“They’re not really going to make all the bottles white, are they?”
Maybe. There’s a government consultation running right now about what vapes and e-liquid are allowed to look like, and it closes at 11:59pm on 2 October 2026. Anyone can respond to it, including you. Most people who come into the shop had no idea it was even happening, which is why we’re talking about it.
We mocked up two of our own shortfills to see what the proposals would actually look like on the counter. The one in the middle is how it looks today.
What’s being proposed
For the packaging:
- White only, matt finish. No gloss, no foil, no textured labels
- No images or artwork of any kind, apart from the legally required warnings
- One brand name, in a standard font, standard size, standard colour
- Flavour names cut back to one plain word that describes the flavour. “Apple” would be fine. “Unicorn Dream” wouldn’t. “Mint Blast” wouldn’t either, because “Blast” is doing a job the government doesn’t want it doing
- No flavour names based on sweets, desserts or drinks
For the devices themselves:
- White, black or grey, one colour per device, matt finish
- No branding or imagery beyond what the law requires
- Screens limited to safety and status information, so no animations and no games
- Nothing designed to look like something else, such as a highlighter, a drinks bottle or a toy
There are also proposals about where shops would be allowed to display vapes at all, which would change what you see when you walk through our door.
The argument on both sides
No one behind this counter is going to argue with the aim. The whole point is to make these products less appealing to children, and a shop that has been ID-ing teenagers since 2013 isn’t about to complain about that.
The question is what it does for the adults who have already switched. If every bottle on the wall becomes a white rectangle with a single word on it, finding the one you like becomes guesswork, and telling a legitimate bottle from a dodgy one gets harder, not easier. People who supported plain packaging for cigarettes will say the evidence went their way. People who were against it will say cigarettes and the thing you use to get off cigarettes aren’t the same product and shouldn’t get the same treatment. Both sides are worth reading.
Have your say before 2 October
Whichever way you lean, the consultation is where it gets decided, and it’s open to everyone. It takes about twenty minutes. You can read the proposals and respond on GOV.UK.
If you’d rather talk it through first, come in and have a chat.
Related: Will vape flavours be banned? Where the law actually stands.
