If you are someone who loves a light, refreshing scent, bergamot comes as a gift of god to you. Wildly used in perfumery and essential oils for its excellent benefits, bergamot has gained quite a lot of attention for almost a decade now.
It has a distinctive citrus scent that is used both for men’s and women’s perfumes, colognes, and cosmetics.
There is a lot more to be known about this lemony orange fruit in perfumery.
To begin with a surprise, it’s not just the scent as you must have thought. It is also considered a portion of fantastic food and drink flavouring agent for its delicious aroma.
Want to know more about this ingredient? Read on to know in and out of the bergamot.
Where Does Bergamot Come From?
Bergamot comes from a spiny tree named citrus bergamia. This tree is said to be originated in the tropical climes of Southeast Asia.
However, now it is grown commercially in the province of Calabria in Southern Italy. Apart from that, it is now also found in the South of France, and Africa’s Ivory Coast, where most of its production is done for its use in perfumes and cosmetics.
Under proper weather conditions, it can also be grown in Europe. But the scent of the fruit Bergamot grown in Europe seems to differ a bit.
It is also considered traditional Chinese medicine for its exceptional medicinal properties.
According to Ayurveda, Bergamot has distinctive healing properties that reduce melancholy and uplifts mood. This makes it an essential addition to aromatherapy.
But now, large-scale production of bergamot fruit is often used to extract scent. It has a unique aroma, and that’s exactly what we are going to decode further.
Deconstructing Bergamot Smell
Bergamot often called bergamot orange has a decent pleasing scent. The little citrus fruit is the size of an orange but green or yellow in colour with properties of lemon.
The bergamot’s skin has a very catchy fragrance that is now used in perfume as a base note.
Bergamot is known for its soothing scent, spicy taste, and wide range of uses largely in perfumery and beauty products.
It smells like other citrus fruits with a bright, sweet aroma with base notes of tartness and acidity.
Many people around the globe also consider bergamot as a spicy orange as it smells both like lemon and bitter orange.
However, due to its unique lustrous aroma, it is often used in a combination of a variety of additives in perfumery. It creates a strong decent fragrance and hence is an essential element for the perfume industry.
Here are a few elements that mix well with bergamot creating a unique fragrance seen in most of the well-known luxury perfumes.
What Does Bergamot Mix Well With?
When it comes to blending perfumes, there are certain factors one needs to consider. Incase of Bergamot, it isn’t any different.
Bergamot does not go well with all additives due to its strong, sunny and sweet aroma with base notes of tartness and acidity.
With a lot of trial and error, currently, bergamot is mixed with these additives and is loved by people around the globe.
Most preferably, bergamot is used along with scents like sandalwood, apple, rosemary, Neroli Citron, vetiver, and vanilla. Here are few fragrance mixtures you should know if you are considering adding bergamot to your wardrobe.
Neroli Citron
Bergamot, in combination with Neroli Citron, creates a strong floral citrus scent. With a mixture of lighter base notes of warm cider and creamy sandalwood, Neroli citron and spicy bergamot work wonders. One such similar combination is seen in Tom Ford Venetian Bergamot Eau de Parfum.
Other than sandalwood, neroli and bergamot are also combined with black tea absolute, creating a fresh citrus scent. This combination is seen in Heretic’s Melrose Place boutique.
If you are looking for a fresh citrus fragrance or a fruity fragrance, this bergamot neroli combination could just be for you.
Apple
An apple’s warm summer scent mixes well with a top note of citrus bergamot, creating a sweet musky melon fragrance. It closely resembles a sweet but not cloying fragrance.
This combination can be found in Byredo Pulp. It has middle notes of fig, red apple, and Tiare flower.
Other such apple and bergamot mix is found in Vilhelm Perfumerie. Referred to as a love letter, this fragrance has a smokier scent of oakness, musk, and amber.
It is a refreshing scent for a happy summer vacation on the beach.
