Description
At long last, our long awaited shipment of Central Thailand Plai Oil. (This is one oil that geographic terrain makes a tremendous difference, and in our experience, the best Plai is grown and distilled in Central Thailand.)
There are many research studies showing what a gentle and powerful pain reliever Plai Oil is. This speciman is mild and smooth aromatically, and an amazing and long lasting pain reliever. Please try it in blends for chronic pain.
In our experience, Plai can take awhile to kick in as a pain reliever. We like to blend it with other oils known for their pain relieving capabiities, perhaps Kunzea, or an anti-inflammatory like Helichrysum or German Chamomile. What Plai seems to do in a blend is extend the duration of the relief. We hope you find it helpful.
Certificate of Analysis:
Batch No. TH-48602
Batch No. TH-58667
This is my very first plai experience, and I picked up NG’s Plai because I want the best of the best for my pain relieving oils (or any oils, but especially something I would apply topically frequently!). Overall, I am happy with my purchase, and I would recommend this specific plai to everyone. Since everyone knows Nature’s Gift carries highest quality oils, instead of writing about how great this oil is and how awesome plai is, I will focus more on my aromatic experience for those who are not familiar with plai. Plai is definitely not something like balm mint bush which smells amazing while helping with pain. I think it’s a great support player!
When I opened up the bottle, it immediately opened up childhood memories. I am not from SE Asia, so I don’t know which plant exactly is responsible for my memory, but it smells just like what my grandmother was drying at home, filling the entire room with the pungent smell.
I like to test with simple blends for new oils, so I mixed it up with Kunzea as suggested. I put two drops of Plai and several of Kunzea, but the upfront peppery-sour aroma (almost like extremely spicy hot sauce that my partner forgot to close the lid of) is such a strong forefront scent that it’s so hard for me to notice anything else immediately. Later on, I noticed grassy and herbaceous aroma along with lightly-sweet and medicinal Kunzea. My back pain is a tough one to beat, but Kunzea+Plai combo has been effective. I think it would shine even more with a couple more oils added – it gradually works its way in in reducing pain for a while, so perhaps an oil that works immediately with power but doesn’t persist would work nicely if you are impatient under pain like me. This is a powerful oil, both aromatically and therapeutically. It feels like I don’t need a lot of plai in the blend to harness the full power of plai- I think one, or even just half of one drop instead of two would’ve fit better with my several kunzea (I love camphor-, eucalyptus- or frankincense- like “medicinal” top notes so much that I was disappointed kunzea disappeared aromatically). When I further dilute my kunzea-plai with some lotion, the same note that brings out pungency is actually quite pleasant. There is very fresh, green aroma in it and I almost noticed a conifer like quality.
I just checked out plai by itself from the bottle right out of the fridge (hence subdued more volatile aromatic components), and it is actually pleasant, in balance with green-grassy, herbaceous, and peppery aroma. I think I am going to prepare it in more solid form of carrier (salve or thick cream) to let the pungent top note fly out and harness the rest of beautiful aroma!
I had gotten this on the recommendation that it was a better smelling plai than most since plai has a reputation for being less than delicious. I actually thought it was fairly nice, earthy and a bit spicy. I blended it with black spruce and jojoba infused with frankincense resin extract (after-distillation product with concentrated boswellic acid) and applied to my lower back when it was very painful and hard to move (have chronic lower spine/sacroiliac malalignment), and while the pain was not totally gone, I was able to move better and felt immensely better within 10 minutes! And the combination of the spruce and frankincense with the plai made a surprisingly pleasant resinous, earthy, and spicy scent. I then made this combo into a salve with beeswax and a little murumuru butter. I will definitely keep this in my arsenal!
I would not be without this oil. It has given me tremendous pain relief from fibromyalgia using it in blends with Heli and German Chamomile as Marge suggested. Also with a little Peppermint oil. Diluted in FCO or Trauma Oil (my 2 favorite carriers) it does wonders to bring much needed relief.