Thread: Bay rum scent

what does bay rum smell like? I think I saw that there was rum in it, but does it smell like straight rum?

It is the single greatest scent in Shavedom....... No... really it is...... quit laughing I'm serious

Yeah I am a Bay Rum fanatic and the are several different styles of the scent, but I cant describe it in words......

As Glen said, the best scent in the world! Of course that is just my opinion. Take a clove/cinnamon-ish smell and marry it to a vanilla-ish and that is probably as close as I can do. Should give you and idea though.

I sent you a PM. Bay Rums vary quite a bit from brand to brand, but I have a sample of one I will send to you if you want!

-Rob

I've PMed you sicboater, I can't wait to try it out!

BAYRUM ROCKS!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I will get it in the mail as soon as I can. Ogallala Bay Rum is a clove, cinnamon, butter scotch smelling concotion to me. YMMV. One nice thing about it is it doesn't have tons of alcohol in it. The draw back is you have to shake the heck out of it before every use, the plus is it doesn't burn me. I'll send you a sample of the soap too!

Originally Posted by redcannon

I've PMed you sicboater, I can't wait to try it out!

Originally Posted by redcannon

what does bay rum smell like? I think I saw that there was rum in it, but does it smell like straight rum?

Hi there,
Well, at the risk of being only partially correct, I'll chime in here. No, I'm not a scentologist, nor do I play one on any shaving forum. There now.....like that disclaimer?
Seems like there's a specific bay rum EO that's extracted from a certain leaf. The West Indies Bay tree (Pimenta Racemosa) often provides the scent used as a BASE for many other bay rum products. Yep, you'll find bay rum with clove or other scents like lime added, or maybe something to give it a little sweetness. Colleen does a wonderful job when adding sweet orange oil to the bay rum EO, but it IS a blend. Oh...speaking of that, there's NO rum in the bay rum EO as far as I know.
I've sniffed multiple shaving soaps and colognes with bay rum in em, and, as mentioned earlier, there's a wide range of interpretations with that fragrance. Same thing with scents like lime or sandalwood etc.....you gotta sniff each version to see what you think.
For a straight bay rum scent in my shaving creams or soaps, I'll order the unscented soap or cream base from favorite vendors. Then, I'll add an amount of the Pimenta Racemosa EO to it, and bingo!!! Works for me, and easy to do.
I have some soft shaving soap scented with that, and I can send out a bit for you to sniff and try if you like. Pm me if you're interested. I'm pretty sure this is the true bay rum fragrance, but I'm open to corrections.....heh. Colleen or one of the other nice vendors would know a lot more than me. I know there's other bay trees types used from other places, but this one's the standard I believe.
Anyway, hope that helps,
Martin

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.