Bay Rum Bay Rum Bay Rum

I managed to pick up a tub of Mike's Natural Bay Rum the other day and shaved with it for the first time yesterday. I really enjoyed it--the scent had notes I remember from bay rum colognes around during my teenage years. Mike describes the soap: "Spicy bay leaf combined with bergamot and a dab of vanilla." Essential Oils. Really nice shave starting with Grooming Dept Eucalyptus & Spearmint Pre-shave, Mike's Bay Rum soap and finished off with Atomic Age Bay Rum AS.

Today I have Long Rifle Bay Rhum soap and matching aftershave ready for my shave in order to compare this with Mike's and Atomic Age while the memory is fresh.

I managed to pick up a tub of Mike's Natural Bay Rum the other day and shaved with it for the first time yesterday. I really enjoyed it--the scent had notes I remember from bay rum colognes around during my teenage years. Mike describes the soap: "Spicy bay leaf combined with bergamot and a dab of vanilla." Essential Oils. Really nice shave starting with Grooming Dept Eucalyptus & Spearmint Pre-shave, Mike's Bay Rum soap and finished off with Atomic Age Bay Rum AS.

Today I have Long Rifle Bay Rhum soap and matching aftershave ready for my shave in order to compare this with Mike's and Atomic Age while the memory is fresh.

I've heard Mike's is great.

Long Rifle's Bay rhum could be my all-time favourite scent, but it's kind of ironic considering it is made with fragrance oils only, and (as I sumise) it is a premixed 'bay rum' scent at that. You'll notice that it also happens to closely resemble bay rums produced by Crown Shaving Co, First Canadian and Jeeve's of Hudson St, none of which use the essential oil of west indies bay. So I suspect everyone uses the same pre-blended synthetic 'bay rum' oil. I have no definitive proof of this, mind you, only circumstantial evidence. This being said, I do really love this scent. It's just different from scents made with the essential oil of pimenta racemosa - which I also happen to love!!

I recently picked up the Chiseled Face bay rum splash btw, and as previously mentioned, it's a winner.

I’m surprised no one is mentioning Catie’s Bubbles Bernegat Bay! I think it’s tremendous take on bay rum.

insomniHack I think you are very perceptive. Long Rifle Bay Rhum is becoming a favorite for myself as well--the scent is wonderful and the soap is a very smooth performer. I very much enjoyed my shave with it which I just finished.

OTOH, Mike's Bay Rum, an essential oil only soap, runs true to form as what you would expect from the real deal. It has that spicy pepperiness and richness that I associate with my memory of smelling bay rum colognes when I was younger. I don't know if Mike gets the respect he deserves because he make a really fine product. I totally nailed it with this purchase.

I have pretty much stopped buying new soaps but I made an exception for Mike's Bay Rum when I saw a reference to it in the sabbatical thread on the B&B forum. The poster was bemoaning the fact that he had committed to a sabbatical during which he received a communication from Mike indicating the Bay Rum soap had been restocked for a brief space in time. I jumped on that like white on rice. The next day it was listed as out of stock. Right place, right time. If Mike's Bay Rum is the last soap I buy for a while (and I am not saying it will be), then I will be going out, as it were, in style.

I’m surprised no one is mentioning Catie’s Bubbles Bernegat Bay!  I think it’s tremendous take on bay rum.

I'm not sure how I forgot that one - I have both the soap and aftershave and its very nice.

insomniHack I think you are very perceptive.  Long Rifle Bay Rhum is becoming a favorite for myself as well--the scent is wonderful and the soap is a very smooth performer.  I very much enjoyed my shave with it which I just finished.

OTOH, Mike's Bay Rum, an essential oil only soap, runs true to form as what you would expect from the real deal.  It has that spicy pepperiness and richness that I associate with my memory of smelling bay rum colognes when I was younger.  I don't know if Mike gets the respect he deserves because he make a really fine product.  I totally nailed it with this purchase.

I have pretty much stopped buying new soaps but I made an exception for Mike's Bay Rum when I saw a reference to it in the sabbatical thread on the B&B forum.  The poster was bemoaning the fact that he had committed to a sabbatical during which he received a communication from Mike indicating the Bay Rum soap had been restocked for a brief space in time.  I jumped on that like white on rice.  The next day it was listed as out of stock.  Right place, right time.  If Mike's Bay Rum is the last soap I buy for a while (and I am not saying it will be), then I will be going out, as it were, in style.

