.

Peach wasn’t exactly my favorite but I ended up trashing all of our other attempts of the fruit flavors because they just sucked. We didn’t want to create flavors that everyone else was making, and it was too ambitious to do a juicy pear that didn’t taste like old lady perfume. I was hoping that by eating 49 different flavors excluding black licorice and buttered popcorn that we would find at least a few worthy profiles to recreate and improve.