Dank is the word when it comes to some cannabis weed! Anyone who has smoked marijuana (or read some of our strain reviews) know that these super strong strains are highly sought after for their potent effects. One possibly unwanted effect that dank strains - and even less potent weed strains - does turn off many people though: the smell.

What does pot smell like? The pungency of your pot depends on the particular strain of ganja: not all weeds are skunky, some are more citrusy or or smell like pine needles – it all depends on the chemical composition of the terpenes (aromatic oils coating cannabis flowers that give them distinctive odors and flavors like earth, skunk, cheese, citrus, berry, mint, and pine); limonene, for example, gives some varieties of grass a lemony whiff because it’s also what causes the smell in actual lemons!

But whatever your marijuana smells like, even to non-cannabis culture enlightened people it smells recognizably like marijuana! The skunk smell is telling! Discretion being the better part of valor, and all, it’s good to know things like how to hide weed smell, how not to smell like weed personally, how to get weed smell out of a car, how long does weed smell last and how to smoke inside without smell. Though medical marijuana and recreational cannabis legality is spreading throughout the United States, Canada and across the weed wide world, there are still those uptight people like law enforcement and landlords that you’d rather not get wind of your weed usage. We ourselves are apartment dwellers and we have come to know that Febreze is your friend – and so are the bathroom fan and oven range overhead exhaust fan!

(Ganja girl wreathed in pot smoke, image from Stoner Babeeeeez on Instagram)

The Cannabis plant is, well, just that - a plant, and it does what it does for plant-not-people reasons: the development of terpenes in cannabis plants was an adaptation to repel predators and lure pollinators – you getting high was incidental to the plant – so that is why marijuana smell can be so strong, it’s bug spray for some insects and perfume to others! It is merely a happy coincidence that weed is so awesome for us marijuana consumers! But, even we'll admit, it is also kind of rank sometimes!

It’s generally true that the danker, or stronger smelling, your cannabis plant is, the better and more potent the pot smoke will be; grassier smelling ganja that smells like lawn clippings or hay, and especially if it’s yellow colored like a late summer sun-baked lawn, is usually poor-quality pot! All of that said, before sparking or vaping your herb you need to be aware of what your weed smells like and some good weed air fresheners to use to make weed smell go away!

(Illustration of a sploof in use, image from Frosty Nugs Yum on Instagram)

How to Smoke Weed in Your Room without it Smelling:

If you’re in an apartment or a roommate situation, or even in your own house, you want to be able to burn some Death Star cannabis strain, which smells like pungent dirt, or hit some Trainwreck weed, which smells like pine needles, without necessarily alerting your neighbors to your smoking or dabbing!

Do dab pens smell or does vape weed smell? Yes; though with less of a cloud or fog than weed pipes or joints, dabbing or vaping produces a more concentrated odor that tends to spread out less and dissipate more quickly than traditional weed pipe smoking. But however you toke, vape or dab, you’re gonna produce some kind of skunk smell and will want some kind of weed smoke filter, or learn how to mask the smell of weed.

 

Now let's look at some of the best ways to hide the smell of marijuana:

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Benefits

Hand Held Smoke Filters:

Have you ever wondered, what is a sploof? Well, consider yourself now in the know: a sploof is any kind of homemade smoking device that acts as a weed smoke filter; it could be as simple as taking an old paper towel or toilet paper tube, cramming it full of dryer sheets with another dryer sheet rubber banded across the end. Then when you take a hit, you exhale through the sploof and it lessens the skunk smell. It won’t get rid of the weed smell completely, but it does make it easier to cover up the marijuana smell with candles, burning incense, or weed air fresheners.

If your looking for something a bit more professional and discreet then you need to up your game to Philter. This device is literally amazing. No bigger than a std vaporizer, it works by breaking down the exhaled particles at a molecular level. 

The exclusive five-stage system, means practically zero smoke will be exhaled; your marijuana product will turn into just clean air. So every exhale is essentially smell proof! We love how it is pretty much indistinguishable from a traditional vape pen, making it perfect for any public space or indoor venue. Whether your marijuana strains are giving you lemon notes or super skunk, Philter is a great way to neutralize those smells. We would definitely recommend Philter.

Quality weed deserves quality treatment. Filter those organic compounds through the  POCKET Mini from Philter. It's the perfect smoking accessory for on-the-go cloud free smoking.

