Deconstructing Eden Halloween Release Reviews: Bloodletting + It Can't Rain All The Time + It's Only Magic + Sanguine Addiction + Silver Bullet

It's almost HALLOWEEN. I'm scooching in juuuust in time with DE's Halloween collection. I believe this collection will be going down November 1st (correct me if I'm wrong). So, not to FOMO the indie community but uh, get it before it goes to the hereafter.

As a note: I know my update schedule has been erratic. I need to adjust my workflow (and several things about it) in order to prevent this from happening again. What I plan to do is to take a week off soon (I know, I know) and spend it getting a backlog/queue running again. This will allow me to do bigger review batches (since testing more than 4 scents at a time muddles the smells for me) and to do things like photograph several reviews at once. I'm probably going to do five more review sets (S92, Little & Grim, Nui Cobalt, Sihaya and Divona) then take the week off and get ahead on reviews. Thank-you guys for your patience!

The perfumes covered in today's review are:

• Bloodletting [ store link ]
• It Can't Rain All The Time [ store link ]
• It's Only Magic [ store link ]
• Sanguine Addiction [ store link ]
• Silver Bullet [ store link ]

Methods

All perfumes in this review were allowed to rest for several days ( a few weeks for these scents) after arrival. The perfumes were kept in the dark in a plastic box if small enough. If too large for a box they generally sit on top of a bookcase or bedside table, or inside of a drawer. I did crack them open to sniff them directly after arrival, and with a couple to do an initial test. The reviews are not based off of these initial impressions - though if a rest did change the smell I’ll note that.

I’m doing a half-hour skin test with each perfume. They are always applied to skin that has either been washed or hasn’t had perfume on it that day. Sometimes I will run one scent on one wrist/hand/arm and the other on the other wrist/hand/arm. When I wash my hands for review purposes I wash with Dove sensitive skin, honeysuckle Meyer’s Clean Day or citrus Doc Bronner’s.

Before doing test periods I often wear or play with other scents in my collection (that I wash off). I also am often wearing scented lotion on my feet and ankles (that I do not wash off). Sometimes I wear scented hair products simultaneously. Theoretically there could be cross-contamination.

For spray perfumes/EDPs: I gently give them a little shake. I then wrap my arm in a towel except for the test area (again, top of the arm or back of the hand.) I then spritz the EDP on with a couple of pumps then remove the towel. The goal is to keep the EDP restricted to the test area.

Each review is written without looking at the notes in that moment. Frequently I will glance at a perfume’s notes beforehand. At the end of the review I will list what the official notes are and comment on how I think they interacted.

Bottle Review

See my review of Deconstructing Eden's Sample Bottles [ here ].

A quick note before jumping into the reviews: Because I cannot get DE's sample bottles open the bottle-sniff section of the reviews is eliminated. Additionally, since these are all EDPs and EDPs tend to dry quickly I've combined the drydown and wet section... often by the time I'm finishing typing the description of what I'm smelling EDPs have dried substantially.

A reminder: Each nose is different and each skin’s chemistry is different. Your mileage may vary.

Bloodletting

Wet on my skin/Drydown: Warm amber and berries. Tiny bit of copperiness at the edges. Muskiness at the base. Contrast between purple berry-like fruit and musk with the resinousness of the amber-like scent and copper. There might also be a floral in here - but it’s more fruity-musky than fruity-floral. A little wet smell in there too.

After 30 mins: Still fruity-musky and sweet to the point almost of being gourmand. It’s wearing fainter than it was. Something in here reminds me a bit of the scent of freshly baked bread - I wonder if it is the scent of orange blossoms combining with something.

Overall it smells like wet, sugary, berries or grapes layered over orange blossoms and amber (combining to smell kind of like nutty, fresh bread) with a musky base. Tiny, tiny bit of copperiness in here. It reminds me of smelling kind of like a can of grape soda opened by someone who’s recently been handling fresh bread.

Official Notes: Clean skin, our interpretation of blood, (wine, crushed berries, copper), cracked mirrors

I can see the ‘clean skin’ being that amber-and-orange-blossom smell that reminds me of fresh bread and probably some of the musk. The blood accord leans heavily towards sweet, wet berries with just a tiny touch of copper. The cracked mirrors have me a bit stumped - there is something additional in here, that kind of wetness and what honestly reminds me of the CO2 ‘fizz’ in soda, but it’s very faint after half an hour.

Verdict: Pleasantly fruity and musky. Not sure how I feel about this one in terms of upsizing. I’ve actually tried this one twice and the first time I didn’t give it a good hard shake and it smelled a lot more fruity - very kind of ‘mature grape soda’. This time the nutty, golden skin-scent came out more. For me I think I’m going to keep my sample to experiment with some more and see

It Can’t Rain All The Time

Wet on my skin/Drydown: A strong wave of initial earthiness: wet concrete, mulch, dirt, and moss. Peaking behind that is something brighter - somewhere between pale yellow and white - but it’s the occasional whiff in a sea of earthy atmospheric.

