Filigree & Shadow is a niche perfume house in Seattle that was founded in 2013. All of their fragrances are handcrafted with the finest materials and are inspired by melodic themes. They are certified vegan and cruelty-free and are also alcohol-free water perfumes. James Elliott is the Nose of the fragrance house and is also a synesthete: he links sensory percepts of smell to sound, and vice versa. This synesthesia creates unusual associations and truly unique perfumes. He finds inspiration in the emotional effect of how fragrance can invoke memories yet to happen. Their natural perfumes contain only botanic essential oils, extractions and absolutes. No isolates or synthetic materials are used.
When smoke becomes serpentine from the burning embers, an aroma fills the senses with notes of perfectly cured tobacco. You are on a Paris train; atop a rooftop in Brooklyn overlooking the Manhattan skyline; driving on an open road bound for new adventures; or staring at the midnight sky as a full moon turns cornflower blue, clouds to gunmetal. An homage to the joys of a vice not long for this world. Gunet features notes of benzoin, birch tar, cade, cacao, frankincense, guaiacwood, myrrh, nutmeg, oak, opoponax, tobacco, tolu balsam, tonka bean, vanilla and vetiver. It is a water perfume.
This starts wonderfully as night air in the country, with grass, woods, and just a hint of septic tank and dries towards woody dark resinous lovely, but there is too much birch tar for me. It overwhelms the more delicate notes in a plastic, over-smoked tide. Birch tar does have a tendency to overtake a scent on my skin, so that should be noted. I love the night air evocation here, but less birch tar would let me enjoy it longer.
This starts wonderfully as night air in the country, with grass, woods, and just a hint of septic tank and dries towards woody dark resinous lovely, but there is too much birch tar for me. It overwhelms the more delicate notes in a plastic, over-smoked tide. Birch tar does have a tendency to overtake a scent on my skin, so that should be noted. I love the night air evocation here, but less birch tar would let me enjoy it longer.
