Do aftershave 'splashes' all taste bad? I don't mean to drink. but residue on the skin.
All alcohol-based aftershaves do, yes.
But, to explain that, let's look first at something else: the Oceans. Oceans, in this case, is a men's cologne introduced last year by Nautica. It caused quite a stir in the fragrance world -- which is to say the proverbial tempest in a tea cup. The attention it attracted wasn't so much because of its fragrance. It's a well-done men's aquatic which has been generally well-received. But, being mass-marketed, it is -- of course -- not exactly daring or innovative or even distinctive; the fragrance is confected for mass-market appeal. What caused the excitment was not the rather-conventional fragrance. What caused the excitment is its formulation; specifically, it is water-based and contains no alcohol.
For a cologne, a perfume, to be water-based is virtually unheard of. There are some oil-based perfumes, but they are virtually all quite exotic. Virtually all colognes and perfumes have long been alcohol-based.
You see, most of the breadth of what the nose can detect is due to chemicals from the chemical family which chemists call esters. The ester family is one of the largest, most common, and most diverse groups of chemicals. Most of what we smell is due to small, light-weight, volitile members of the ester family.
Esters are made by reacting an oxygen-containing acid with either an alcohol or a phenol. For example, if you mix butyric acid and ethanol alcohol, you'll easily product the ester Ethyl Butrate.
But you won't be the only one producing Ethyl Butrate. Pineapple plants produce Ethyl Butrate too. And Ethyl Butrate is the chemical which give s pineapple most of its fragrance. Ethyl Butrate is also produced by strawberries and is part of what gives strawberries their fragrance.
If you were to use formic acid instead of butyric acid, you would easily form the ester Ethyl Formate. Ethyl Formate is the chemical produced by lemon plants which is largely responsible for the fragrance of lemons. It's also part of what gives strawberries their fragrance.
(As an aside, the fragrance of pineapple is almost entirely due to Ethyl Butrate. In face, anyone sniffing Ethyl Butrate blindfolded would swear that they were smelling pineapple. Similarily, the fragrance of lemons is almostly entirely due to Ethyl Formate. The fragrance of strawberries, on the other hand, is a combination of several esters. There is no one chemical which gives the fragrance of strawberries. This is why it is rare to see the delicious and very attractive fragrance of strawberries as a note in perfume or as a fragrance in other products. Creating that fragrance requires creating several chemicals which is much more expensive. Furthermore, blending those components together so that the result smells of strawberries without also having hints of pineapple, lemon, and other things has proven ellusive.)
These volitile, small, light-weight esters are often called "essential oils," not because they have some physical traits in common with petroleum oil, specifically, they are thick, sticky, viscous liquids which don't dissolve in or even mix with water.
The scent of most of these esthers is, when coming from the pure esther, is unbearably strong, so strong that it doesn't smell like what it's "supposed to." A whiff of pure Ethyl Butrate straight from the bottle will not remind you much of pineapple. In fact, it'll probably send you reaching for the trash can to vomit into. To smell like pineapple, it has to be seriously diluted, down to the parts-per-million range.
Because Esters are not soluable in water, that dilution can't be done with water. Esters are, however, soluable in alcohol... ethyl alcohol, aka ethanol, in particular.
So, most perfumes and cologne and other fragrance products consists of tiny amounts of esthers dissolved in large amounts of ethanol.
But ethanol is "drinking alcohol." It's what puts the alcohol... and "buzz"... in gin, vodka, whiskey, etc. The "proof" of a liquor is just twice its concentration by volume of ethanol. 80-Proof whiskey is 40% ethanol.
Because of its drinking use, ethanol and products containing any significant quantity of ethanol are taxed and also age-restricted to purchase.
Perfume manufacturers can avoid the tax and break open the age restrictions by using "specially denatured" alchohol. The drinkability of it is deliberately ruined by addng a pinch of denatonium benzoate to it. Denatonium benzoate is difficult to separate from the alcohol. Curiously, denatonium benzoate is also the bitterest-tasting substance known to man. Most people can't stand to taste it much in excess of about 10 PPM. Fortunately, not being a ester, it's pretty much odorless.
Any fragrance product, aftershave, cologne, or perfume, which is alcohol-based will be made using SD-40B Alcohol. SD-40B stands for "the 40th formula for specially-denatured" alchohol. SD-40B was specifiucally formlated for use in fragrance products where any trace odor of whatever is used to "denature" the alcohol is unacceptable, but an unpleasant flavor is not a problem.
There are other formulas of "specially-denatured" alcohol for other purposes which have all been some how adulterated to prevent their use as a drinking alcohol thus keeping them being taxed and restricted as such.
So, when you taste a fragrance product, aftershave, cologne, or perfume, what you're really tasting, the taste which is so strong that it absolutely drowns out the taste of anything else in the mix, is denatonium benzoate.
Nautica Oceans, which does not contain SD-40B or any other alcohol, is a rare exception.
..and then I use alcohol too..just not the rubbing kind.