Bay Rum

To preface this review I absolutely love Bay Rum. It my favorite traditional scent profile, and I can't get enough. Soap, shave soap, aftershave, etc. I've had my eye on St. Johns Bay Rum for quite some time now, but I just recently pulled the trigger on the 7.5mL travel sprayette for $15 USD. WOW. This is the strongest Bay Rum I've tried, hands down. I've been using Taylor of Old Bond Street's Bay Rum aftershave for years, and I shave 2-3 times weekly. St Johns is at least twice if not three times as strong. Deep and rich notes of cloves, cinnamon, and real West Indian Bay. Small wisps of eucalyptus, musk, and orange creep in and out during the wear. Incredibly masculine fragrance. Being a bay rum, you only have a few hours of longevity with this. It has a super strong opening but it mellows out pretty quickly. Excellent double purpose as an aftershave. Absolutely gorgeous. I'm going to have to buy a full bottle of this. Worth every penny. Smell like your (great)grandfather did, he had great taste. EDIT: St John's Bay Rum is such an underrated masculine fragrance. Along with the strong clove/West Indian bay note, the cinnamon and eucalyptus blend together so well and create a delicious honeyed edge to this fragrance. Blended shockingly well. Such a simple fragrance but it is executed to perfection. The hidden gem of my collection. Every time I wear it, I can't help but smile. Top 5 fragrance that I want to gatekeep forever. Buying a full bottle ASAP to use as an aftershave/at home fragrance. I want to smell like this permanently.

I've used this Bay rum since I was a kid, stealing it from my uncle's dresser whenever we visited...and of course within minutes of sneaking out of his room I'd be caught because the whole house smelled like bay rum. When I was 13 or 14 he gave me my own bottle- I wasn't even shaving yet- but I wore it proudly. I wore it so proudly, in fact, that Fr John Whitney O'Sullivan, SJ, my mathematics teacher, took me aside and explained how to apply fragrances because I and my bay rum were the talk of the school. Fifty years later and I don't think I've ever gone a full year without having a bottle of St John's. Until the advent of net shopping I'd buy it from Colonial Drug in Harvard Square, a magical shop that introduced me to the joys of fragrance. So St John's Bay Rum is the foundation of this lifelong interest. The quality has always been there over the decades, though I notice small variations from bottle to bottle. That's a good thing as it really is a natural product. It's always been a clove bomb, but unlike cheap bay rums in plastic bottles that hide their lack of quality behind all that clove, St John's balances that clove with a rich bay oil. It's the real deal. The clove is sweetened at the top with a hint of orange, and the juice has surprising longevity due to a woody base. So unlike the cheap barbershop bay rums (several of which I love) that you can douse yourself in because it's all going to burn off in an hour, a too liberal application of St John's is going to get you in trouble...with Fr Whitney O'Sullivan.

Really nice. It is mature, but in a pleasant and charming way. Definitely can see how this has a Caribbean influence to it. Suitable for any time of year and any weather really. This is strong stuff. A little goes a long way. I would be careful if you use this as an aftershave. If you apply it generously, it's going to be a clove bomb for a couple hours. I've just been using it as a slash so far and even just a couple tiny dabs on pulse points gives me wafts for several hours. Some people say this is all cloves, which isn't true. I will say, cloves/potpourri smell is dominant at the very top of the fragrance. So when you sniff the bottle or first apply, yes you are going to get that smell. But it dries down into something a lot more sophisticated and you get those pleasant notes of the bay oil and eucalyptus. That's really where the charming mature feel to this fragrance kicks in. Good value and fast shipping from their website. If this was from a fragrance designer, it would be double the price for sure. If you like mature/barbershop fragrances and looking for something with a bit of charm, this is a fantastic choice.

I wrote a detailed review below, but I wanted to add this story. What kind of man wears this bay rum? My wife and I were watching old episodes of the NY cop show Blue Bloods. In one scene, Bridget Moynahan's character, the ass't DA, is talking with her brother Danny, the hardass detective played by Donnie Wahlberg. They're trying to figure out if their father, Police Commissioner Frank Reagan, played by Tom Selleck, is manipulating something quietly behind the scenes. "Is Dad behind this? she asks. Danny answers "Yeah, I think so. It's got the smell of St John's Bay Rum all over it."

To me it basically smells like cloves and bay leaves with a little bit of cinnamon and a woody dry down. You either love it or hate it, and unfortunately, as much as I wanted to love it, I do not. Definitely unique and very good quality, but it is just intense and slightly nauseating to me. Edit: I have grown to actually love this lol, no longer nauseating and I felt like that because I was just smelling the bottle. It is sharp at first but settles very nicely