Bergamot

Bergamot is the most important citrus in perfumery, and almost all of the world's supply comes from a single stretch of Italian coast in Calabria. The fruit is small, sour, and inedible, but the oil expressed from its peel gives the bright, slightly bitter, slightly floral opening that begins almost every classical perfume in history. Earl Grey tea owes its character to bergamot. By Vedic logic, bergamot is Mercury and Sun: Mercury in its bright, communicative quality and its function as the opening word of a perfume, Sun in its golden warmth, its lift, its life-giving brightness. Bergamot is the most versatile top note in perfumery. It plays well with every other family, lifts heavy bases, sharpens floral middles, and gives nearly every perfume its first breath. On skin it reads as fresh, optimistic, slightly aristocratic. Wear it in spring and summer. Pairs with everything.