There are several reasons why you should consider eliminating cigarette odors. First off, they don’t smell very pleasant. They can also hurt the resale value of your home and car.

And believe it or not, it can be bad for your health too. 

Sometimes referred to as thirdhand smoke, cigarette smells that cling to hair, skin, clothing, and the atmosphere contain harmful chemical substances. These substances can lead to chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS), and cancer. 

By learning how to get rid of cigarette smells, you can significantly improve the quality of your valuables and your health. 

If you’re a smoker, then you likely aren’t aware of how strong the cigarette odor around you is. If you want to get rid of the smell, you should ask a nonsmoker to sniff around your home and car and see how intense the situation is. 

Of course, the most effective way to get rid of thirdhand smoke is to quit smoking completely. But either way, getting rid of the cigarette odor around you can bring about many useful benefits in your life. So keep on reading and we’ll take you through everything you need to know!

Removing Cigarette Odor From Your Skin

You should wash your hands frequently. Holding a lit cigarette will certainly make your fingers smell. You can get rid of this smell by washing your hands right after you finish smoking.

You can add a little bit of baking soda to your hand soap. Mix the substances together and quickly rub your hands together under hot water. Pay attention to the skin between your fingers and under your fingernails. 

By covering up your skin as much as possible, you’ll also be able to reduce the amount of odor that clings to you.

You should also wash your face. Using a facial cleanser pad on your face will help to get rid of any cigarette smoke residue. However, this will also mean that you need to touch up any makeup that you have on. 

You should also use hand sanitizer. In fact, some smokers will rub an alcohol-based hand sanitizer on all areas of their exposed skin.

This is going to get rid of the odor. However, it can also irritate or burn sensitive skin. Make sure that you don’t use the sanitizer around your eyes. 

Taking a shower can also help. You probably can’t take a shower after each cigarette that you smoke. But you should make sure to bathe often.

Removing Cigarette Odor from Your Hair

If you’ve ever been in a smoky room and then still smell cigarette smoke after you go to bed and your head hits the pillow, you’re aware of how much smoke your hair can absorb. 

You should shampoo and condition your hair to get rid of any cigarette smell. The same goes for mustaches and beards.

If you aren’t able to wash your hair, consider using a dry shampoo. You can also run a dryer sheet all over the back of your neck, your ears, and your hair. Make sure that you get your whole head, including underneath layers of hair. 

Removing Cigarette Smell From Your Breath

If you smoke, you should floss and brush your teeth often. You can also use a tongue cleaner and gargle with mouthwash after each time you smoke. Also, you can reduce the staining that nicotine and tar can do to your teeth by brushing after each a cigarette.

You can also get rid of the cigarette smell in your mouth by chewing gum. Consider sucking on breath mints, cough drops, and hard candies as well. 

Remember that cigarettes can also make the inside of your nose smell. This can then affect how your breath smells. 

Removing Cigarette Odor From Your Clothes

If you go outdoors to smoke a cigarette, you will likely bring the smell of smoke back with you inside. You can avoid this by removing the smell from your shoes and clothes immediately. 

If you don’t wash your clothes after each use, your wardrobe is going to start smelling like a chimney.

Hand-Wash or Machine Wash With Baking Soda

Add a cup of baking soda to your regular detergent when you wash your clothes. If possible, let your clothes line-dry.

If one wash isn’t enough to get rid of the smell, then wash it as many times as you need to before you dry in a machine. A dryer may bake the smell into your clothes which will make it more difficult to remove. 

For delicate items that need to be washed by hand, you can add some baking soda to soapy water. 

Use Dryer Sheets

Dryer sheets are great at getting rid of cigarette smells. If you want to get rid of a cigarette smell from your clothes quickly, rub a dryer sheet on each item. Don’t forget to rub down any boots, shoes, gloves, scarves, and hats. 

Try a Deodorizing Spray

You can take cigarette smells out of your clothes with a spray-on antiperspirant, or air fresheners made for fabric. However, this method can also be very intense, considering that you need to spray the whole clothing article in order to get rid of the smell.  

Mask the Odor

Certain essential oil scents, like lavender, eucalyptus, grapefruit, and orange can be good at masking cigarette smells. However, they won’t actually eliminate thirdhand smoke.

You also shouldn’t put undiluted essential oils directly on your skin.

How to Remove Cigarette Odor From Your Home

With each cigarette that you smoke, more and more thirdhand smoke is going to accumulate. It can stay in your house for many months after the last cigarette has been smoked. It can also be very difficult to remove thirdhand smoke because it contains toxic gasses and particles that can permeate both soft and hard surfaces.

Nicotine can even contaminate dust. 

How to Get Rid of an Old, Lingering Smell

If you’re moving into a space that smells like cigarette smoke, there are a few things you can do.

First, ventilate the whole house by running fans and opening windows. Before you paint, clean the walls with a heavy-duty cleaner designed for this purpose. Vamoose products are great for this. 

Then, use a primer that comes with an odor sealant.

Get rid of any carpets and other soft materials that are on the walls. You should also varnish wood floors and clean tiled areas with a mixture of water and white vinegar or water and bleach.

Make sure that the air conditioning system has new filters and that the air ducts are clean and open. 

Avoiding Thirdhand Smoke Buildup

If you smoke in your house, then you should do your best to reduce the smell often. This will help you slow the buildup of thirdhand smoke. These measures can include:

• masking the smell by burning incense or using essential oils
• washing floors, walls, windows, and other hard surfaces with cleaning solutions that contain baking soda, bleach, or vinegar
• using dryer sheets to rub down mattresses and pillows and items that can’t be washed, such as books
• storing items airtight in closets
• washing curtains, draperies, tablecloths, and items such as stuffed animals, once a week
• steam cleaning upholstered furniture, carpets, and other soft surfaces
• changing filters and cleaning out air ducts of air conditioners, heaters, or furnaces as often as possible to avoid reintroducing the smell
• running air purifiers with HEPA filters in each room
• ventilating your environment, perhaps by directing a fan to blow smoke out the window, and smoking cigarettes only near open windows
• keeping open containers of charcoal or white vinegar in each room, to absorb the smell and changing them weekly

The main takeaway here is to make sure that you have plenty of airflow going through the home. 

How to Remove Cigarette Odor From Your Car

If you smoke in your car, that odor is going to stick around. You should only smoke with the windows open. Also, wash your windshield after each cigarette. 

Lastly, make sure that you don’t leave any cigarette butts in your car. 

The Importance of Knowing How to Get Rid of Cigarette Smell for Good 

Hopefully, you now understand why it’s so important to know how to get rid of cigarette smells for good. As we can see, cigarette smells can be unpleasant, costly, and dangerous.

If you’re looking for other helpful articles, make sure to check out the rest of our site today for more!