Here's an idea - I've had this DIY Bay Rum on the backburner, mainly so that I can secretly watch how
@Dale.Whiley goes with his and also as my main side-project at present is doing a batch of cold process soap (just normal soap, not shaving!).
But one of the issues that came up is that to get the alcohol content high enough it can end up making the entire exercise a tad cost prohibitive - and what I specifically mean by that is for the amount of stuffing around it's not massively cheaper than commercial versions so the risk factor included (e.g a batch of cat's wizz!) makes it a bit of a second guesser.
As you've got to use rum - no getting around that - budget $30-35 for an entry level bottle. But then to get the alcohol content higher thats tricky......chemist bought rubbing alcohol is very expensive (which is ridiculous!) and the option most people end up at is using the cheapest available Vodka - again say $27-30 for 700ml.
Well here's what I believe is a good idea. Methylated Spirits. Now HEAR ME OUT.....I've confirmed through
several other threads where people were wanting to use it for other medical uses that Digger's brand MS is 95% ethanol, 5% water, <0.1% denaturat (basically a non-toxic bittering agent to make it horrendous to drink). It contains nothing that should provide any issues with external use! Overseas they sometimes use methanol in theirs and this is where issues come up - but the Diggers Brand is (
based on the info I've seen) totally clear of this.
MS does have a bit of a stigma around it but thats kind of unfair and largely linked to people's ignorance and linkage to folks drinking it. There's really no reason I can see why one couldn't use it as a completely acceptable substitute for alcohol in external topical application usage. Should allow people to significantly decrease the cost of such projects whilst keeping the alcohol content very high to extract maximum volatiles from the botanicals as per
@razorguy 's recommendations.