The Secret to Blowing Perfect Smoke Ring
Sometimes, a regular inhale and exhale just won’t do.
Instead, you want to blow smoke rings — but it’s a trick that’s much easier envisioned than executed. Fortunately, those who have mastered the art of smoke rings have laid out steps for you to follow. Now, you can create them on your own, too.
Here’s what to do.
1. Choose the Right Smoking Device
To blow smoke rings, you want to make sure you have enough smoke.
You can use cigarettes, of course. But you might want to try using a hookah, which produces more smoke than a regular cigarette and lasts longer, too. You’ll have plenty of smoke with which to practice.
Once you know how to set up hookah, get it heated up and move onto step two.
Of course, you can opt for another smoking apparatus, if you don’t have or like to use the hookah. Get your vape, pipe or cigarette ready before trying the next steps.
2. Place Your Tongue at the Bottom of Your Mouth
Interestingly, your tongue plays no part in creating smoke rings. So, get it out of the way before you inhale smoke.
Smooth your tongue onto the bottom of your mouth. That makes way for more smoke to fit in, too — and you’ll need a lot to create impressive rings.
3. Inhale Deeply
Inexperienced smokers won’t be able to blow rings right away — inhaling too much smoke will probably lead them to cough.
So, practice smoking so you can do it without coughing. Then, take a deep inhale of smoke pre-blowing rings. Hold some of the vapor in your lungs and some in your mouth.
Once you’re experienced, you can do this without looking puffy-cheeked. All of your smoke will be waiting in your lungs for a ring-blowing display.
4. Curl Your Lips Into an O Shape
Smoke will exit through your mouth. As such, the shape of your lips will dictate the form of the smoke as it departs.
The more rounded you can make your lips, the better. Try watching yourself in the mirror to see how circular you can get your mouth to look. If you can’t master the shape, try saying “Oooh” and mimicking that movement as you exhale.
5. Relax Your Jaw… But Not Too Much
As you make the O shape, you might feel the urge to tighten your jaw and mouth. But this motion is not the same as, say, a kissy face. You need to loosen your circle so that smoke can flow out in a circular shape.
However, exhaling with a too-loose jaw won’t create the crisp circles you want. Practice closing your jaw halfway as smoke passes through. This motion will help sharpen the edges of your circle and push out smoke rings — no smoke blobs in sight.
6. Push Out the Smoke
This task is the trickiest of all — pushing smoke through your circularly shaped mouth to create smoke rings.
Now, there are multiple methods for doing this, and each one requires a bit of skill on your part.
Method number one will have you moving your tongue from the bottom of your mouth and pushing it back toward your throat. At the same time, you’ll press the tip of your tongue downward.
Next, you’ll have to be quick as you push the curled end of your tongue forward. Imagine it’s working like a car piston, pushing smoke out in short, controlled bursts. After you create a ring, pull your tongue back into position and repeat.
Others suggest you use your throat to push smoke out in bursts. This option will require some serious lung control — you might have to work up to making your rings this way.
No matter which option you choose, one thing is for sure — this will take practice. It will take time to master the mouth shapes and breath control you need to create rings. So, have patience and keep going!
7. Get Fancy
Once you master the basic smoke ring, you can move onto even more impressive exhalation tricks.
For instance, you can learn to add spin to your smoke rings. As the smoke leaves your mouth, you can push the tongue forward again to give the circle a bit of movement.
Another trick is to boost the distance your rings travel. If you’re fast to close your mouth after emitting a circle, then it’ll be smaller and cover more ground before dissipating.
You can also manipulate your lips to blow two smoke rings at once. If you press on your lips to halve your big O into two smaller circles, you can create a pair of smoke rings.
8. …Or, Make Things Easier
Some smokers might call it cheating, but you’re a beginner. So, you might want to try a few tips to make smoke rings even easier to make.
One of the more widely used shortcuts is to tap the side of your cheek instead of exhaling with force. So, you’ll create an O shape with your mouth and hold the smoke in your mouth and lungs. But you’ll then tap the side of your cheek to create rings with every push.
You can also create smoke rings with your cigarette box. Burn a circular hole into the cellophane wrapper, then blow smoke into it. You can then tap the box to create smoke rings, although it might not be as satisfying as creating them yourself.
Blow Smoke Rings
You now have all the tips — and cheats — to blow smoke rings on your own. So, fire up the hookah or grab your vape and get started. You have a new trick to master.
