Ingredients · Citrus · top note

Bergamot oil

Say itBUR-guh-mot oil

Earl Grey tea, and the zest of a lemon-orange.

Perfumers call citrus notes hesperidic, after the golden apples of the Hesperides.

What it is

Oil pressed from the peel of the bergamot fruit.

Where it comes from

Mostly Calabria, Italy; also Ivory Coast and Brazil.

When you smell it

Top notes: the first minutes.

What perfumers do with it

The classic opening of colognes and chypres; bridges citrus freshness into floral and lavender hearts.

Worth knowing

Earl Grey tea owes its perfume to bergamot, and Reggio Calabria in Italy produces roughly 90% of the world's oil.

Known in

Shalimar (Guerlain, 1925); Eau Sauvage (Dior, 1966); Vol de Nuit (Guerlain, 1933)

Rules

Limited. Phototoxic bergapten; capped in leave-on skin products

Also called

Citrus bergamia peel oil, cold-pressed; bergamote

On the label of 59 of the 232 perfumes read so far

SauvageDior · printed “Citrus aurantium bergamia (bergamot) peel oil”ShalimarGuerlain · printed “Citrus aurantium bergamia (bergamot) peel oil”Eau SauvageDior · printed “Citrus aurantium bergamia (bergamot) peel oil”Good GirlCarolina Herrera · printed “Citrus aurantium bergamia (bergamot) peel oil”Bleu de ChanelChanel · printed “Citrus aurantium bergamia peel oil”Coco MademoiselleChanel · printed “Citrus aurantium bergamia peel oil”

See all 59

Named by the house, not on the label, in 34

MitsoukoGuerlain · “bergamot”AngelMugler · “Calabrian Bergamot”Acqua di GiòArmani · “Bergamot”LibreYSL · “bergamot”AventusCreed · “Calabrian Bergamot”JickyGuerlain · “Fougère accord (aromatic bergamot, lavender and rosemary notes with woody notes)”

See all 34