Bergamot

What makes a single-note fragrance worth wearing is the quality of the raw material inside it. Bergamot as a raw material carries a particular reputation among perfumers and fragrance enthusiasts for its ability to combine brightness with depth, for holding both the sharp volatile top notes associated with citrus and softer, rounder facets that emerge as the oil dries down. The decision to feature bergamot without other notes is a wager that the unadorned material holds up under scrutiny, that there is enough happening inside a single ingredient to justify an entire composition.

The evolution

The fragrance announces itself with a clean burst of bergamot on the skin, the green bitterness of the peel sitting right beneath the citrus brightness in a way that gives the opening real character. That initial brightness is the most volatile phase, the part of the oil that lifts off the skin first and carries the most projection. As the top notes begin to settle, the citrus loses some of its sharp edge, and the softer facets of the bergamot oil begin to surface. The fragrance shifts from a bright, projecting citrus into something rounder and more intimate, the warmer tones that were previously buried beneath the volatile top now registering more clearly. What emerges in the middle phase are the facets that read as aromatic and floral on the accord list, the less obvious parts of the bergamot profile that only become visible once the dominant citrus has softened.