Thread: Homebrew Bayrum Recipes

Great posts, I stumbled on to this thread and just finished my batch of aftershave using clear rum, my recipe is as follows:
1 cup clear rum
1/2 cup witch hazel
1/4 cup lavender baby oil
6 drops lavender essence oil
7 drops of glycerin
and I cut off just the top part of a grapefruit rind, no white stuff, 1/2 grapefruit and put in the jar
just leave the rind in and shake before use. Great stuff!!!
I also make my own shave soap, really lathers up well and has a great lavender scent.
go to wally world and get a small bar of olive oil soap, small bar of dove soap, put in microwave and melt the two soaps together, be careful they are hot! and blend them with 1/4 cup witch hazel, 3 tablespoons of lavender baby oil, 4 drops of lavender essence oil, and 8 drops of glycerin, put in a mold or shave cup when it is still hot, and let cool, really good and rich lather for a great shave that won't dry up on you face.

My pleasure, nipper! I did not try it yet, but I will certainly do that on my next shave which is due today.

Here's my version:

Taking my usual cooking approach of finding a number of recipes online, mashing them together, and using them more as a guideline than an actual recipe, it turned out pretty darn well. Apologies in advance for the slipshod record keeping and ballpark quantities arising from my impressionistic approach. My ingredients were:

Starting:
Rum (Havana Club because it was what I had on hand - lovely stuff!) ~6oz
Vodka (Iceberg - buy Canadian! ) ~4oz
Witch hazel ~6oz
As you'll see form the quantity I ended up with, I added to this over time too. Specifically, I added in more witch hazel and rum. Basically because a big jug of witch hazel I ordered with the bottles was on hand, and let's face it. You can't have too much rum.

Spices (sorry - I added to the mix so many times during the process I have *no* idea how much was actually used. My advice would be to add however much you think you'll need, then add more. And as you agitate the mix, let your nose guide you.)
Cinnamon sticks (split into chunks)
Fresh ginger (chopped)
Allspice berries (cracked)
Black pepper (also cracked)
Lime zest (from one lime, would probably use at least 2 or 3 next time)
Cloves

A touch of glycerine

Bay Rum essential oil (Pimenta Racemosa - make sure it's this stuff and not your usual bay leaf used for cooking) - probably about 20 drops altogether
Rosemary essential oil - about 7 drops

I simply mixed all the ingredients in a jar and let it stand in the cupboard. The bay rum essential oil was added about 2 weeks into the process as I couldn't get it locally, and there was a bit of a delay ordering it in via a health food shop. More or less daily I would agitate the mixture. I found that stirring it was least messy as shaking it would lead to a bit of leakage. But at least the leaks smelled good.

It is a little over six weeks since the first ingredients went into the jar, and I just bottled it today. I filtered it first using a mesh coffee filter into a big measuring cup. Then I let that stand for several hours to let it settle out. And finally I poured it into some bottles I had ordered for the occasion.

In the end I have five 4oz (~125ml) bottles.



It is somewhere between the two Bay Rums I have and like: Captain's Choice and Ogallalla, and I would say a bit closer to Captains Choice. It is quite mild in scent, has a bit of burn when applied, but the witch hazel and glycerine seem to have toned that down. If there is a next time, I would add more lime zest, more bay rum oil, and more allspice. Other than that I'm quite pleased.

Great post Cangooner, where did you get those labels made up? I've been intrigued by this idea for awhile now, although Havana Club is a bit tough to get a hold of in the lower 48

Ha ha - I suppose it would be a bit easier to find up here! I hadn't thought about that...

I just whipped up the label myself using some old-fashioned 'elixir' labels as inspiration. Printed it on some Avery label stock and cut it out. Nothin' fancy. I'll probably play around with customized labels for the ones I'm giving away.

You all know about my passion for aftershave, shaving soap and other shaving products home making. Bay Rum is one of my "classic" aftershaves since I started the hobby of shaving product making, about ten years ago, more or less.
A dear friend of mine who spent his summer vacation in Santo Domingo bought genuine dried bay leaves for me because he knew about my hobby and, moreover, he is also enthusiastic about my shaving products and in fact he uses them all.
I will certainly use the leaves for my next batch of Bay Rum aftershave and it will be great to see the differences between the essential oil and the real bay leaves. As I need to understand the strength of dried leaves, I started experimenting with them, I put them in a tiny jar and started macerating them in 95% ethyl alcohol.

Dried West Indian Bay leaves (Pimenta Racemosa)




Leaves of Pimenta Racemosa macerating in 95% Ethyl Alcohol.

I have tried MANY recipes using both raw materials and essential oils. My goal was to get as close to my favorite bay rum, Dominica, as possible. After a lot of trial, and some very interesting results, I finally came up with what I feel is almost an identical formula to Dominica, and it is incredibly simple.

5 oz. Everclear grain alcohol (190 proof)
2 oz. Distilled water (to keep it from evaporating too quickly and keep my face from melting)
100 drops Bay essential oil (I use Aura Cacia)

That's it! I have used this immediately after mixing, but it is kind of cloudy at this point. It's best to let it sit for a couple weeks. After a couple weeks, it turns almost water clear just like Dominica.

Give it a try. If you like Dominica, I promise you will not be disappointed!

EDIT - I should also add my reasoning behind using Everclear instead of Rum. First of all, I find cane, or sugar based alcohol (rum) to be a bit sticky, which I absolutely hate, whereas grain based alcohol (Everclear) doesn't feel sticky to me at all. Second, although true bay rum should maybe smell like rum, Dominica doesn't smell like rum at all to me. My bet is that they use something other than cane based alcohol.

If you want to smell and feel the difference first hand, check out both bay rum offerings from calantillies. They sell Dominica, which lists bay oil and alcohol as it's only ingredients and Grand Bay which lists alcohol, water and fragrance as it's ingredients, but states on it's label that they use cane alcohol. Grand Bay smells like rum to me and is sticky, whereas Dominica smells like bay (Pimenta Racemosa) to me and is not sticky at all.

After one week, this is how my Pimenta Racemosa maceration looks like. I will keep on macerating for at least one week more.
I must say it smells way different from any Pimenta Racemosa essential oil I have ever used or smelled, of course when properly diluted and, of course, not referring to its pure and non diluted form.
This maceration aroma is absolutely the very best Bay fragrance I have ever smelled, including all of the commercial Bay Rum aftershaves I know of. I guess this is the proper way to go for the making of a Bay Rum aftershave and I can't wait to start making it with the other dried Pimenta Racemosa leaves macerated in real aged rum.
The bad part of this is how and where I could possibly get dried Pimenta Racemosa leaves in Italy? These leaves have been brought back from the Dominican Republic and given to me by a friend of mine who spent his vacation there.

Originally Posted by murf

...although true bay rum should maybe smell like rum, Dominica doesn't smell like rum at all to me. My bet is that they use something other than cane based alcohol.

In my opinion, Bay Rum aftershave should smell like rum and bay. As for the type of alcohol generally used in cosmetics, they usually use the so called "denatured alcohol", usually abbreviated as "Alcohol Denat.".
It basically is ethyl alcohol to which it is added a denaturant in order to make it taste bad.

Rum shouldn't be sticky unless it is cheap and has additives. It's distilled, so any minimal sugar remaining in the wash prior to distillation won't carry through. Cheap rums can be colored and flavored, which may include sugar. Properly aged rums get their color from the barrel in which they are aged.