Familiar to all perfumers as the most ‘perfume-like’ of the citrus, this is Italian origin material that I chose after a competitive evaluation of samples. This is the expressed (cold pressed) product subject to the IFRA limit of 0.4% of the finished product for ‘leave on the skin’ products.
For the fourocoumarin free version, see the linked product.
According to Arctander bergamot oil is “produced by cold expression from the peel of the nearly ripe fruit. The tree grows almost exclusively in a narrow coastal strip in the southern part of Calabria, Italy.” He goes on to describe the oil, which he says: “ is used extensively in perfumery for its sweet freshness, particularly in citrus colognes, chypres, forrgeres, modern fantasy bases, etc. Part of the sweetness and rich bodynote is due to the presence of large amounts of linalylacetate combined with linalool and traces of methyl-anthranilate.”