Hello all! I recently purchased some W.E. Garrett scotch snuff at my local tobacco store, which the snuff itself was hidden back in a cozy corner with a very limited selection. I absolutely had no idea what I was getting myself in to. The reason is that I was ignorant to the fact that snuff is a NASAL tobacco, and I, being from the American south, have only seen people use this same nasal snuff as they do chewing tobaccos and dip, in the mouth. Even to this day, nasal snuff is dipped by older people, especially prevalent in elderly communities. Anyways, upon learning that it’s a nasal tobacco, and even more brands exist outside the U.S., my curiosity piqued and I started reading and watching how-to’s for proper technique, etc. 

I pretty much understand how to take the snuff, but what I don’t understand is where the snuff needs to be in the nose. Do I want it in the opening nostril, or higher up in the nose? Furthermore, how do I get the snuff out of my nose, because I assume a person is not to sniff the snuff and leave it in forever, correct? I’ve only tried the snuff once and my nose instantly became runny. At this point am I to blow my nose, which would clear out all snuff, or what? Lastly, I just don’t realize how long the snuff lasts and if a person keeps adding snuff to one’s nose in timely increments. Unfortunately, I know not a single local person who uses snuff nasally, otherwise i’d ask these finer questions of them. My apologies if I’m not entirely clear on my questions, but I’ll certainly work in order to gain a clearly understanding on the finer points of snuff.

There are a number of ways to get the snuff in to your nose.  The most common are the pinch, the spoon, and back-of-hand.

The pinch is both easiest and hardest.  You take an amount of snuff between your thumb and forefinger, hold it up to your nostril, and GENTLY sniff as you roll your fingers apart.  It takes practice.

Spoon is easiest.  You get a snuff spoon (a tiny little metal spoon), fill it with snuff, and gently sniff the snuff off of it.

Back-of-hand is where you put some snuff on the back of your hand and sniff it up with your nostril.  It is my preferred method.  I can do it easily as I have a snuffbox with a hole in the side for dispensing snuff on to my hand, but you can do it by scooping snuff out on to your hand with a knife blade or something.

You want the snuff to be in the front part of the nose.  Not so far up it’s in the sinuses.  Make sense?

Your nose will be runny (and you may sneeze) until you get used to it.  That’s fine.  Just sneeze and wipe your nose.

I take a fair amount of snuff, and I blow my nose four or five times a day, plus once before bed.  I also wash it out with a bulb syringe a few times a week.

Does that help a little?

I tend to leave the snuff in 10-15 minutes then blow my nose and use a tissue or hanky to clean anything else out in the nostrils. 

Here is my take on where snuff goes. 

The sinuses drain foreign matter naturally and you will notice that higher in the sinuses it will drain rather quickly down into the throat. This is either swallowed or spit out. Matter that is more forward in the nose will creep forward rather slowly eventually forming boogers. When snuffing you will notice there is a point where snuff will teeter and drain either forward or back depending on the position of the head. Generally, this is as far as you would want the bulk of a sniff to go. After the initial snuff there will be some extra mucus formed. This is expelled by blowing the nose or if slight can be allowed to evaporate. The many different types of snuff will all sit very differently in the nose. Some create thin runny mucus that carries little snuff and some make a black syrup that can bare a resemblance to a nose bleed, while others create very little mucus. Blowing your nose is simply done for comfort. You can let it sit how you want to, anywhere from blowing hard using the momentum of the extra mucus to expel as much as possible to the extreme of breathing mucus bubbles until they dry up. And while snuff in the upper sinuses is difficult to avoid and can be quite painful, some enjoy it and do it intentionally. Hope this helps and for your information the Scotch snuffs are very difficult in this respect.

Thanks for the tips all! I think i’m getting the hang of it. I just used some of the scotch and had only a minimal runny nose that didn’t require an initial full blow. I’m still assuming that I don’t want to blow my nose a minute after getting the snuff in correct? Anyways, it’s quite pleasant this snuff. I can’t wait to give others whirl.

New question. I think I accidentally sniffed some of the dry snuff into my sinuses and now my left ear has pressure. I can’t get it to pop when I yawn, but is there anything I should be concerned about? Is this normal? 

Snuff has a tendency to eventually clean the ears out from the inside.

gohabsgo this happens to me on occasion. Let it happen naturaly or use a neti pot I suspect the blowing my nose to hard has something to do with it. As snuffing gentley and blowing my nose gently seems to aleave this symptom making it less severe.