Moonshine

Note Profile

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About

Moonshine is illicit unaged corn spirit. Fragrantica calls it 'a fantasy note with the smell of high-proof liquor'. The note is boozy first and close to nothing else, with a light corn-grain sweetness under it. It is not whisky. There is no barrel, so the vanilla, oak and smoke that carry an aged spirit are only traces here.

Scent Profile

Moonshine smells of high-proof liquor first, close to nothing else, a powerful ethanol scent straight off the still. It is boozy and warm rather than smooth, with a spicy edge. A light corn-grain sweetness sits under it, almost vanilla in a faint way, though this spirit has seen no barrel. Oak and smoke stay in the background too, since those belong to an aged spirit rather than to raw moonshine.

ScentWheel

Breadthmedium

EnvelopeHeart · ~4h lasting

Family Sweet & Gourmand

Read off the wheel, not a label applied to the note.

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ScentArt

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Origin

Four sources, and they split on what the word names. Recoil's buyer's guide is the only one that noses real moonshine, and it reports two different smells. A genuine corn-mash bottle 'should smell like corn with subtle hints of sweetness', and one is nosed as 'Corn with a sweet, almost vanilla aroma'. Re-labelled grain-neutral spirit instead has 'a powerful, ethanol scent... like something you'd put in your gas tank', and the same guide treats that as a fault: the bottle it nosed as 'Ethanol, no getting away from it' is one that 'doesn't smell like moonshine'. The Candle Maker's Store sells the note straight as 'Pure corn grain alcohol straight from the still', with a vanillin content of 0.1 per cent, so almost no sweetening. Cap Perfume's liquor guide gives the generic spirit accord: 'warm, boozy, and spicy' with 'sharp alcoholic esters'. DSH Perfumes' Uptown Moonshine goes the other way entirely and builds a whiskey bar out of 'whiskey, tobacco, amber, oakwood, brown sugar, and smoked vanilla'. Fragrantica's definition says liquor and does not say whiskey.

Usage in Perfumery

A boozy note used for a raw, hot spirit effect rather than an aged one. It gives an alcoholic lift with a grain tail and no barrel. 3 Fragrantica placements and none on Parfumo.