The bergamot smell is citrusy but spicy compared to oranges and lemons. The smell of bergamot is derived from the peel of the bergamot fruit which means it’s also bitter. A tart-like influence differentiates its smell from other citrus smells.
The bergamot smells is similar to lemon and bitter orange. Its hybrid scent is often described as ‘a spicy orange’. Bergamot flowers, on the other hand, are edible and their taste is often compared to oregano.
One of the ingredients most mentioned in perfumery is bergamot. If you are a bit curious as I am, you might be wondering what it is. Many people confuse bergamot with lime. But the bergamot fruit is a mix between lemon and orange.
When grown properly, bergamot doesn’t necessarily require too much watering. In the fragrance world, the spiciness of bergamot is taken for granted. But the more you water the plant, the less spicy it becomes, and from here, the difference in how bergamot smells like.
What Does Bergamot Smell Like?
The scent of bergamot is citrusy with plenty of spiciness, slightly fruity and tarty as well as slightly floral. Its smell is spicier than the smell of lemon and bitter compared to the smell of oranges. It is a green smell by definition.
The nose feels tingly after smelling bergamot due to its unusual spiciness. Its scent leaves you invigorated as boosting energy levels is a direct result of smelling bergamot.
Bergamot is the most used note in perfumes as most people like it and it’s not too expensive to source as an essential oil.
Today, we know that bergamot has been used in perfumery since 1714. Giovanni Maria Farina, an Italian living in Germany, first used it in cologne in the German city of Cologne. The perfumer describes bergamot as the smell of Italy early in the morning after the rain with a mix of narcissus and orange blossom.
Bergamot is a note made from the tree of Citrus Bergamia. Today, you can find this tree around the Italia region of Calabria (the cool season of the region is between November 26 and March 31st and when bergamot blossoms). The fruits are then turned into an essential oil using cold press mechanical extraction.
Bergamot smells citrusy
The first quality of the bergamot smell is its citrus nature. Bergamot fruits are citruses. They are characterized by zesty flesh and rich flavorful and bitter peel. Bergamot smell is only derived from its peel. The flesh of the bergamot fruit isn’t used to make essential oils and they aren’t edible either.
The flesh is too bitter to be consumed raw. Other citruses can be consumed raw by contrast. For example, you can eat an orange or a lemon right off the tree.
Bergamot smells green
The bergamot smell has a green nuance to it. Green scents are often derived from grass, petitgrain, or mint. But none of these are citruses. This is why bergamot smells more like lime than orange or lemon.
The green facet of bergamot recommends it in refreshing perfumes. It’s often the first scent of fragrances the nose feels out of the first spritz.
The scent of bergamot is slightly bitter
Bergamot never smells sweet, even when ripe and overripe. The fruit remains bitter. Of course, there are many types of bergamot to smell, with plenty of nuances. Some types of ripe and zesty bergamot fruits smell more like a tart while others are close to their bitter nature.
Bergamot fruits are inedible – they are only used in perfumes
People cannot eat raw bergamot fruits, unlike other citruses such as lime and lemon. The leading characteristic of bergamot makes it a top note in perfumery but not an edible citrus fruit due to its extreme bitterness.
Bergamots only smell best when they’re from Italy
The best bergamot smell is made using bergamots from the Italian region of Calabria. This unique Mediterranean region sits between Sicily and the Pollino National Park in Southern Italy.
Other hot climates where bergamot is grown include Southern France, West Africa, and parts of Southern Turkey.
Bergamot doesn’t grow properly in temperate climates of Northern Italy such as regions around Milan or Turin. Bergamot is not native to the Italian city of Bergamo. This city is also located in Northern Italy, a region that gets a cooler temperate climate compared to the Southern Calabria region known for the best bergamots in the world.
The bergamot smell is invigorating, not relaxing
Many associates the bergamot scent with relaxing smells, but this isn’t the case. Bergamot peel smells invigorating, almost off-putting when too intense. Its citrusy nature means you can only smell bergamot for a limited time, just like smelling lemon, before you start to become immune to its smell or before its tingle is too much for the nose to bear.
Bergamot is the most energy-boosting smell
Bergamot is has a high-energy smell or an invigorating smell that is ideal to uplift the mood. This is why it is used in invigorating fragrances. Fresh perfumes, summer perfumes, and spicy perfumes all use bergamot essential oil in different percentages. It’s bergamot that is often mixed with other sweeter citruses such as lemon and red-orange or blood orange for a more down-to-earth citrus scent.
How does bergamot look like?
Bergamot looks like a dry lime. Its green peel is wrinkly, unlike the peel of lime and lemon. It has bright yellow-green flesh, similar to the peel of lime.
Characterized by a wrinkly green peel, bergamot is easy to recognize as it doesn’t have the smooth texture of oranges or lemon.
How is bergamot made?
Bergamot essential oil is made with cold pressing techniques out of the Citrus Bergamia fruit which grows on bergamot trees, normally in Southern Italy. The best way to make bergamot oil is by steam distillation. Find out more about how to make perfume and how you can use distillation to make bergamot essential oil at home.
What are the benefits of bergamot?
As I previously said on fragrancespotter, citrus is the only truly uplifting note regardless of your personality. You simply cannot see a sad person after eating bergamot or lemon. This effect persists in perfumes where it has a similar uplifting role and often an introductory role for all other notes.
Anxiety benefits
Bergamot reduces anxiety. There’s proof to show it can reduce anxiety, even if by a small margin and this is one of the reasons it’s used in aromatherapy.
It fights bacteria
Flavonoids extracted from bergamot have antimicrobial activity. The essential oil is used on skin infections, but not without dilution.
When not to use bergamot
The bergapten in bergamot is photosensitive. This means you can end up with severe burns if you apply concentrated bergamot oil directly on your skin and then go out in the sun. It’s best to mix it with perfume alcohol to make it tolerable.
