Bobby66,
i couldn't tell you if you could use rubbing alcohol or not. when you add the other ingredients to it you might not get the scent your looking for. It's called bay rum for a reason. I'm newer to making my own after shaves but when I have made my bay rum in the past I have used both dry and fresh bay leaves. I'm personally happier with the way the fresh leaves turned out. But the one thing to keep in mind is that you can add anything you want to. You are the one that has to be happy with the way it smells. Trial and error, it's like cooking!
a lot of people love oysters. But what was going through the mind of the first person to say " hey look at this rock, I'm going to open it and eat it". Experiment, this is what its about.
Have fun,