Citrus
Photo: Leslie Seaton from Seattle, WA, USA — CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons
At a glance
Citrus is a fragrance family built on bright, zesty top notes like bergamot, lemon, and grapefruit, traditionally the opening act of a composition rather than its core.
Light, volatile oils from bergamot, lemon, mandarin, orange, and grapefruit. One of the oldest fragrance categories in Western perfumery, tracing back to the earliest 18th-century eau de colognes, long before the modern designer-fragrance industry existed.