Bergamot Leaf
Note Profile
About
Green neroli-floral leaf oil
Scent Profile
A bitter leafy green dominates, the smell of a crushed citrus twig rather than a bent peel. Under it sits a real white_floral heart that every source names as neroli or orange blossom, and it lasts on skin for hours after the top has gone. A citrus lift is present and reads as bergamot, but it is thinner and more terpenic than the peel oil because the limonene is nearly absent. A softer general floral tone sits beside the neroli. The drydown is dry_woody and soapy, described twice as Marseille soap, and that soap quality is scored here as clean_musk. Sources also call it tea-like, and there is no facet for that.
ScentWheel
Read off the wheel, not a label applied to the note.
Origin
Bergamot Leaf is petitgrain bergamotier, the essential oil steam-distilled from the leaves and twigs of the bergamot tree (Citrus bergamia). It is not the rind oil. Production is small and almost entirely Italian. The composition differs from the fruit peel oil of the same tree: Hermitage Oils reports under 1% limonene in the leaf oil against over 10% in the peel oil. That is the chemical reason the leaf oil loses most of the bright citrus top the peel oil is bought for.
Usage in Perfumery
Perfumers use it as a bridge note. It extends a citrus opening past the point where peel oil has gone, and it joins green, floral and woody material without a seam. Fraterworks sells it for exactly that: building neroli accords and connecting green-floral-woody themes. It is also used where petitgrain bigarade would be too harsh, because reviewers describe the bergamot version as rounder and free of the bigarade off-notes.
Similar Notes
Perfumes featuring Bergamot Leaf
A selection of reviewed perfumes where Bergamot Leaf appears prominently.
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