Bay Rum

I have been wearing this for many years and the reviews claiming that it is clove-heavy are flat out wrong. You want clove? Try Ogallala. Now THAT'S clove-heavy. The Bigelow is so much smoother and relies on the pimenta racemosa for it's luxurious scent. This juice is quite deep and rich. Straight Bay Rum would be Meehan's Bay Rhum (since the hurricane, prices are exorbitant). The shower gel and the aftershave balm are also excellent products. Order directly from the C.O. Bigelow website, otherwise you'll pay ridiculous prices.

I had this some years ago, during a phase where I was learning about traditional shaving (brush and lather, barbers razors, leather strops etc) and one of the places I bought a straight razor had this stuff. It's extremely old school smelling, but in a good, citrus spice kind of way reminiscent of an old barber shop. Clean, fresh, invigorating. Not something I wore to the club, (back then Acqua di Gio pour homme was the Sauvage of the day) but I liked it.

A scent with Savoir Faire. Some people hate the scent of cloves, cinnamon and nutmeg. I absolutely LOVE it. I've grown tired of overly used sweet base that sits in just about every fragrance these days thanks to the sugar addiction most women have (and deny having). It's so nice to get back to basics. This is rich, sexy, manly, I love it! Spice Done Right!

One of the fundamental problems I've noticed about Bay Rum fragrances is that they always go WAY too heavy on the clove. I've never really been able to find one that manages to handle the bay leaf note well without using too much clove, until I found this one a couple years ago. I was fifteen at the time, and really, I bought it because I heard it was being discontinued and I liked the smell of the matching shower gel, so I thought I'd get the cologne. At the time, I ended up not really digging it, simply because I found it too "old man" like, and perhaps a bit too "Christmas"-ey (think potpourri); of course, now that I've gotten a bit older and developed my taste in the past few years, I can appreciate Bigelow's Bay Rum for pulling off a smooth, sweet Bay Rum without using too much clove or smelling too much like Old Spice. It's warm, comforting, not too "old" at all, lasts a while, and you just can't beat the price. It's still around, and $29.50 USD for a 100ml bottle on Bigelow's website! I'm not a fan of Bay Rum fragrances, but if you're searching for the perfect Bay Rum, I'd say this is the one to get.

It's clove and pepper, not much else on me. Sure it's like Christmastime - it's a pomander ball gone bad.

Gifted a bottle for Christmas. Since I was running low on my favorite Bay Rum (St. Johns), the missus got this one for me...and actually a very nice fragrance...very heavy on pepper and citrus, leaving the bay rum accord somewhere in the background. Performed just as expected since it's a cologne...lasted about 30 minutes on my skin. Viewing this as a nice, short-lived freshie for the Spring into the Summer. Surprisingly, I find this to be a duplicate (somewhat) of Oscar for Men by Oscar de la Renta...might be the heavy pepper. Recommended for those that enjoy a quick burst of freshness with undertones of Bay Rum i.e. post shave, morning 'wake me up'...If you're looking for a true Bay Rum, I would highly recommend you seek out St. Johns Bay Rum...what a real Bay Rum smells like!

I don’t know what possessed my husband to buy this years ago, but unlike most reviewers, I truly can’t stand it. To my nose, it reads as stale or rancid limes. However, I can’t bring myself to toss fragrances, no matter how little I care for them. Like all my bottles, this one is stored in a place that is cool and dark. It smells now exactly like it did almost two decades ago.

My first introduction to the Bay Rum scent was with the Master Well Comb Bay Rum Aftershave, which, for me, is the definition of what a good bay rum should smell like; pretty well balanced and enjoyable. C.O. Bigelow claims to be the oldest apothecary in the United States, and the formula for this is based on a recipe from 1907 that they found in their archives, so I was definitely interested in smelling it and seeing how it compared to my treasured bottle of aftershave. To say that the clove notes in this product is overpowering would be an understatement, because it's pretty much the main feature of it. Yes, you can smell other notes like citrus and bay leaf that help give you that classic Bay Rum smell (of sorts), but they are almost pulled under and drowned in an ocean of clove. It's to the point of being obnoxious. I haven't worn this in quite some time, because I can't really think of an appropriate occasion for it. It's too heavy for daily wear, and I'm hard pressed to think of an evening function where something like this would be appropriate. It must have reacted well with my body chemistry, because the smell of it followed me for the rest of the day after I applied it, which I know doesn't usually happen (or isn't supposed to happen) with Eau de Cologne products.

Very pleasant spice heavy bay rum. In fact, the bay really takes a back seat for a short while before the spices stop dominating. All in all I'd love to have it, but it is such a 'fleeting' scent. Whoever listed it as very long lasting must have been making some sort of joke. By definition an Eau de Cologne cannot do that. 1 hour max before skin scent for a couple more.

I've had it for a while, and I love this fragrance for occasional use. But, it's incredibly heavy on the clove, and maybe it's my skin chemistry, but it is certainly not long lasting. Still, I love it, and I've had the same bottle around for several years. Glad to know I can still find it, the bottle I have is getting a little low.

This smells like my grand dad, very masculine, pungent, and just a bit old fashioned. I think I may buy this for him.