Bay Rum Craziness

[Bladesmith]

So one of my favorite scents of soap before I started making was bay rum. The first bay rum fragrance I had purchased though, I didn’t like much and it turned me off for a while. Then I bought another small bottle of bay rum from a different supplier and I really liked it. The first one I bought isn’t included here as I don’t think I have it any longer.

So, I really wanted to try bay rum from several suppliers and see what all was out there. I ordered a little bit bigger quantities so that I wouldn’t feel as bad about paying all the shipping costs.

I was going to put down some notes about them oob today but I woke up with a cold and a stopped up nose so I’ll add to it once this clears up.

Anyone have any favorite bay rums that’s not included here?

Some of these came in plastic bottles and I moved them to glass bottles and tried to put the old label on it. I’m going to make a new label for them.

It does seem like there’s a couple categories here. Some are very spicy and some are not so spicy.

 

[IrishLass]

My favorite Bay Rum is Oregon Trails Soaps West Indies Bay fragrance oil (formerly their Montego Bay FO, but now renamed to West Indies Bay). Hands down it's the most awesome Bay Rum FO to my nose. The reason why I love this FO so much is because it smells just like the real Bay Rum EO blend that I make for my hubby's Bay Rum aftershave by steeping Bay Racemosa essential oil and crushed allspice berries together in Everclear and rum. You can read all about my Bay Rum experiments here. Side by side, it's hard to tell the difference between the Oregon Trails FO and my EO blend.


IrishLass

 

[IrishLass]

I should probably mention that Oregon Trails also has a FO called Bay Rum (it's hard to make out, but it looks like it maybe/might could be the 3rd bottle from the left in your picture). That's a nice FO, too, but not anywhere as realistic as their West Indies Bay.


IrishLass

 

[Bladesmith]

Oof. Wish I had picked up that West Indies Bay fragrance when I was ordering. Didn't see it the first time around.

Yeah some of it is hard to make out.

Left to right back row is;
Symphony Scents, Brambleberry, Soapalooza, Lebermuth, Nature's Garden, Oregon Trails, WSP, Sweetcakes

Then the little bottle in front is Bulk Apothecary

 

[shunt2011]

I’ve been using WSP Bay Rum for several years. Has a pretty steady following. I plan on trying OT’s that IL recommends next time I order from them. I don’t order often. Mostly get my Vanilla stabilizer there.

 

[SoaperForLife]

I have tried several Bay Rum FO's over the years and the one I like the best is Majestic Mountain Sage's.

 

[Mobjack Bay]

Do all of the Bay Rum scents discolor? @IrishLass the West Indies Bay sounds wonderful, but the description says it discolors to cream/light tan. I’m thinking about the scent for a “nautical” theme soap, but hoping to keep the base soap white without having to add TD.

 

[Lin19687]

I use mainly NG, and since I don't really know what Bay Rum is suppose to smell like, I like it and it sells

 

[Bladesmith]

Well, my cold has gotten worse. Finally decided to go to the doctor and get some antibiotics.

I will say that Nature's Garden is my least favorite out of the bunch. I'm not sure why they call that one Bay Rum tbh. It smells like potpourri that people would put out at Christmas time. It's pretty strong in the piney/christmas tree smell. I get that Bay has a spicy scent but that is just not it. I went back after I purchased it to see the smelling notes they listed. They never listed bay or rum in any of it

That's probably one of the only ones I really regret buying. I will probably try to mix it with something.

 

[Mobjack Bay]

@Bladesmith I have Bay Rum from MMS, which I don’t think I see above. I like it, but I’m new to FOs and don’t have a lot to compare it with. With my very limited FO vocabulary, I would say that it smells a little green, a little spicy and possibly a little powdery. I’ve only used it in a green color soap, so I don’t know if it discolors. Any chance you have insights on discoloration with Bay Rum FOs?

 

[Primrose]

I've only smelled one, the BB and I personally don't like it. But I'm not sure if that's what bay rum is supposed to smell like. Mine behaved beautifully and didn't discolour, first time using it was for the recent tiger stripe challenge

 

[Bladesmith]

I can’t comment too much on discoloring yet. Many of them do. Some claim they don’t.

