Stephanie Tan, who founded wellness brand Nooci, wants to modernise TCM and give women the support they need to improve their overall health
Stephanie Tan is on a mission to make traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) easy to understand, access and incorporate into a busy routine through her wellness brand Nooci (pronounced noo-chi).
The Hongkonger and mother of two launched Nooci in April 2022 with three supplements, with one targeting women’s health: Noo Air for nasal relief, Noo Moon for menstrual support, and ReNoo for boosting energy and longevity.
“We’re all about modernising TCM and prioritising transparency in our ingredients,” Tan says over coffee, with mine topped with a sachet of ReNoo, which is one of the recommended ways to take it, as its soybean, sesame and brown rice flavours work well with hot beverages.
“We take an east-meets-west approach to everything that we do, which is similar to my own background—from the way we structured our scientific advisory board to how we selected our ingredients.”
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What inspired Tan to start her own wellness brand was her own struggles with nasal issues. She’d relied on a cocktail of conventional medicine and sprays for almost a decade, which only ever provided temporary relief from the symptoms. Eventually, she turned to natural remedies to address the root of her problem: allergies.
Tan had been exposed to traditional Chinese medicine from childhood, having grown up around grandmothers who’d often feed her TCM-infused soups and teas. She decided to reinvigorate her relationship with TCM and was able to find ingredients that cured her allergies. Inspired by her own healing journey, she founded Nooci to help others achieve long-term health and to support existing wellbeing practices: “It’s not TCM vs Western medicine. It’s how they [can] complement each other to give you the best results.”
When Tan started Nooci last year it was only available online, but in May 2023, the brand was launched at Nong’s Clinic, which has 22 locations across Hong Kong. Tatler had a chat with Tan to talk about this exciting development, her motivations and journey, and what’s next for the brand.
Why makes Nooci different from other TCM supplements on the market?
The ingredients are so important [in TCM], but when I [used to shop for] TCM supplements in Hong Kong, [they were labelled with] Latin names, which makes it hard to connect to their Chinese names, [and difficult to identify] their uses and sources. On our website, you can find all that information.
We do all our research for the consumers who are [so knowledgeable nowadays]. We want to empower them to know more about these ingredients—from the extraction to the creation process—and we’re fully transparent.
Tell us about the quiz you developed to help consumers understand their constitution and what they need.
Yes, our scientific advisor worked with a professor from Peking University to rework the TCM quiz. Originally, we had 90 questions and it was all in Chinese, but we wanted to make it more approachable while remaining specific.
We dialled it down to 30 questions, but it still really pinpoints your body’s constitution. That was very important to us.
You first launched Nooci in the US. What was the reception like there compared to Hong Kong?
[Having lived there previously] I thought our products would sell in coastal cities like Los Angeles and New York—which probably has had more exposure to TCM. [Instead,] we started getting orders from across the US, especially from the middle states. People there showed an interest and were willing to try TCM.
When we launched the ReNoo sachet [in Hong Kong], which contains green tea, people were surprised at its flavour because it was nothing like the bitterness you’d find with TCM teas. It was exciting to launch in Hong Kong and get that sort of feedback, [because people here are already familiar with the concept and] there’s more competition out here with traditional Chinese medicine.
