An expert that creates custom blends
Health .. An uncommon source helps patients "Covid-19" restore smell
Sohail Shah, 13, lost his sense of smell due to "Covid-19", last November, which prompted his parents to search for any way to help him.
"We interviewed neurologists, surgeons, and an ear, nose and throat specialist, and all of them said that if she had come back, she would have returned now," said Sohail's father, Pratik Shah.
But six months later, the boy from Chicago still lost his sense of smell and taste.
The family turned to an uncommon source, the perfumer Sue Phillips from New York, who created and marketed the perfumes of Elizabeth Arden, Lancome and Tiffany & Company, while she currently runs her own company, Centerprices.
"Let me tell you, first of all, I'm not a doctor, I'm not a scientist, I'm not even a chemist," Phillips told a customer at her Manhattan store.
To start the process of helping people restore their sense of smell, Philips prepares a line of 18 custom-made blends.
And she launches from light scents, such as rose, lavender and mint, and offers each time a dry scented ribbon to the customer.
And if no response occurs, use more powerful scents like allspice and musk.
"What happens is that we train people," she said. "I like saying that we smell with the brain."
"I see the fog clears, then they can smell again, which is amazing."
After visiting Phillips, Shah's father said, "Suhail's sense of smell returned about 25%, which is better than nothing."
In a research published last January in the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology, a committee of experts recommended that "Covid-19" patients, who lost their sense of smell, receive a kind of "rehab for smell."
"Some smells can evoke memories and feelings, and Phillips may be working on something like this," said Harvard neuroscientist Venkatesh Moorthy.
Sue Phillips:
"What happens is we train people, as we smell with the brain."
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