Step it up a notch from POCKET with the Phlip from Philter. It's a stylish accessory that attaches to just about every vape pen out there for cloudless, odorless smoking.

Smoke Buddy – Do weed smoke buddies work? Smoke Buddies are highly rated on Amazon.com where they sell for about $15.58; so some people swear by them. A Smoke Buddy is really just a prefabricated sploof, exact same idea. A Smoke Buddy has a cylindrical shape with easy grip sides, hollow on the inside but filled with plastic filters, and dual caps on each tapered end keep odors trapped. Smoke Buddies are supposed to be good for up to 300 uses or more, so it might last you six months to a year depending on how much and how often you burn some weed. Nothing is going to eliminate all the odor, but just like the sploof described above, it can help.

(A Smoke Buddy, weed pipe and some nugs of weed - Mr Smoke Buddy on Instagram)

Moving Air – Basically we mean using fans or windows to ventilate the area that you are smoking in. Bathroom fans or kitchen oven vent fans, even an open window and a box fan can remove the smell of marijuana from the room and thus, can be filed under ‘How to Smoke Weed In Your Room Without It Smelling’. The downside is that the outside your house or apartment may smell like weed, and passersbys may not appreciate the smell of the beautiful marijuana plant as much as you might. The wife and I frequently hotbox in our bathroom, then afterwards vent the air out via flicking on the switch for the bathroom fan in the ceiling; and, of course,  spraying down the room with weed air freshener after or lighting an incense to further defumigate. Likewise, having an outdoor smoke sesh gives you plenty of ventilation, especially on a breezy day, but you gotta be mindful of who can see you and who you might be upwind of – so a little wariness and precaution is advised.

For anyone looking for a way to make sure their living space smells like an actual home and not a dispensary, we suggest ordering an air purifier like the PARTU HEPA. With space to add in your own essential oils, you can have your room smelling any kind of way you want!

Taking your skunk weed out for a spin? Rivalry's Confident bag is the perfect, smell-proof, and discreet pouch that will tuck your precious bud or other toking accessories away safely.

(Pot Candles, image from Amber Earth Luxe on Instagram)

Deskunkification, or How to Get Rid of Weed Smell:

If you're looking for something more scientific than a bottle of your grandma's cheap perfume, then you need to try Veil to get rid of weed smells! Veil is a spray specifically formulated to eliminate marijuana smells, not just mask them, on a molecular level — it does this by basically 'latching' onto the odor molecules and changing their makeup. On top of that very scientific process, Veil is also fragranced with an organic essential oil blend of sweet orange, cracked black pepper, and Virginia Cedar, so it smells fantastic too. In short, it's very clever stuff, plus it's non-toxic and eco-friendly, so you don't have to worry about where you spray it.

If you don't have any Veil at hand (and you should) then masking the smell of Weed is somewhat of a dark art. Here are a few tried and tested methods that can help:

Weed Air Fresheners – Like weed perfume, weed air fresheners need to be sprayed around after you smoke down to mask the smell of weed. Weed air fresheners range from your typical Glade or Airwick spray cans to Poo-Pourri toilet spray, an essential oils spray that forms a film on the surface water of your toilet to trap offensive smells, is actually made to hide the smell of going to the bathroom, but obviously has similar implications for covering up weed smell. What is the best Poo-Pourri scent? What is the best Febreze fragrance? There are a lot of different fragrances to choose from. There’s always trial and error, see what works for you. We personally think that pine scents can blend with piney weed smells to mask them. Certainly, the more potent the scent is, the stronger smells it can hide. And, not-so-coincidentally, as marijuana is becoming legal throughout the United States, Canada, and many parts of the weed wide world, air freshener companies are making more concentrated weed air fresheners like Glade Ultra and Airwick Pure; there are even weed-specific weed air fresheners like THC air-freshener and Scent Bombs.

Incense or weed candles: Pretty basic idea, covering one smell with another. Incense has been a stoner staple for time immemorial, forever. Fun personal anecdote, I didn’t smoke weed before I met my wife, but she was convinced that I was a pot smoker because I liked to burn incense! Like everything else, incense or weed candles work to varying degrees, so be aware of the potency of your weed smoke versus the potency of the fragrance of the incense stick or scented candle. It’s gonna be a trial and error kind of thing, but there are a variety of fragrances to choose from.

