Less bitter than lemon, lime and grapefruit (despite being inedible) but with less tanginess than standard-issue orange, the bergamot oil is more well-balanced than a tightrope walker, hence its ability to team up with lots of different ingredients and create complex scents.

Bergamot In Fragrance

Aside from the fact that bergamot smells pleasantly rich, the oil’s relative scarcity has helped to bolster its status as an A-list aroma. Traditionally the very best bergamot oil could only be obtained by pressing the rind of the orange by hand to collect the essential oil in a sea sponge. And, when you take into consideration that 1,500 kilograms of bergamot oranges yield just one kilogram of oil, that makes for sore hands all round.

Modern technology has increased productivity and banished blisters, but bergamot oil is still tricky to tap: weather, soil and ingredients all dictate how the fragrance obtained will smell. But, despite all this effort, the scent has still been used to make men smell refined for hundreds of years.

Dove explains the scent’s success story: “Bergamot is a signature ingredient in the structure of the fougère and the chyrpré fragrance families – the two accords (balanced blend of ingredients) of masculine perfumery. Chypré fragrances are typified by their inherent warmth and dryness, whilst fougère fragrances are fresh and aromatic – but both contain bergamot. Since the birth of modern perfumery, there has been no escaping it. It is part of the DNA of men’s perfumery.”

The Best Bergamot Fragrances For Men

Tom Ford Venetian Bergamot

Even those with no nose for fragrance know that Tom Ford colognes are among the sweetest that money can buy, so unsurprisingly the brand’s Venetian Bergamot demonstrates one of the best uses of the ingredient. By taking bergamot’s hallmark freshness and adding peppery, woody and floral notes, the citrus-y essential oil takes on an unexpected richness and depth.