Cold-pressed from the peel of Citrus bergamia, the bergamot orange — a fruit grown almost entirely on a narrow strip of the Calabrian coast in southern Italy, and grown almost entirely for its peel. Bright, green, softly floral and faintly bitter; the smell that makes Earl Grey tea Earl Grey.
The one thing you must know: bergamot is strongly phototoxic
This is not a footnote and it is not a theoretical risk. Bergamot peel contains bergapten (5-methoxypsoralen), a furocoumarin that reacts with ultraviolet light. If bergamot oil is on your skin and that skin sees the sun, the result can be a severe burn or a lasting brown pigmentation — sometimes in the exact shape of where the oil ran. There is a name for it: berloque dermatitis, from the perfume-bottle pendants that used to cause it.
The practical rules:
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Keep bergamot at or below 0.4 per cent on skin that will be exposed to daylight — that is roughly 2 to 3 drops in 30 ml of carrier oil. This is the strictest limit of any common essential oil, and it is that low for a reason.
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Stay out of sun and sunbeds for at least 12 hours after applying it to skin, and longer if you can.
- In Porto in summer, the honest advice is simpler: keep bergamot for the diffuser and for skin that stays covered.
- Diffusing it is not phototoxic. The risk is oil on skin plus UV.
- A bergapten-free (FCF) bergamot exists and is not phototoxic — if you want bergamot for a body oil, that is the one to ask for. This bottle is the natural, non-FCF oil.
What an essential oil may and may not claim
Bergamot is commonly sold on the promise that its aroma is "instantly uplifting, helping to lift the spirits and ease feelings of tension, irritation or sadness", and as "a lovely choice for balancing oily or blemish-prone skin". Neither appears here. Claims about mood and about treating blemished skin are health claims, and none is authorised in the EU for any essential oil. Claims about sadness edge towards a mental health condition, which we take particularly seriously.
What is true: it smells wonderful, most people find citrus scent pleasant, and pleasant smells are worth having in a house. That is the whole and sufficient reason to own it.
How to use it
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Diffusion: a few drops in an ultrasonic diffuser, ventilated room, twenty to thirty minutes at a time. It blends beautifully with lavender, neroli, petitgrain, cedarwood and black pepper.
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On skin: only at or below 0.4% and only where the sun will not reach — see above.
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Patch test at your intended dilution and wait 24 hours.
- Not around babies, young children, pregnant women or pets — cats especially cannot metabolise many of these compounds.
Storage — citrus oils need it
Cold-pressed citrus oils are rich in limonene, which oxidises quickly, and oxidised citrus oil is a skin sensitiser where fresh oil is not. Keep the cap tight, store it cool and dark — the fridge is genuinely the right place — and replace it about a year after opening. Buy 10 ml and use it.
Safety — the essentials
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Never swallow essential oils without the direct supervision of a qualified health professional.
- Keep out of reach of children, in the original bottle with the child-resistant cap.
- In eyes: flush with plain vegetable oil rather than water.
- Accident or swallowing: in Portugal call CIAV on 800 250 250 — free, 24 hours. In an emergency, 112.
Propos'Nature
Propos'Nature
Propos'Nature
