Long Overdue and Maybe in Time for Valentine's Day!

We have this bay rum tree that I bought The Herbal Husband several years ago.  He also found the bay rum aftershave through the J. Peterman Company catalog.  I thought it had gone out of business.  Guess I was totally wrong.  They have unusual finds and one of a kind items, but no longer the bay rum aftershave.  The bottle has Dominica written on the bottle.  That's where The Herbal Husband spent some time working before we met.  We didn't meet there.  We met here in the 'Burgh.  So The Herbal Husband has been asking forever for me to make him the aftershave from the bay rum tree we have.  I found a recipe in Scrapbook #8 that contains all kind of cosmetic recipes from Susanna Reppert and The Rosemary House.  Hope it is OK to share the recipe with you.

Bay Rum
2 cups spring water
1/2 cup bay leaves
1 T glycerine (I found this at my local pharmacy.)
2 cups rum
1 t orange extract
1/2 t lemon extract

Bring water to boil and steep leaves.  (I steeped them for 30 minutes because they were dried.)  Cool and strain.  Add glycerine and mix well.  Add extracts to alcohol.  Mix alcohol mixture with bay water.  Mix well and bottle.  Store in a cool, dim place.  Tastes good too!

The last photo is only half of the recipe.  It makes a generous four cups.  I used the bay rum leaves so it made the scent more intense.  I may leave out the extracts in my next batch.  The bay rum leaves seemed to have those orange and lemon tones without the extracts.  Hopefully this will keep The Herbal Husband smelling good this year.

Windy here at the moment and rain/snow coming soon.  Just glad I figured out the blog mess from yesterday.  So if you mysteriously lose your text, but everything else is intact, try changing your template!  I'm still think conspiracy.  Hope you are having a great day or evening wherever you may be.  Talk to you later.