Pomelo peel essential oil

Citrus, but bitter at the edges, with a powdery note sweet orange does not have.

The bitterness comes from the white pith. The deeper the pressing, the more bitter the oil, so how bitter a bottle is tells you how hard it was pressed. Like every peel oil, it fades fast and leaves a little coolness.

This is one of the few citrus smells many people recognise long before they know its trade name: pomelo peel squeezed in the hand, the pot of herbal water for washing hair, the Mid-Autumn Festival. It was there long before anyone called it an essential oil.