I’m not too crazy about BB one either. The one that I got was all spices and no rum or anything to mellow it out.

I did order the one from MMS and the West Indies bay from Oregon trail to see how those are as well. They should both be in by Tuesday. I’ll probably try and put some notes here middle of this coming week. Hopefully by then the cold will be over with and I can use my nose again.

 

[Lin19687]

Well, my cold has gotten worse. Finally decided to go to the doctor and get some antibiotics.

I will say that Nature's Garden is my least favorite out of the bunch. I'm not sure why they call that one Bay Rum tbh. It smells like potpourri that people would put out at Christmas time. It's pretty strong in the piney/christmas tree smell. I get that Bay has a spicy scent but that is just not it. I went back after I purchased it to see the smelling notes they listed. They never listed bay or rum in any of it

That's probably one of the only ones I really regret buying. I will probably try to mix it with something.

How old is the NG Bay rum you have ? Mine doesn't smell like Potpourri at all.

 

[Bladesmith]

Mine is brand new. It smells like Christmas spice to me. I've not used it in soap yet so just OOB impressions.

I did see this thread about it when I started doing some searching. Though it's a 5 year old thread.

https://www.soapmakingforum.com/threads/natures-garden-bay-rum.50593/

Edit: I also see on reviews on their site a few other people mentioned the pine/Christmas spice type smell. In any case this one sits apart from everyone other one in that it doesn’t smell like Pimenta racemosa or rum or any combination thereof.

There are a couple others here that are pretty spicy as well but the spice smells more like actual bay.

 

[IrishLass]

For those wanting to know what Bay Rum is supposed to smell like, authentic bay EO from West Indian bay leaves (i.e., Pimenta Racemosa- the type of bay that "Bay Rum" aftershaves are traditionally made from), smells wonderfully spicy. Just so there's no misunderstanding, the aroma I'm about to describe is in reference to the actual pimenta racemosa Bay essential oil, i.e, not in reference to any of the Bay fragrance oils out there in FO-land: to my nose, the essential oil has a complex aroma of cinnamon, cloves and allspice berries, all wrapped up into one. For what it's worth, I buy my bay (pimenta racemosa) EO from Mountain Rose Herbs.

The reason why I specify the pimenta racemosa type of bay is because there's another type of bay out there (laurus nobilis), and it doesn't smell anything like the wonderful cinnamon/clove/allspice aroma of the West Indian pimenta racemosa bay.

Bladesmith, you mentioned that NG's Bay Rum smells like Christmas potpourri. It's funny you should mention that, because my bay racemosa EO reminds me of those cinnamon & spice-scented pine cones that my local grocery store puts on display outside their front doors at Christmastime. Although the actual EO doesn't have any pine notes in it, it does remind me of Christmastime because of the strong cinnamon/cloves scent emanating from those scented pine cones . lol

When I was researching how to make my own Bay Rum aftershave for my hubby, I did a lot of reading on the different shave forums out there where many were asking what Bay Rum is supposed to smell like, or else posting about their experiments with making their own out of actual pimenta racemosa bay leaves (which are hard to source where I live, which is why I bought the EO), and I remember many making mention of how it reminded them of Christmas....because of the spicy cinnamon/cloves scent.


IrishLass

 

[Bladesmith]

I hear you. I bought some Pimenta Racemosa EO as well just to know what I should be expecting. I was quite surprised by the smell. It certainly does have some of those "holiday spices" in there.

I will just say that NG is not the same and definitely more Christmas-y to my nose. Not saying that it's a bad FO, it just doesn't smell like West Indies Bay. I just feel like it should be labelled something else.

 

[KristaY]

I love the scent of bay rum but just can't get any to stick in CP. I've tried BB, WSP and Julie's Scentsational. Used all at the max rate and ended up with a faint scent after about 3 months, mostly gone by 6 months. It's been a few years since my last foray into bay rum so I'll be curious to hear how the scent holds for you. Fingers crossed!

 

[lucycat]

Bladesmith,
Did you ever soap any of these and did you have a favorite? I had been using the Sweetcakes (bottle 2018) for one customer and need to re-order. Although I liked it I thought it was light and started blending it about 6:1 with a sweetgrass to add more bottom notes. I wondered if there was one you liked better.