Conclusions. The observed properties of the CSEs lead us to propose that the cold dust content of the large reflection nebula surrounding RS Pup has an interstellar origin, while the warm CSEs of the two stars were created by ongoing stellar mass loss. We also speculate that the NGC 7023 reflection nebula surrounding the Herbig Be star HD200775 is an analogue of RS Pup at an age of 100 000 years. The presence of CSEs around the two brightest long-period Cepheids is an indication that many long-period members of this class, if not all, could be surrounded by warm circumstellar envelopes created by mass loss. However, very large dusty envelopes such as that of RS Pup are probably less common, as according to our scenario, they require the presence of a high dust density in the interstellar medium (ISM) at the time of the formation of the Cepheid progenitor.