The plate: bergamot
Planche I · BergamoteBergamot · Citrus bergamia

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: when you spray it.
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 183 of the 1080 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”

Named by the house, not on the label, in 264

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)”

Sources