Weed perfume: Cheap perfume or cologne might be a bit overwhelming on your date or when you’re trapped in an elevator with someone, but a blast of au de toilet might cover a multitude of marijuana smoke.  The downside is that unlike weed candles or incense, perfumes don’t flow continually while you are smoking, so you have to run around spritzing weed perfume everywhere after you smoke down.

Fabric Refresher, or How to Get Weed Smell Out of Your Clothes – Okay, you’ve managed to vent or hide the weed smell in your room or apartment, but you also need to know how to get weed smell out of your clothes, and thus off your person. If you’re not wearing them, naturally you can just launder them, or put them in a drawer with some dryer sheets or a sachet of potpourri (not the same thing as Poo-Pourri). But if you are wearing them how do you mask the smell of weed? Febreze makes not only weed air fresheners but also fabric refreshers, as does Downy, and there are a host of decent generic fabric refreshers. Weed perfume also works for your clothing, but be careful of what you spray on some fabrics as it may make the colors stain or fade. Check your labels or test a small piece of material with your weed cover up of choice.

Plug-in Scents, or How to Get Weed Smell Out of Your Car – There are a number of obvious reasons that you wouldn’t necessarily want a friend, parent, coworker, boss or maybe a law enforcement person who pulled you over for a broken taillight to know that you have been toking in your transport! Automobile accessory makers already make weed air freshener plug-ins that attach to the vent on the dashboard of your vehicle and activate when you turn on the heat or air conditioning, so those are a good way to get weed smell out of your car. There are also the same spray weed air fresheners and the fabric refreshers that you can hose your car interior down with just like you do to get rid of weed smell in your house or apartment. Rolling down a window when you smoke down on a stoney cruise helps ventilate your vehicle. Weed perfumes sprayed around inside the car would also help mask the scent of weed. So, yeah, there are a few tricks that do a pretty good job of getting weed smell out of your car. Being that some weed is so strong-smelling just sitting there, it’s also a good idea to keep your stash in air-tight, weed-hiding containers. In fact, some recent weed legalization legislation actually requires it!

(Smoking near an open window, illustration from Weed World 420 on Instagram)

Summary:

What does pot smell like? Well, what weed smells like depends on which of the different cannabis strains you're lighting up – some of it is strongly skunky (we often sniff something when we are strolling together outside and wonder if we smell weed or an actual skunk, because some weed is that strong), some cannabis scent groups are fruitier, like lemons; some cannabis has a more cheesy odor, some of it is piney like being in the middle of an evergreen forest. The bottom line is that whatever strain you are smoking or vaping on, even if it’s some pretty weak weed, it still smells - even to the cannabis culture uninitiated - like pot! Use whatever fancy odor descriptors you think fit best.

Pot odor is distinctive enough that there are times that you want to mask the smell of weed in your room, your apartment, or house. Perhaps the best and easiest step is to keep it in a sealed container or smell proof backpack.

There are a number of means to cover up the rankness of cannabis scent or to keep weed from smelling when smoking, or rather smelling less, and we have given you seven of them. You can exhale weed smoke or dab vapor (also somewhat smelly) through a Smoke Buddy or sploof you cobbled together with a cardboard tube and some dryer sheets, or at least make sure you have a window cracked for ventilation. Smoking in the shower isn’t recommended, at least when it’s running, but toking or vaping with the bathroom overhead fan venting your pot smoke is something that we, personally, can recommend.

Be real, though, and understand that no method other than not smoking at all is going to completely hide weed smell from people with really good senses of smell, necessarily! So, with some pre-planning, a minimum of equipment or expense, armed with a good weed smoke filter and a can of weed spray or Poo-Pourri toilet spray, you can smoke inside without the smell - and even if there is some dank after-toke cannabis aroma lingering,  you can cover up the smell of weed pretty easily. Puff away, then spray, we say!

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Written by Megan Medeiros (BA)

Megan Medeiros has a bachelor’s degree in English and is currently working on a master’s in English at James Madison University. She's the owner and operator of Medeiros Writing, and has been working as a cannabis writer for the past three years, mostly following the legal climate of marijuana, especially in areas like California, Colorado, Oregon, Canada, and other legal areas.

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