Bay Rum Aftershave No. 28

On Barberry Coast's website, they sell this aftershave, an EDP concentration of Bay Rum, and an Extrait version of the Bay Rum. This is a review for the Extrait version, of which I bought a 10ml sample vial. First off, I absolutely love bay rum. It's my favorite traditional scent profile. Barberry Coast's Bay Rum Extrait Reserve absolutely knocks it out of the park. Easily the strongest and longest lasting of any bay rum fragrance that I've tried. The Extrait opens immediately with warm spices (allspice, clove, cinnamon), west indies bay leaf(smells like cloves), and a muted orange note. The orange is soft enough to not overpower the spices and trails off rather quickly. The drydown is where this fragrance shines. The review below me describes it perfectly, it almost smells like a masculine, sexy Christmas cookie due to the added notes of vanilla and tonka bean. While this isn't a traditional bay rum due to the vanilla/tonka bean sweetness, I find that their addition only lends to the beauty of this fragrance. I'm blown away. This is the best version of the bay rum profile that I've tried, and only has added value because it lasts for hours and hours. I HIGHLY recommend the Bay Rum Extrait.

This is literally an aftershave, meaning it is in no way designed to be an actual fragrance; its job is to heal and sooth your skin after you shave your face and neck. For that purpose, as an alcohol based aftershave, it is easily one of, if not the, best out there. I am on my third bottle now. I pair it with their shaving cream of the same name/scent. I love how I can start, or end, my day with a splash of what smells like a fresh, masculine, gingersnap cookie. And it fades out pretty fast so I never feel like it gets in the way of my daily fragrance, as all thats really left is a skin tight dry-down of vanilla and clove. Love that the ingredients are so natural, love that it leaves a slight spicy sting upon application, and love that it has done such a fantastic job of clearing up any acne and/or other symptoms of razor-burn. Unlike other unnatural aftershaves and shaving creams, it doesn't irritate the skin and really feels healing.

Normally, I've been using Pinaud as an aftershave but decided that I'd like to try something new. Barberry Coast advertises this product to be all natural extracts and essential oils and essentially, it's a niche aftershave. After browsing Amazon and reading through their reviews, I decided on this. The vast majority of the reviews rated the product very high and many reported that they got a lot of compliments and women seemed to love it. A couple of people said things like "the ladies think I'm hiding cookies" or "my girlfriend says that I can't wear this without her around". The review I agreed with most is "I smell like a cinnamon stick". My expectations were some sort of a sweet, somewhat masculine, cinnamon-vanilla concoction but honestly, all I smell is a fragrance dominated with a slightly sugary cinnamon. If I were to illustrate a comparison, I'd compare it to what cinnamon toast smells like, except that when you're making it, you've added far too much cinnamon but not enough sugar. In truth, based on the scent, I'd call this a gourmand, unisex fragrance. As far as sillage and longevity, I'd rate sillage as soft and very close to the skin, which shouldn't be surprising, considering that it's an aftershave. Longevity is moderate at 4+ hours.

This is surprisingly complex... sort of in a playful way. On my skin, it starts off yeasty then gradually settling into a molasses/clove/bay leaf and eventually smells like clean, spicy gingerbread. A little hard to explain, but I enjoy wearing it. They've blended this well... a lot better than Pinaud Bay Rum. Nothing at all offensive.

It's a THUMBS UP from me. This is a traditional Bay Rum mix that uses natural oils and fragrances. It has a great feel on the skin after shaving. The cloves and spices are very strong but fade to a pleasant shaving balm experience. It has a pourer top so drizzle it into your hand and slap it on your face. Mmmm. Recommended for shaving.