In 2024, China-Gel® was rebranded as aulief. The product continues to deliver the same pleasant powerful pain relief® using the identical formulation that customers have trusted for over 30 years, featuring only a new name and refreshed design.

Many customers have already discovered and embraced our organically sourced pain reliever, which has been available under the aulief brand for nearly five years. We felt it was the right time to unite our original product under this same thoughtful and revitalized brand name, aulief. The signature blend of seven herbs found in both aulief products remains the benchmark for effective pain relief.

So, how did we come to the name aulief? Each syllable in aulief represents our product in different but equally important ways. The first syllable, “au”, is native to multiple languages throughout the world as an expression of pain, just as we use the word “ouch”. The second syllable, “lief”, is simply an abbreviated form of the word relief. Thus, the word aulief can be thought of as “ouch relief” or pain relief the world over.

“Au” is also the chemical symbol for the element gold. Think of our product as the “gold standard” in pain relief. We changed our name to reflect this sentiment. The name aulief represents both the purpose as well as the quality of our product.

Now that you understand what the name aulief symbolizes, we should explain how to pronounce it. The first syllable, “au” is pronounced like “awe” in awesome. The second syllable, “lief” is pronounced like “leaf”, the part of a plant that symbolizes nature, growth, and rebirth. So, when in doubt, just think of the awesome nature-based pain reliever that is aulief!

The leaf (lief) 

aulief is a pain reliever using nature’s power and it would never be the same great product without its seven herbs. Each herb contributes to making aulief the pleasant, powerful, pain reliever it is. Since these herbs have always been the foundation of our products, we felt like they needed more representation, both in name and design. This is why we included a leaf both in our new design as well as in our new name.

The colors of the leaf in our new design may not be the colors people are expecting. However, we felt like this was a great opportunity to place our active ingredients in the spotlight. On the skin, menthol is perceived as cold, and camphor is perceived as warm. The orange and blue colors illustrate the warm and cold sensations that these two powerful herbs stimulate within the body.

Why not keep the name China-Gel?

Renaming and rebranding of China-Gel was quite the process. So why did we feel like we needed to rename the product? What was wrong with the name China-Gel?

To begin with, many of you have rightly pointed out the strangeness of having “gel” as part of our name. China-Gel has never had a “jelly-like” consistency and should have more accurately been labeled as a cream.

The name China-Gel also underrepresents the heritage of the herbs in our product. While Menthol is indeed used in traditional Chinese medicine, some of the other herbs are not. Angelica and Ginseng are examples of herbs used in both traditional Chinese medicine and traditional medicines of other countries. Angelica is historically used in Norway, and Ginseng in Korea and Japan. Moreover, Lavender and Aloe Vera are used all over the world, and Witch Hazel is traditional to Native American medicine. We feel like the emphasis on the Chinese origin of our formulation diminishes its global heritage and wanted a name that more accurately represents the product in its entirety.

What’s in a name?

We truly believe that our new name and new design better represent the pleasant, powerful, pain reliever that you have come to trust. Once again, the product itself hasn’t changed. It’s still the same great product, however names really do matter. Not only can a product’s name connect that product with its purpose and philosophy, but it can also serve as a symbol of that product’s unique identity. aulief, does exactly that. Our gold standard pain reliever, utilizing nature’s power, will make you “reach for the lief.”