A sniff of hope: TP student creates smell kit for her mother and others with anosmia

SINGAPORE – When her mother started asking her to smell and taste the food she was preparing in 2021, Ms Tiong Jia En did not think anything was amiss.

“I thought it was normal… or she just wanted to include me in the cooking experience,” said the 20-year-old.

But by 2023, Ms Tiong, then a first-year student at Temasek Polytechnic (TP), had learnt that her mother had anosmia – loss of smell that can be partial or total and, in some cases, permanent.

Acquired anosmia is often caused by viruses like COVID-19, which Ms Tiong’s mother contracted in 2021.

Ms Tiong realised there was something wrong with her mother’s sense of smell when she asked her to smell perfume, among other things, and her mother confirmed she couldn’t.

This inspired the TP student to focus her Diploma in Product Experience and Design final-year project on creating a smell retraining kit for people afflicted with anosmia.

As a design student, Ms Tiong did not have much knowledge about smell and scents. She said: “I was a bit worried that I might not be able to achieve the results I want, or fully be able to advocate for them because of my lack of scientific background.”

So she reached out to professionals in the industry.

She spoke with the founder of craft fragrance lab Oo La Lab to understand how scent works, and interviewed perfumers from fragrance brand Tamburins. She also talked to a reminiscent therapist, who helps elderly people with dementia recall memories, to understand how scent plays a role in memory and emotional well-being. 

After about four months of research and design, Remor was created, a guided smell retraining kit which features five different scent capsules.

The five scents (tea tree, peppermint, lavender, lemongrass and sandalwood) represent a range of different scent families. This allows users to repeatedly train their olfactory system and helps the brain form connections. 

The different scents can be poured on the porous stones in the kit for people with anosmia to test if they can identify the specific scent. Ms Tiong also designed Remor to look like a decorative bowl to seamlessly blend into someone’s home.

“It doesn’t make them feel so marginalised, in a way,” she added. 

She also designed a mobile app, which guides the users through their smell retraining journey, to complement the kit. It also features simple recipes for users to make their own scents, allowing the kit to be reused even after the scent capsules are used up. 

Ms Tiong tested the product on different individuals with anosmia, including her mother, to gain insight and refine it. 

Remor was among more than 330 graduating projects featured at the TP Design Show 2026 from March 12 to 17. Ms Tiong hopes that her product can serve as a prototype to be used by therapists.

She said: “Even if this product is a bit limited in a way, because it is still technically a student project, I hope that this will also spark conversation in the market and the industry.”

She hopes that Remor will bring people with anosmia a bit of comfort, knowing that there is someone out there that sees them and wants to help them.

Said Ms Tiong: “I would just like to be able to create meaningful conversations around (anosmia), and raise awareness for people that this disability exists, and we should support them.”