Not drawn yet: a drawing of what it smells like.

Diacetyl

Ingredients · Sweet · top note

Diacetyl

Say itdye-uh-SEE-til

Rich melted butter and buttered popcorn, sharp when concentrated.

What it is
A molecule made in a lab.
Where it comes from
made by bacteria in butter and during fermentation
When you smell it
Top notes: the first minutes.
What perfumers do with it
Traces give buttery, creamy richness to milky, caramel and popcorn accords.
Worth knowing
Popcorn-factory workers who breathed it daily developed a severe lung disease nicknamed popcorn lung.
Also called
2,3-Butanedione

Not on the label of any of the 232 perfumes read so far.