Thread: Bay rum scent

Originally Posted by go eyeball

I have a bay berry bush in my back pasture, it's a native Indiana plant, and it smells great. Do you think it may produce a similar scent to bay rum, or would be worth experimenting with?
Say if I were to buy a pint of bacardi select, take a couple pulls off of it, and then fill the remainder back up with the leaves and berries. or am I talkin' crazy talk?

possibly in the same family, but not likely as strong, you can try it...
add a couple of sticks of cinnamon, and a spoon full of whole cloves, and you're well on your way.
however the bay oil used in true bay rum is from a very specific plant.
Pimenta racemosa - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Originally Posted by foundlingofdollar

Mike, can you add anything to make the scent longer lasting? The homemade ones I've had so far are short-lived scent wise.

What's your mix ratio? You can add a 2 drops of pure bay EO. Then test from there.

Originally Posted by Aurora Borealis

What's your mix ratio? You can add a 2 drops of pure bay EO. Then test from there.

I'm not making it, I've just tried a few from a few straight shavers. The last one I had I believe was scented with bay leaves and did contain some glycerin. It smelled like heaven, but was almost gone in half an hour.

BAY RUM #1

16.5% Bay Leaf
16.5% Clove
33% Red Thyme
33% Allspice

BAY RUM #2
74% Bay Leaf
9% Clove
9% Sweet Orange
4% Neroli
4% ounce Allspice

BAY RUM #3

71% Bay Leaf
7% Clove
22% Orange

Here's a couple recipes I found if you're looking for EO blends. There's quite a bit of variation but they all have bay leaf and clove in common. I'm thinking about trying #2 to scent some of the cream I made, only substituting petitgrain for neroli since neroli would break me financially.

Thanks all for an interesting thread- i have only ever used bay rum as a hair dressing althoug the stuff we get here in the UK might not be as aromatic as what you all get in the USA!

Think I will have to make some for myself!!!

A few points for clarity

1) Classic bay rum is not made from the same plant that provides the bay leaves used in cooking. The West Indian Bay Tree (Pimenta Racimosa) is a from a totally different genus than the Bay Leaves you find at your local grocery's spice counter.

2) The proper way to make any plant scented product is to distill out the plant essential oils and mix them with the proper carrier. In the case of bay rum after shave, this would involve distilling leaves and other materials from the West Indian Bay Tree and mixing the derived essential oil with alcohol. Most essential oils are produced via steam distillation followed by separation of the essential oils from the hydrosol (condensed water, usually containing small amounts of essential oils). You can use alcohol in place of water and go directly to the final product. You can also buy pure essential oils and eliminate the distillation step completely.

3) What you cannot do, at least if you want a top quality product, is eliminate the distillation step by going with the "mix and macerate" route (putting the plant materials in high purity alcohol and letting this mix sit for some time). This will produce a product, but the product will contain a number of compounds from the plant that would not volatilize in during proper distillation (for example tannins). These will alter the nature of the final product, and may in fact be undesirable or even harmful.

I have made bay rum both ways, and have gotten very satisfactory results in each case.
The essential oil route has more staying power. It is also more expensive.

I can't argue by adding real ingredients, you will get more than just the oils. however most of what you are adding is food... cinnamon, cloves, allspice... we eat these things.
The bay oil has antibacterial properties, and it is the most beneficial part of this equation, if you don't want to spend a fortune on EO's, the "mix and macerate" method will get you a good smelling aftershave. just buy the Bay EO, and go from there.
Yes it might have a small amount of tannins in it, but you will get much more from a slice of corned beef than you will from this aftershave.

The essential oils you buy (or at least the high quality ones) are produced by steam distillation of the relevent plant material. Thus, adding any combination of these to a high purity alcohol will produce a high quality product. The higher the alcohol purity, the more oil you can get into solution, the more essential oil you have in the solution, the more will remain on your skin after the alcohol evaporates and the longer the scent will remain. Be aware that many pure EOs including West Indian Bay Tree oil can be quite irritating so handle with appropriate care.

Originally Posted by go eyeball

I have a bay berry bush in my back pasture, it's a native Indiana plant, and it smells great. Do you think it may produce a similar scent to bay rum, or would be worth experimenting with?
Say if I were to buy a pint of bacardi select, take a couple pulls off of it, and then fill the remainder back up with the leaves and berries. or am I talkin' crazy talk?

This is a totally different plant, actually a myrtle.

Originally Posted by Mike_ratliff

Yes it might have a small amount of tannins in it, but you will get much more from a slice of corned beef than you will from this aftershave.

I'm not sure exactly how tannins would get in corned beef, it is supposed to be curred in a stone or pottery crock.