Mike's was one of my early Bay Rums that helped with the addiction i think - I'll have to dig it out and lather it up

I’m surprised no one is mentioning Catie’s Bubbles Bernegat Bay!  I think it’s tremendous take on bay rum.

I'm not sure how I forgot that one - I gave both the soap and aftershave and its very nice.

Is Barnegat Bay unique in some way relative to the other offerings out there? Based on the description I feel like it must be a fairly standard take on bay rum. I love CB tho, so it's been tempting me all the same.

I’m surprised no one is mentioning Catie’s Bubbles Bernegat Bay!  I think it’s tremendous take on bay rum.

I'm not sure how I forgot that one - I gave both the soap and aftershave and its very nice.

Is Barnegat Bay unique in some way relative to the other offerings out there? Based on the description I feel like it must be a fairly standard take on bay rum. I love CB tho, so it's been tempting me all the same.

It is unique in that it hasn't got any of the spiciness that is common in standard bay rum. Its more bay less rum I guess, I like it a lot. There are people who don't like the clove or spicy smell of a lot of bay rums so this one would be for them. A few years back when I was in discussion with Shawn hawns of Chatillon Lux about making a "bay inspired" post shave product, Shawn mentioned Barnegat Bay as a "bay rum" that he actually liked, Shawn not being a fan of the traditional spicy/clovey bay rums. Under relentless pressure from me, insisting that every shaving artisan had to have some sort of bay rum in their line up Shawn finally caved, a little. Well, maybe not at all, in any case Shawn created Blackberry Blossom Bay which was truly inspired in my opinion. He got the bay rum hounds off his back while remaining true to his muse. Win win if you ask me. Shawn also opened my eyes (nasal passages?) to the possibilities of bay as a completely seperate scent note from bay rum and those possibilities are limited only by one's imagination.

I want to thank you insomniHack for mentioning the Long Rifle Bay Rhum. I picked up a bottle of this a couple of months ago and at the time it didn't appeal to me but after reading your post I went and dug it out and smelled it with a new nose so to speak. I used it for my shave this morning and it is much more complex than I remember it being on first sniff. Nice

On the other hand, while I was digging out the Long Rifle, I came across a tub of Van Yulay Bay Rum soap. I hadn't used it for a long time so I gave it a go this morning too in keeping with the bay rum themed shave. Now to be fair, this is 3 or 4 year old tub of Van Yulay and I don't know if they've improved their formula since then. It lathered up well with a rich shiny lather but its just not as slick as the current top performers. The scent was nice but mild with a fair amount of clay noticeable. It caused me a little tingling which is why it was in the box of unloved products I suspect. Can't recall for certain. In any case its back to the BOULP for that one.

That made me think about how we judge soaps. In the early days of wet shaving I would judge a soap on its own merits compared to certain criteria. Does it smell good? Does it lather well? Is it slick enough that I can get a comfortable drama free shave? Whats the post shave feel like? There were some good soaps and some not so good ones. Now, several years and many soaps down the road, I not only compare soaps to the above criteria but also to other soaps and thats where many soaps fall down. Are they a good soap? Yes. Are they as good as this or that soap? Often not. Its hard to shave with a good soap when you could be shaving with a better soap after all, you only have so many shaves on the clock and life is too short for bad shaves, or rather, less than the best shave you can get.

I was listening to a podcast where they discussed the phenomena where competitors in judged events seem to do better if they compete later in the competition. The reason is that the earlier competitors get judged against an abstract ideal whereas the later ones get judged against other competitors. There's a larger sample of competitors and it becomes clearer to distinguish who's better than who. So don't go first!! The same thing is happening with shaving soap.

Barrister and Mann is coming back out with their Bay Rum! It will initially be released in Glissant with Tonique Aftershave, and will eventually be moved over to the Excelsior Base and Deltus Aftershave. This is one of my favorite Bay Rum scents, so I’m really looking forward to it, WooHoo!!