Bellodgia(1927)

Created by Ernest Daltroff for Caron, Bellodgia opens on bergamot and clove, moves through an overdosed carnation heart alongside rose, jasmine, and ylang-ylang, and closes on sandalwood, vanilla, and musk. Named for Bellagio, the town on Italy's Lake Como, it evokes the romantic, garden-lined elegance of the Italian lakes rather than any literal ingredient sourced there. Its carnation-clove pairing, reinforcing the flower's naturally spicy character, makes it one of the most celebrated carnation-forward compositions in perfumery history, frequently cited as the definitive reference for the note. Bellodgia remains one of Caron's most enduring creations, still regularly discussed by perfumers as a benchmark for how to build a full, complex fragrance around a single dominant spice-adjacent floral.