favorite bay rum products

Not my favorite. Meehan's and Dominica are better. IMO

Will give my Barrister & Mann Bay Rum shaving soap another try this upcoming week and report back with my findings here  

BTW has anyone tried DR Harris Bay Rum after shave splash ?
Is it good for a Bay Rum fan ?

Hi Claus, I have a bottle of D.R. Harris Bay Rum aftershave and I like it. I would call it a more sophisticated bay rum than most, more subtle. I'm a bay rum fan and I like it for when I want a lighter scent.
Mark

I really like bay rum. It's been around since the  1600's when stinky Caribbean sailors first discovered the smelled better when they rubbed themselves down with bay leaves, then later figured out you could get the scent easier after soaking it in rum.  Essentially it is pirate perfume.

This may be the reason, why the scent is somewhat challenging for me to like

I do enjoy spicy scents, woody notes, oudy scents, tobacco notes - but it all has to still smell pleasant to me and my nose.

Bay Rum reminds me more like something I would smell in kitchen, while cooking and now I know why - I did not know what Bay leafs meant in Danish, but after your post, I looked it up and Bay leafs, while smelling wonderful in certain dishes, I would not enjoy smelling bay leaf on myself.

The same with curry and paprika - I love these spices in foods, but smelling of it - no way.

I also love rum, especially dark rum, and I do have a couple of fragrances that have a rum note in them, but rum combined with bay leaf - no wonder the pirates had to smell really stinky when out on the sea for months, so I figure Bay Rum would be an upgrade to such guys......but I'm not so sure it would be an upgrade on how I smell, even after 3-4 days without taking a bath...sorry guys  

Well, it's a different plant than the "bay leaf" one cooks with. The cooking plant is: Bay Laurel (Laurus nobilis). The kind of bay in Bay Rum is West Indian Bay (Pimenta racemosa.) It's confusing that way, because there are at least 1/2 dozen plants called "bay." Originally the smell of Pimento Racemosa was the primary scent then later that scent mixed with the scent of rum. Still later, other spices were added such as allspice, black pepper, orange peel, cloves, etc. Some of the Bay Rum aftershaves, etc. don't even have any pimenta racemosa leaves or essential oils in them at all anymore.

I make my own and it does contain pimenta racemosa as well as actual rum and I like it very much. I would probably market it, if it didn't cost so much to make. Most people would rather have the $7 bottle of Clubman Bay Rum.

@uzi where do you get your pimenta racemosa? I want to try making my own bay rum as well but have had trouble tracking down a source.
Thanks,
Mark

@uzi where do you get your pimenta  racemosa?  I want to try making my own bay rum as well but have had trouble tracking down a source.
Thanks,
Mark

That was the hardest part. There is one company in AL that usually has it in bulk, but is now out of stock. I eventually found pimenta racemosa essential oil on eBay. There are also a few people that have dried leaves. There is at least one of those on etsy which is $25/4 oz. It is not that easy to find, but it's out there. Searching via the Latin name turns up better results.

@uzi where do you get your pimenta  racemosa?  I want to try making my own bay rum as well but have had trouble tracking down a source.
Thanks,
Mark

That was the hardest part.  There is one company in AL that usually has it in bulk, but is now out of stock. I eventually found pimenta racimosa essential oil on eBay. There are also a few people that have dried leaves. There is at least one of those on etsy which is $25/4 oz. It is not that easy to find, but it's out there. Searching via the Latin name turns up better results.

The world is currently experiencing a massive bay shortage. It may be difficult and/or expensive to find.

@uzi where do you get your pimenta  racemosa?  I want to try making my own bay rum as well but have had trouble tracking down a source.
Thanks,
Mark

That was the hardest part.  There is one company in AL that usually has it in bulk, but is now out of stock. I eventually found pimenta racimosa essential oil on eBay. There are also a few people that have dried leaves. There is at least one of those on etsy which is $25/4 oz. It is not that easy to find, but it's out there. Searching via the Latin name turns up better results.

The world is currently experiencing a massive bay shortage. It may be difficult and/or expensive to find.

Yes it is. Almost all West Indies bay is grown on plantations and most of it is spoken for, so there is not that much available on the market. If someone had some acres in south Florida it would make an excellent cash crop. I use B&M Bay Rum a lot. Great job.

@uzi where do you get your pimenta  racemosa?  I want to try making my own bay rum as well but have had trouble tracking down a source.
Thanks,
Mark

That was the hardest part.  There is one company in AL that usually has it in bulk, but is now out of stock. I eventually found pimenta racimosa essential oil on eBay. There are also a few people that have dried leaves. There is at least one of those on etsy which is $25/4 oz. It is not that easy to find, but it's out there. Searching via the Latin name turns up better results.

The world is currently experiencing a massive bay shortage. It may be difficult and/or expensive to find.

Thats interesting - it probably hasn't been the most profitable crop to grow for some time and now with the increasing popularity of traditional wet shaving and all that goes with it, I suspect growers have been caught off guard. I don't know how long it takes for the bush/tree to grow to maturity so it can produce marketable quantities of leaves but I suspect that eventually supply should increase to meet demand. Maybe its time to head for the islands and start a plantation.

Do you know if pimenta racemosa can be reliably and economically synthesized?

I really enjoy the Captain's Choice bay rum aftershave, and the soaps from WSP and Stirling. I also really like the Soap Commander one (purpose? I can never remember the SC names...), but it's a completely different scent profile.

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That was the hardest part.  There is one company in AL that usually has it in bulk, but is now out of stock. I eventually found pimenta racimosa essential oil on eBay. There are also a few people that have dried leaves. There is at least one of those on etsy which is $25/4 oz. It is not that easy to find, but it's out there. Searching via the Latin name turns up better results.

The world is currently experiencing a massive bay shortage. It may be difficult and/or expensive to find.

Thats interesting - it probably hasn't been the most profitable crop to grow for some time and now with the increasing popularity of traditional wet shaving and all that goes with it, I suspect growers have been caught off guard.  I don't know how long it takes for the bush/tree to grow to maturity so it can produce marketable quantities of leaves but I suspect that eventually supply should increase to meet demand.  Maybe its time to head for the islands and start a plantation.

Do you know if pimenta racemosa can be reliably and economically synthesized?

I do not, but, if I had to take a guess, I'd say that a decent replacement for use in fragrance blends could be synthesized so long as it was used in conjunction with other notes. As for an exact re-creation, it's likely that it could be done, but not economically.