This is smell retraining kits as recommended for people who have lost their sense of smell (anosmia) or have distorted smell (parosmia). Nasty. Often happens after a virus, especially Covid.

Smell training using essential oils has good research behind it. From my research, I suspect that damage has been done to the olfactory nerves so smell retraining is a nerve repairing, lowering neuroinflammation job, really. That means regular practice and consistency is key. Think of it like you would recover the use of an arm or hand after a stroke, or your speech. Similar principles. It's like physio for your nose!

Given that, my advice would be to combine smell training as below with an antioxidant and nerve repair kind of supplement such as this. Zinc is especially important as it is a cause of loss of smell in its own right. Consider 1 twice a day of these.

What is in the smell-retraining kit?

To help recover your sense of smell, four essential oil types were used in the research. You need:

• Something floral - rose is the most common one used, but could be lavender, ylang ylang, geranium etc. I have chosen true lavender for the classic because it has a lot of anti-inflammatory properties to it and rose otto/absolute is horrendously expensive.
• Something citrus, usually lemon or orange.
• Something spicy, often clove, but can be holy basil (more anti-inflammatory than normal basil).
• Something resinous - the best is eucalyptus globulus, but rosemary is also good as it specifically supports memory.

Just note there are tons of types of lavender and eucalyptus and most on the High Street will be the cheapest, mixes or diluted. Plus, I have chosen organic, wild-crafted and very pure - if you're sniffing it up your nose, you want good, safe stuff!

What's in the Smell Kit?

So, this kit contains four small jars with a disc of watercolour paper and cotton wool soaked in the essential oil. I did both cotton wool and watercolour paper for a belt and braces approach; to make sure there is plenty of long-lasting 'smelly' air in the jars!

You can get kits using nasal inhalers. I chose not to do that because proper, pure essential oils are strong so that's a bit close for my liking and also, you get a much more complex scent from a wider-necked jar. You can just sniff from a bottle but I'm not sure that would be as effective. That said, if you do it often enough using any method, it's going to help.

I did quite extensive research on which oils might be the most anti-inflammatory and healing for the nose. The smell itself is not that important, actually; it's the practice of doing it that works. But we might as well use traditional anti-inflammatory and respiratory system oils whilst we're at it. So, I chose:

Kit 1 contains true lavender, sweet orange, holy basil and eucalyptus.

Kit 2 contains geranium, lemon, clove and rosemary.

You can ask for different oils if there's something you don't like, or want to smell again, as I make the kits to order anyway. Note: avoid using fennel, sage, wormwood or hyssop if you have epilepsy, or hyssop, rosemary, sage or thyme if you have high blood pressure. See other info on using essential oils here.

You can also use any of the blends if you like once you've done your first 3-4 months with individual oils.

How to smell train

You basically smell each jar twice a day. Open a jar, hold it towards your nose and do little 'bunny' sniffs, not massive inhales, for about 10-30 seconds. Then close the jar to maintain the scent and rest for a couple of minutes. Do that with each jar. You might not smell anything at all for a while - that's normal - but keep at it. Use a diary to track your progress as you will find it difficult to know as the changes are so subtle. I've put one in resources below for you.

It's important to do it mindfully. So, try and imagine the smell, think about the plant or spice it comes from, conjure up a memory or emotion linked to it - you are retraining your limbic system really to recognise the smell again, as well as lowering inflammation and repairing nerve signalling.

Aim for twice a day for four months - it sounds a lot but that's what the research suggests. Hopefully it won't take that long to recover some of your smell ability. The jars should last about 3 months and you can refresh them if the smell gets too faint. If you send them back to me, I will refresh them for you for a couple of quid and postage or you can purchase the oils. That said, it's a good idea to change the scents anyway for different ones after 3 months, so I've also created a second smell retraining kit that builds on the first one.

Resources

There's a useful guide here to smell training, with a tracker you can use and plants to help you visualise. There's also a useful video here from the charity AbScent - great name! And a case study here in Aromatic Medicine showing how this particular lady did her smell retraining.

Keep your jars out of direct sunlight, dark and cool but not in the fridge preferably.