Best Smelling Beard Balm: How to Pick a Scent You'll Actually Wear

Here's the problem with picking a beard balm by smell: you're not smelling it once. You're smelling it every time you breathe, all day, because it's sitting an inch under your nose. A scent that's great in the tin can get old by lunch. A cheap fragrance oil can give you a headache by 3pm.

So "best smelling" isn't about the loudest scent. It's about one that smells good up close, holds for a few hours, and doesn't make you regret it in a meeting. Here's how to pick one, and what's actually in ours.

What makes a beard balm smell good (and keep smelling good)

Essential oils, not fragrance oils

Most cheap beard balms use fragrance oil: a lab-made scent blend that can smell like anything and costs pennies. It's strong out of the tin and flat or sharp after an hour. Essential oils are pressed or distilled from the actual plant: fir needles, cedar wood, orange peel. They smell more like the real thing, they're softer up close, and they change a little as they settle, the way real wood or citrus does.

Every Nostalgic balm is scented with essential oils only. No fragrance oils, no "parfum" on the label.

The base matters

Beeswax and butters hold scent longer than a straight oil, because the wax keeps the essential oils from evaporating off your beard as fast. That's why a balm usually smells stronger and lasts longer than a beard oil in the same scent. Our balms are beeswax, shea butter, sunflower, grapeseed, coconut and baobab oils, plus vitamin E.

Strength you can live with

A good balm should smell clear when you put it on and settle close to the skin within an hour. If someone across the room can smell your beard, it's too much. You want the person you're hugging to notice it, not the whole office.

The three scents, and who each one is for

Pine Tar: clean evergreen

Pine Tar Beard Balm smells like walking into a stand of fir trees on a cold morning. Fir needle and cypress up front, warm copaiba balsam underneath, and a little orange and lemongrass to keep it bright. It's the easiest one to wear every day, and the safest pick if you're buying for someone else.

One straight answer: the name comes from our Pine Tar Bar Soap, our top-selling bar. The balm itself has no pine tar in it, so it won't leave a tarry smell in your beard. If you like the bar, this is the beard version of that outdoor feel.

Campfire: real smoke

Campfire Beard Balm is the strongest of the three. The smoke comes from cade oil, which is distilled from juniper wood and smells like the morning after a fire, not a candle. Cedarwood and fir needle round it out. It's a cold-weather, outdoors, end-of-the-week scent. Pair it with the Campfire Bar Soap if you want the whole thing to match.

Bay Runner: orange and warm spice

Bay Runner Beard Balm is the one for the office or a night out. Sweet orange, clove, cinnamon and a touch of anise over patchouli and amyris. It's in the spirit of an old barbershop bay rum: warm, a little sweet, clean. It matches our Bay Runner Bar Soap.

How to pick: a simple rule

• Work outside, or want one balm for everything: Pine Tar.
• Like smoke, cold weather, or the outdoors on weekends: Campfire.
• Office, dates, anywhere people stand close: Bay Runner.

Matching your balm to your soap helps more than people think. If you wash with one scent and put a different one in your beard, you end up wearing two smells that fight. Same family, and they stack instead. Our bars are in the natural bar soap for men collection.

What happened to Surf Orange beard balm?

This post used to be about our Surf Orange balm. That balm is retired. The scent, sweet orange with earthy patchouli, lives on in Surf Orange Beard Oil. If you liked it, the closest balm is Bay Runner, which has the same orange and patchouli with warm spice on top.

How to apply beard balm so the scent lasts

1. Start with a clean, towel-dried beard. Balm goes on best when the hair is damp, not wet.
2. Use less than you think. Scrape a pea-sized amount with your thumbnail for a short beard, a little more for a long one.
3. Warm it in your palms until it melts. Cold balm drags and clumps.
4. Work it in against the grain first, down to the skin, then smooth it with the grain.
5. Comb it into shape. That spreads it evenly, which spreads the scent evenly too.

If you want softness more than hold, use a few drops of beard oil first and a smaller amount of balm on top. Our oils come in the same scents: Pine Tar, Campfire and Bay Runner. A 2 oz bottle lasts most guys a couple of months.

Beard balm or beard oil?

Oil is for softness and the skin under your beard. Balm is for hold and shape, with some conditioning built in. If your beard is short, oil alone is usually enough. Once it's long enough to stick out sideways or the mustache gets in your mouth, add balm. If you're buying for someone, the Beard Gift Set ($40) has the oil and balm in one scent plus a comb, a brush and scissors.

Frequently Asked Questions

How long does beard balm scent last?

With essential oils, you'll notice it clearly for the first few hours, then it settles close to the skin. Balm holds scent longer than oil because the beeswax slows evaporation.

Is a scented beard balm too strong for work?

Not if you use a pea-sized amount. Essential-oil scents sit close to your face. Bay Runner and Pine Tar are the easiest to wear around people; Campfire is the boldest.

Does Pine Tar beard balm contain pine tar?

No. The name comes from our Pine Tar Bar Soap. The balm is scented with fir needle, cypress, copaiba balsam, orange and lemongrass essential oils.

Can I mix a beard oil and a balm with different scents?

You can, but they'll compete. Same scent, or the same family (Pine Tar with Campfire, for example), works better.

Does beard balm make your beard grow?

No. No balm or oil makes hair grow. A good balm keeps the hair soft and the skin under it moisturized, which makes a beard look fuller and less scraggly.