Quitting smoking with a breathing necklace: what helps in NZ

Short answer: the best start to quitting smokes in New Zealand is free. Quitline (0800 778 778, or text 4006) and your local Stop Smoking Service can set you up with nicotine replacement, often free, for the cravings. A breathing necklace like ours does a different job: it gives your hands and mouth something to do at smoko, in the car and after dinner, the moments a smoke used to fill. It has no nicotine, so it won't take away withdrawal on its own.

We make that necklace, so read this knowing that. If you only remember one thing from this page, make it the Quitline number.

Start with the free help

Around 294,000 New Zealand adults still smoke every day, 6.8% of adults (NZ Health Survey 2024/25). If you're one of them, there's more free help than most people realise:

• Your local Stop Smoking Service. A Stop Smoking Practitioner helps you build a plan, and the services offer free nicotine replacement, a voucher incentive programme and free vape kits (Health NZ). They'll come to your home or workplace if that suits.
• Quitline. Phone, text or online support, and a way to get patches, gum and lozenges from your local pharmacy for the usual prescription charge.
• Your GP or pharmacist. Low-cost nicotine replacement, and they can talk you through prescription stop-smoking medicines too.

Health NZ says using a patch together with gum, lozenges or a mouth spray is safe and works better than one on its own. Your pharmacist can help you pick the right strength.

The habit is the other half

Nicotine replacement deals with the chemical side. What it doesn't do is replace smoko itself: stepping outside, the lighter, the first long draw, ten minutes away from everything. That's the part a lot of people find hardest, especially once the worst of the withdrawal has passed.

When The Spinoff interviewed our founder Skene in 2025, he said what finally helped him quit smoking was working out which part of the habit he was stuck on: the physical act of bringing something to his lips. It's the reason he started Inhalace.

The research on slow breathing was done with smokers, which makes it a better fit here than for vaping. In a trial with 96 people who had stopped smoking, a short breathing exercise reduced the strength of their cravings straight afterwards (Shahab, Sarkar and West 2013), and controlled deep breathing reduced withdrawal symptoms in another study of smokers (McClernon, Westman and Rose 2004). Both looked at the minutes after a craving, not at long-term quit rates.

Where a breathing necklace fits

The Inhalace V2 is a small tube on a chain that you breathe through slowly, like a straw. It hangs round your neck, so it's there when your hand would normally go to your pocket. A flavoured Spice Stick insert gives the air some taste; Spear Mint is the strongest and Vanilla the subtlest. There's no nicotine or tobacco in it, and nothing to light or charge.

• $49.99, sent by courier NZ-wide ($9.99, or free on orders of $55 and over).
• Spice Sticks are $9.99 for three, and each lasts about four to seven days.
• Every V2 comes with a free six-week email support programme.

It works best alongside the free help above, not instead of it. Use it at each moment you used to smoke: breathe in slowly through it, hold for a few seconds, breathe out slowly, and repeat until the craving eases.

What about switching to a vape?

Health NZ's Smokefree site says vaping can help people become smokefree, because it gives some of the nicotine from smoking in a less harmful way, and that it may be an option if other methods haven't worked (Smokefree). For plenty of people it's the route that works. Some would rather not swap one nicotine habit for another, and some have already switched and now want to stop vaping too. If that's you, our guide to quitting vaping in NZ picks up from there.

A smoko plan that doesn't involve a smoke

Pick the times you smoke most and decide now what you'll do instead at each one. If smoko is the big one, keep the break and change what's in it: a walk round the block, a coffee, a few slow breaths through the necklace, a chat with whoever you'd normally smoke with. If it's the car, take the lighter and the spare pack out of it before your quit day. Cravings peak and pass within minutes, so the plan only has to get you through those minutes. Slip-ups are normal; if you have one, start again the next day.

Common questions

Can a breathing necklace help me quit smoking?

It can help with the habit side: the hand-to-mouth movement and the slow draw at the times you used to smoke. It has no nicotine, so it won't help with withdrawal on its own. Pair it with free support from Quitline or a Stop Smoking Service, and nicotine replacement if you smoke most days.

Is nicotine replacement free in NZ?

Local Stop Smoking Services offer free nicotine replacement for people quitting smoking. Through Quitline, your GP or a pharmacist it's low-cost, at the usual prescription charge. Mouth spray can also be bought at full price from supermarkets and pharmacies.

Should I switch to vaping to quit smoking?

Health NZ says vaping can help people become smokefree and may be an option if other methods haven't worked. If you'd rather not take on a vape, nicotine replacement plus support plus something for the habit is the alternative. Either way, Quitline can help you decide.

How long do cigarette cravings last?

A single craving peaks and passes within minutes. Withdrawal is usually worst in the first week and eases over the following weeks, though cravings can still turn up later at the times and places you used to smoke.

Sources

1. Smoking rates and figures. Smokefree.org.nz, Health New Zealand, citing the NZ Health Survey 2024/25.
2. Stopping smoking. Health New Zealand, last updated 22 July 2026.
3. Vaping to quit. Smokefree.org.nz, Health New Zealand.
4. Shahab, Sarkar and West 2013, The acute effects of yogic breathing exercises on craving and withdrawal symptoms in abstaining smokers. Psychopharmacology.
5. McClernon, Westman and Rose 2004, The effects of controlled deep breathing on smoking withdrawal symptoms. Addictive Behaviors.
6. Can a necklace help people quit vaping? The Spinoff, 30 June 2025.

General information, not medical advice. For help that fits you, talk to your GP, a pharmacist, a Stop Smoking Service or Quitline on 0800 778 778.