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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

To think that smoking looks really, really cool?

169 replies

aperolspritzbasicbitch · 11/07/2026 17:53

To start, I know it’s not, I know it’s dangerous, I know it stinks and is a horrid habit. I’m not going to start.

but equally….I’d bloody love to take up smoking 🤣

I just think it can look so chic, especially the skinny little European cigarettes.

I love the idea of sitting out with a glass of something, puffing on a little cigarette.

having a mid morning coffee outside a cafe on a cobbled street, cigarette in hand.

Or, the original ozempic…a cigarette and a can of Diet Coke of lunch.

like I said, I’m not going to start, I don’t like the smell and I’ve also been very vocal on my views on vaping.

but, at the grand old age of 40, there’s still something about it that I look at sometimes and think ‘god, she looks cool’

Think Caroline Besette in Love Story.

OP posts:
Goose8080 · 11/07/2026 19:06

I always feel embarrased for people I see smoking.

aperolspritzbasicbitch · 11/07/2026 19:03

yesohno · 11/07/2026 19:01

I think it looks stupid not sexy tbh.
i don’t think I’ve ever seen anyone in real life resemble Caroline Besette.

Ah, I was in Paris recently and quite a few women made it look very chic.

Obviously for every person that looks chic there’s those who don’t, so it’s a hard balance.

OP posts:
yesohno · 11/07/2026 19:01

I think it looks stupid not sexy tbh.
i don’t think I’ve ever seen anyone in real life resemble Caroline Besette.

1989STAR · 11/07/2026 19:01

Its rank. I grew up in a smoking household and my mum still smokes and the smell makes me want to vomit.

RaininSummer · 11/07/2026 19:00

I think it makes people look like sad, smelly addicts.

potterspot · 11/07/2026 18:59

PenelopeJoanSterling · 11/07/2026 18:54

true but then does not mean oh in that case smoking is ok etc

But no one is saying it’s ok just that some looked cool smoking!

WhenYouAreReady · 11/07/2026 18:57

I think it looks stupid. Holding this tiny white stick with a cloud of smoke around you, it’s even more ridiculous when you really think about it. You also know the persons clothes and breath absolutely stink. It’s anything but cool.

Crushed23 · 11/07/2026 18:56

YANBU and I couldn’t agree more!

DP is a social smoker - 1 or 2 cigarettes on a night out - and I think he looks really hot when he lights up. 😍

(It still smells and is a disgusting habit, agree there also.)

potterspot · 11/07/2026 18:56

@aperolspritzbasicbitchI had an amazing long velvet coat that someone burnt, grr!

aperolspritzbasicbitch · 11/07/2026 18:56

senua · 11/07/2026 18:54

Ah. but you didn't say it's cool. You said it looks cool from a distance. Big difference.

Oh. Good point!

OP posts:
PetuniaTabernacle1 · 11/07/2026 18:55

suburberphobe · 11/07/2026 18:53

Car exhausts are worse for pollution and harming people's health.

Are you referring to passive smoking or direct exposure?

senua · 11/07/2026 18:54

aperolspritzbasicbitch · 11/07/2026 18:33

Because hoards of impressionable grown adults are going to take up smoking based on a couple of people on line saying it looks cool?
they’ll just bypass the ones that disagree and think ‘well, if Aperol says it’s cool, I must do it!’ Will they?

Ah. but you didn't say it's cool. You said it looks cool from a distance. Big difference.

sanityisamyth · 11/07/2026 18:54

It looks horrific. It stinks, it’s carcinogenic, doesn’t just affect the smoker and causes litter. Absolutely no positives to it at all.

PenelopeJoanSterling · 11/07/2026 18:54

suburberphobe · 11/07/2026 18:53

Car exhausts are worse for pollution and harming people's health.

true but then does not mean oh in that case smoking is ok etc

Idlewilder · 11/07/2026 18:54

suburberphobe · 11/07/2026 18:47

^I love the idea of sitting out with a glass of something, puffing on a little cigarette.
having a mid morning coffee outside a cafe on a cobbled street, cigarette in hand.^

Yep. Do it all the time.

Better than a friend of mine's MIL who tripped down the stairs and was dead on arrival.

Life is strange.

Some people who live very healthy lives will die prematurely in freak accidents, or get cancer anyway.

Some people who have smoked 40 a day for decades live long lives in good health.

But the evidence is overwhelmingly that smokers are far, far more likely to have long periods of cripplingly poor health than non smokers.

I can promise you, if you are one of the many who get COPD, lung cancer, stroke or emphysema in your 60s or 70s, you will feel the opposite of cool and look back and ask yourself what the fuck you were thinking.

suburberphobe · 11/07/2026 18:53

Car exhausts are worse for pollution and harming people's health.

Livinthedrama · 11/07/2026 18:53

There are some people that look cool smoking but I don't think it is the smoking, I think they already will look cool.

ShanghaiDiva · 11/07/2026 18:53

Looks very cool - watching my mother die from COPD and lung cancer and agreeing to stop treatment and watch her die - not so much.

aperolspritzbasicbitch · 11/07/2026 18:48

potterspot · 11/07/2026 18:46

@thejelliclecatsTbf in many of the nightclubs I frequented the smoke smell was preferable to the other smells!

Yes!
smoking in clubs - bad because it stank of cigarette smoke and it carried the hazard of a burn in your going out top if someone was careless, good because it covered the smell of feet, farts and general arse!

OP posts:
ThatLilacTiger · 11/07/2026 18:48

Yeah I loved smoking and I miss it all the time. The quiet solitude of making a rollie. That first drag after work. Sat in the garden under the stars with a cigarette and my thoughts. It's been almost 10 years and I still crave it. It really is as great as you're imagining. Of course there's no peace or calm or glamour in dying of lung cancer, so don't do it. But I can see why you want to.

PenelopeJoanSterling · 11/07/2026 18:48

aperolspritzbasicbitch · 11/07/2026 17:53

To start, I know it’s not, I know it’s dangerous, I know it stinks and is a horrid habit. I’m not going to start.

but equally….I’d bloody love to take up smoking 🤣

I just think it can look so chic, especially the skinny little European cigarettes.

I love the idea of sitting out with a glass of something, puffing on a little cigarette.

having a mid morning coffee outside a cafe on a cobbled street, cigarette in hand.

Or, the original ozempic…a cigarette and a can of Diet Coke of lunch.

like I said, I’m not going to start, I don’t like the smell and I’ve also been very vocal on my views on vaping.

but, at the grand old age of 40, there’s still something about it that I look at sometimes and think ‘god, she looks cool’

Think Caroline Besette in Love Story.

that was part of the idea behind the marketing of the products back in the day to get people intrested

Buscobel · 11/07/2026 18:47

What’s cool about literally burning your money? Apparently, some cigarettes can cost nearly £20 a packet. £1 per cigarette.

Not to mention, as everyone has, the smell, the yellowing, the danger to health.

suburberphobe · 11/07/2026 18:47

^I love the idea of sitting out with a glass of something, puffing on a little cigarette.
having a mid morning coffee outside a cafe on a cobbled street, cigarette in hand.^

Yep. Do it all the time.

Better than a friend of mine's MIL who tripped down the stairs and was dead on arrival.

Life is strange.

potterspot · 11/07/2026 18:46

@thejelliclecatsTbf in many of the nightclubs I frequented the smoke smell was preferable to the other smells!

thejelliclecats · 11/07/2026 18:43

potterspot · 11/07/2026 18:33

@thejelliclecatsIm anti smoking but still think some people looked cool doing it.

I just can't see what's remotely cool about stinking like a stale ash tray.