After 30 mins: Still pretty strongly earthy, but that pale scent is peeking through more. It’s sort of somewhere between a resin and a floral - clean, cool, and bright. The earthy notes are very, very realistic to how my yard smells after a rainstorm - wet concrete, mulch, dirt, moss and damp leaves.

Official Notes: Cold rain, asphalt, the promise of sun

So, the wet notes are the cold rain. The asphalt is the wet concrete. I get a lot more earthy/slightly green notes in here than just asphalt though. The bright note -whatever it is - is the ‘promise of sun’.

Solid throw on this one.

Verdict: Not my thing - I’m not deeply into earthy scents. However, if you’re looking for a ‘semi-foresty-front-yard-with-a-concrete-walking-path-after-a-rainstorm’ realistic scent then give this a spin.

It’s Only Magic

Wet on my skin/Drydown: Spicy herbal. From the bottle there’d been a strong, slightly medicinal note. Here I get a strongly spiced musk - slightly masculine - layered over woody undertones with a medicinal tang and a waft of herbs (sage maybe?). A very ‘hippie’ scent to my nose - kind of savory herbal.

After 30 mins: Herbal smell at the top now - reminds me of sage, but also a little of anise. Spicy musk wreaths that. Most of the medicinal smell has burned off now - maybe a hint of something like camphor. Still kind of masculine, and kinda ‘hippie’ in that dark, spicy way. Bit of woody undertones at the base.

Official Notes: Incense, salt, herbs (lavender, rosemary, sage, and wormwood).

So the incense must be what I’m reading as spicy musk - think more nag champa than a really resinous incense. I can see the salt in here with the word in front of me - I think that’s what’s making this kind of ‘savory’ to my nose.

I’m guessing the medicinal note is a combination of the rosemary and lavender. As the scent wears on they wear more herbal - but at the most only go slightly sweet. The lavender only gives the barest hint of being a floral; it’s much more on the herbal side. The sage is the sage. The wormwood is both what’s woody and what kind of reminds me of anise.

Mild throw.

Verdict: This reads as a ‘kitchen gourmand’ with hippie-musk to me… which is not my thing. But it might be your thing if you’re into more savory herbs and ‘kitchen’ gourmands.

Sanguine Addiction

Wet on my skin/Drydown: Neroli, cinnamon, a waft of fruit and a faint metallic scent layered over red musk and resin. Wet on my skin this a glowing fruity floral contrasting reds and golds in slashes of flame. Am I getting flowery with my praise? Absolutely. Because this is what I’ve been looking for in fall scents.

I want mountains painted in red and gold, leaves of flame, and the thinning of the veil at sunset and this is delivering y’all. It’s spicy, it’s golden, it’s honeyed, it’s red; it’s got that bit of citrus, bit of floral, sweetness contrasted with something sharp and dark.

After 30 mins: Pretty stable to wet/drydown. Perhaps a bit more sweet. But you’re still getting a red-and-gold combo of a sweet flower, fruit (maybe cherries, maybe citrus, maybe both), resin and a tiny bit of metallic tang in there. Maybe a little musk - but I think that might be part of the floral note or maybe some honey.

Official Notes: Red wine, unholy water, gunsmoke, white skin musk

So the wine is the fruit, the unholy water must be that floral + cinnamon + resin, the gunsmoke is what smells a tiny bit metallic to it. The white skin musk is the smooth musk that makes me think of musk/honey.

Mild throw, but plenty of scent in close to the skin.

Verdict: Upsize! I guess I’ll be doing a Deconstructing Eden order in the next 30 hours or so.

Silver Bullet

Wet on my skin/Drydown: Musky leather and fur with a slightly metallic edge. Very masculine and dark. There’s something bright along with the metallic smell - maybe something… floral? An amber? No clue. It’s very faint - I’m figuring that’s a ‘silver’ accord. Leather is dark, and right on the border between soft and acrid (there’s something to it reminiscent of gasoline to my nose). It’s a biker werewolf boyfriend in a bottle.

After 30 mins: Silvery smells at the top over gasoline, leather, and smoke with an edge of fur. It’s a pretty straightforward werewolf biker boyfriend scent. Masculine, a little harsh, smooth and dark.

Soft throw, plenty of scent in close to the skin.

Official Notes: Hot silver, dark fur, and dark musk.

So the silvery notes are the silver… and I wonder if the gasoline-like smell is part of that. The dark fur is the fur. I figure the dark musk must be what’s smelling both masculine and like leather.

Verdict: Not sure - probably not an upsize (I can’t see personally wearing it often enough), but torn on whether to keep my sample or not. It’s a nice werewolf biker boyfriend scent… but I don’t know how often I want to be the werewolf biker boyfriend. I recommend this for all who want to smell like a werewolf biker boyfriend or have someone in their lives they want to smell like a werewolf biker boyfriend.