Another week, another round of fragrance reviews kicking off with Fragrance Fridays with yours truly! Don’t forget to check out my fellow “fragdomental” writer, John’s, Scent Saturday reviews as well!
Introductions aside, let’s get down to business. So I mentioned my love of the note bergamot in a previous review of Le Labo’s Bergamote 22. In that review, I crowned Bergamote 22 as the queen of bergamot fragrances, but also said I would be reviewing other bergamot scents to see if any of them would snatch the crown away from her.
This week, we’re trying out her first contender, MALIN+GOETZ’s Bergamot. MALIN+GOETZ was founded in 2004 by Matthew Malin and Andrew Goetz in New York City, NY. They opened their first store in Chelsea, in March 2004 and have since grown into an international health and beauty brand offering fragrances, candles, soaps, shampoos, and more. Their fragrance, Bergamot, was launched as a unisex scent in 2016.
Now, more I launch into whether this contender actually dethroned the current queen, let’s take a quick rundown of the (many, many) notes in this fragrance.
Notes for Bergamot
Head: Bergamot, lemon, mandarin orange, green pepper, lime, grapefruit
Heart: Cardamom, lily-of-the-valley, ginger, black pepper, spicy mint
Base: Cedar, amber, musk, additional woody notes
Verdict: This is a citrus lover’s dream. Strong bergamot, lemon, and lime notes are going to slap you in the face. However, the black pepper and woody notes in here ground it from becoming a synthetic “limeade” or turning into Pledge Lemon-scented dust spray nightmare. Not as many aromatics detectable as Le Labo or even Rag & Bone (to be reviewed at a later date), but if you’re wanting a straight-up citrus blast, this is right up your alley.
Projection wise, Bergamot is pretty is decent, you’ll be able to get a decent whiff of this off of someone so long as they’re no more than three feet away from you when it’s freshly applied. That said, the longevity on this is not terribly high, so this is settling down to a skin scent pretty quickly and then fading. This is partially because Bergamot is a citrus scent and those types of scents just don’t have the staying power as other types, and because Bergamot is an EDT concentration, so the percentage of perfume in this isn’t as high as an EDP or extrait. The sillage is pretty natural and doesn’t present too harshly.
So does it dethrone Le Labo’s reign as the bergamot queen of fragrances? No. This is nice, for sure, but it’s a broad citrus blast across the board and loses site of its namesake. That said, it’s very nice and if you love your citrus scents this should be one you at least try out once. I got a decant of this from Scentbird, a monthly subscription service, but if you’re looking for just a sample you can find a vial over at Smallflower.
If you’re looking for a whole bottle, however, that’s going to be a little harder. It’s out of stock at MALIN+GOETZ’s website, so you’ll likely pay a little bit extra like $150 for a 100 mL bottle at C.O. Bigelow Apothecary. Ultimately, this is a fragrance made for citrus lovers, with all the positives (you love citrus) and cons (longevity is kinda in the toilet) that accompany this type of scent. Maybe not rush out to buy a full bottle (because I’m always going to be team “Sample first!”), but it’s definitely worth at least looking into procuring a sample.
The Fandomentals “Fragdomentals” team base our reviews off of fragrances that we have personally, independently sourced. Any reviews based off of house-provided materials will be explicitly stated.
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