Orange
Various orange scents, including bitter orange, mandarin orange, and orange peals, are combined with bergamot in many luxury perfumes. It creates a decent fresh citrus scent, sometimes sweet fruity, sometimes sensual floral elegant fragrance.
Notes of bergamot are combined with orange blossom and grapefruits to create a fresh sweet, and spicy fragrance in Le Labo. It is a unisex perfume and blends all your favorite aromatic scents together quite nicely.
Ylang Ylang
Known for its decadent, sweet, and slightly fruity floral fragrance, Ylang Ylang is often combined with bergamot. Perfumers seem to love this combination for its sweet top notes and base citrous notes.
This combination is found in Annick Goutal’s Eau d’Hadrien, one of the best-selling perfumes throughout the world.
It has a fresh, clean scent with citrus notes, bergamot, and ylang-ylang. It creates a calming decant scent often used for a day out at work.
Vanilla
Quite a common additive to most citrus perfumes, vanilla mixes well with bergamot quite easily. It creates an easy-to-wear scent for everyday use. This mixture of vanilla and bergamot is not too strong, not too mild if the perfume has top notes of bergamot and not to mention vanilla base notes.
One such perfume is the Shalimar Souffle de Lumière Guerlain. Bergamot gives it a tint of freshness and madagascan venilla balances the sweet floral scent.
These were the few best additives that are often combined with bergamot that results in a new fresh fragrance of its own each time. As you might have already noticed, apart from these five fragrances, bergamot blends with jasmine, sandalwood, rose, and other floral scents in some of the other way with top notes of bergamot.
Why Does Perfume Smell Differently on Different People?
Your office colleague smelled magnificent, and you asked them the perfume they used. You bought it later on just to realize it’s not the same anymore.
It not the perfume but the person wearing it changed, on so did its properties. Although you found your perfect scent, its concentration reacted with your skin, eventually resulting in a new fragrance on you.
This is because every individual’s skin’s pH balance is different. Also, the skin’s texture is different, and so is your skin’s chemistry. The diet you have is different from that of your colleague, and so are the hormone levels.
These all factors altogether change the way a particular perfume smells on each individual.
So next time while you go shopping for your new scent, make sure you don’t apply any lotion, skin oil, or another scent. Also, test the perfume on your forearm and not on your inner body.
This will help you figure out how your skin reacts with perfume’s concentration and the way it will smell on you.
FAQs About Bergamot
Does Bergamot Smell Like Orange?
Bergamot smells like lemon and bitter orange but not like a regular one you love to drink. This is the reason it is often described as a spicy orange.
However, it looks just like the orange with the yellow or green colour of a lime. It is in similar size to oranges. But it does not smell like a regular orange and more like lemon.
Is Bergamot Good For Anxiety?
According to a study on both humans and animals, the scent of bergamot helped relieve anxiety. It also helps improve the overall mood. This is because of the soothing aroma of sweet fruity bergamot.
And so it one of the quite famous essential oil used in aromatherapy throughout the world.
How Can Bergamot Improve Sleep Quality?
Yes, your favourite bergamot perfume can really help you sleep well. Its aromatic fragrance prepares your body for sleep.
Bergamot slows down the heart rate and lowers blood pressure, eventually helping you calm down, reduce stress and anxiety. Its fragrance possesses seductive qualities. Hence improve sleep quality.
Conclusion
So next time when you are looking for a scent for a day at work or a night out at the club, don’t forget to consider bergamot perfumes. With versatile blends and evergreen fragrances, you can indeed exhibit your personality with bergamot’s distinctive aroma.
With the sweet, bright sunniness along with citrus and typical floral scent, you know you are attracting the attention in the classiest way you can.
Maximo is the ideator behind Getastylehub.com. He graduated from the Grasse Institute of Perfumery (GIP) in France in the year 2003. His learnings in the field of perfumery have been immensely educative and helpful in creating new fragrances at a creative centre in Manhattan where Maximo works as a perfumer. He has a fine appreciation for incense’s art, and his colossal passion for perfumery reflects in his discussions. He has managed and led teams in his past working experience researching scents with its key clients.