What scent mixes well with bergamot?
As seen in many of the perfumes made today, bergamot mixes with nearly all perfume ingredients, to an extent. In the tea industry, it mixes with black tea.
Black tea
Black tea and bergamot are used to make one of the most popular Earl Gray teas. Ceylons are often mixed with bergamot tea when the tea is mixed with milk.
Mint
Bergamot and mint offer a refreshing aroma, highly suitable for summer fragrances. You can find the combination at most brands using mint as a fragrance note.
Ginger
The spicy-fresh nature of ginger complements bergamot. It works both in drinks and in perfumes.
Is bergamot the same as an orange?
Bergamot is not the same as orange, but it certainly resembles the round fruit. Bergamot is a combination of orange, lemon, and possibly grapefruit for its spiciness.
Bergamot chemical structure
Bergamot is made out of different compounds. Among them, you can recognize a-pinene, myrcene, limonene, a-bergaptene, linalool, linalyl acetate, nerol, neryl acetate, and geraniol.
FAQ
Is Bergamot a feminine scent?
Bergamot has a unisex scent used in perfumes for men and women. It’s also used in candles for aromatherapy for both men and women.
Is bergamot an aphrodisiac?
Bergamot is an aphrodisiac and one of the top ingredients in attractive fresh perfumes. It’s used in the food industry in revitalizing teas and on marmalade to reduce its sweetness.
Is bergamot a fruit?
Bergamots are the fruits of the Citrus Bergamia fruit. This fruit comes from Italy where its peel is processed into essential oil for its aromatic benefits as well as for medicine.
Is bergamot fruit edible?
The fruit of bergamot is not edible due to its sour taste. The essential oil made from bergamot isn’t drinkable either. It’s one of the few citruses that can’t be consumed.
Is bergamot a lime?
Bergamot is not lime and it’s not an orange. It has a distinct color and a distinct sour taste. Its taste resembles bitter orange and lime with a touch of lemon and a tart-like aftertaste.
Is bergamot masculine?
Bergamot is a unisex scent. It’s used in men’s and women’s perfumes. Bergamot is similar to lime, lemon, orange, blood orange, but with extra sourness. It’s rarely used on its own in perfumes. Bergamot is best combined with other citruses such as lemon and fruit smells such as pear, apple, and pineapple.
Best Perfumes That Smell Like Bergamot
Perfumes with bergamot are the essence of summer and time spent in the sun. If you love bergamot and its fresh spiciness, you’ll feel at home with one of the following perfumes.
- Acqua di Parma Blu Mediterraneo Bergamotto di Calabria – Eau de Toilette
Acqua di Parma is the best-known summer fragrance house. Some consider it a niche house but it certainly has prices closer to designer perfume houses. You can choose any Blue Mediterraneo perfume for the summer heat. However, Bergamotto di Calabria is where the true bergamot lies in.
It might be one of the best true bergamot perfumes to use still in production.
Citron and bergamot are strong and dominating from the opening.
Ginger, flowers, and cedar are its mid notes.
Vetiver, benzoin, and musk are its base notes.
You can expect the perfume to last on your skin anywhere between 4 and 6 hours.
It’s also clearly only made for the summer months, albeit I wear it whenever I need to lift my mood.
- Chanel Chance
The floral Chanel Chance is one of the most popular bergamot perfumes which smells like true bergamot and patchouli.
While made for the summer, it has a sweetness to it from the added vanilla and as a result, it’s a perfume many people love and which gets women plenty of compliments.
Pineapple, iris, patchouli, pink pepper, and hiacynth are the main opening accords here.
You can smell rose, lemon, jasmine, bergamot, and mandarin in the drydown.
Vetiver, vanilla, and musk give it a bit of depth. The perfume has a mild projection and it lasts about 5 hours on the skin.
- Atelier Cologne Bergamot Soleo
If you like the smell of cologne, you can’t go wrong with Soleo.
The perfume has a first strong bergamot impression mixed with blood orange which gives it that zesty citrus feel.
Lavender, jasmine, and cardamom give it a bit of an attractive side in a few minutes.
Oakmoss, amber, and vetiver give it a bit of richness which also allows you to wear it in the evening.
- Orto Parisi Bergamask
Only bergamot and musk are found in this intriguing cologne. If you like how bergamot smells and if you love musk, it’s the type of fragrance you will hold close to your heart. Musk is changing here and there’s certainly an edge to the perfume, highly specific to most Orto Parisi releases.
You can expect longevity to be 10+ hours on this scent and even if it comes in small perfume bottles only, it’s a bergamot perfume that lasts.
- Guerlain Homme L’Eau Boisee
The classic chypre with a modern twist is an essential bottle of perfume you need to own if you love bergamot and when shopping on a budget.
Together with the citrus note, you’ll also smell hints of vetiver, woods, mint, grass, geranium, rum, and musk.
With a woody inclination, the bergamot perfume can still be used for the summer, and men who don’t like sweet scents are going to consider it as a signature scent.
- Mancera Lemon Line
The tart lemon description attributed to the scent resembles bergamot, even if it’s not listed among its notes.
White flowers, lavender, orange, geranium, musk, and amber are also present in this niche summer perfume. The perfume is only citrusy in the opening as it then turns more towards a lavender uniscent. The lemon in it will challenge most others with its natural appeal. The scent lasts about 5 hours on the skin.
Final considerations
Bergamot smells like lemon and orange but it certainly has its original appeal. Today, it’s widely used in perfumery where you can get accustomed to its intensity and longevity.
You can also use bergamot oil in aromatherapy if you’re fighting stress. Otherwise, the rather inexpensive ingredient should be experienced during the summer when the high heat shows outs its true potential the best.