Patina on Brass is the plate on the R Parfums Patina bottle: three hand-finished pieces of brass, corroded, filed, polished and set on the glass. When the plate is set, one piece is still brass, one has turned fully to patina, and one is caught midway. Twelve months of research and development went into the line.
patina noun The film that forms on brass and other metals as they oxidise, through long exposure to the air or artificially, with an acid. Often valued for its colour. It looks like corrosion; in fact it shields the metal beneath.
In Huế, the old capital, we stood a long time before relics streaked with moss and worn metal. What we loved in them was the years they held.
Moss, patches of green, streaks of worn metal: the marks gave them a deep, sombre strength. Those streaks are the evidence of time, and of the beauty it leaves behind.
Behind the Patina line
Twelve months
Twelve months of research and development went into the Patina line.
Each plate is made in four steps, set out below.
The making
Four steps, from brass to bottle
Coloured, filed, set, sealed. The same four steps make every plate, and no two plates come out the same.
Two finished pieces. The turquoise is the patina; the bright line at the edge is brass.01
Warmed, then coloured by hand
The brass is warmed until the moisture lifts, then given thin washes of oxides and metal salts, by brush, spray or sponge. The chemistry gives the colour; the hand gives the pattern.
Refining a piece with a rotary tool. Finished pieces wait on the table.02
Filed and polished
Each piece is then filed and polished, edge by edge, until it is fine enough to sit on the glass.
Eau de Hajime, Patina. The plate is also the label.03
Three pieces set on the glass
The three pieces are fitted closely onto the body of the glass bottle and fixed in place, one bottle at a time.
Béton Chaud, Patina: a finished plate under its coat.04
Sealed under a UV-resistant coat
Last, the plate is sealed under a UV-resistant coat. It guards the patina and still lets it go on changing, slowly, as patina does.
Two pairs of hands
One perfumer, and the people who work the brass
Rei Nguyen composes the scent. The brass is the work of craftspeople in Vietnam, from the first wash to the moment the three pieces sit on the glass.
Three pieces
Time, in three pieces
Each plate puts three moments of the same change side by side.
I
Brass
Left whole. The brass as it was.
II
Turning
Caught midway through the change, and still turning, very slowly.
III
Patina
Turned fully to patina.
Pluviophile, Patina. On this bottle: piece I lower right, piece II upper right, piece III on the left.
Two plates, close
Two earlier bottles, seen close. On each, three pieces of brass meet along the same Y-shaped seam.
Left: Pluviophile, photographed out of doors in January 2023. Right: 221B, in the studio, 2022.
“It wears itself down to become precious, and unlike any other.”
Kintsugi
Mended by the light inside
kintsugi noun The Japanese art of mending broken ceramics with lacquer or gold, so that the break is honoured rather than hidden.
We borrowed the idea for the label. Three pieces of patinated brass that seem separate are joined into one by the gold glinting back from the perfume inside.
The gaps, the scars, the beauty of what is imperfect: that is the story each bottle sets out to tell.
221B, Patina. The seams between the pieces take the colour of the perfume.
Series #1 · Film
The Patina Bottle
The first film in the house’s series. It follows the material that has been the house’s signature from its first day to this one, and the idea that each bottle carries its owner’s own story.
Two shades of patina: Verde Patina, a green-blue, for Eau de Hajime, Pluviophile and Nostalgic March; Brown Blue Patina for 221B, Shadow Éclat and Béton Chaud.
Patina is the film that forms on brass and other metals as they oxidise, through long exposure to the air or artificially, with an acid. On the R Parfums Patina bottle, the plate is brass, in three hand-finished pieces.
Does the brass keep changing colour?
Yes, very slowly, even after the bottle is yours. The UV-resistant coat over the plate protects the patina. The coat slows the change; it does not stop it.
How should I care for a Patina bottle?
The plate is covered by a UV-resistant coat that protects the patina. Questions about your bottle: +84 89 649 0038 or info@r-parfums.com.
Why is no Patina bottle the same as another?
Because each of the three pieces is hand-finished: coloured, filed, polished and set on the glass, one bottle at a time. The colour comes from the reaction, the pattern from the reaction and the hand together, so it never falls the same way twice. Each plate is an original artwork for just one owner.
On piece II, time left its fingerprint halfway.
See it in the hand. The Patina bottle, in all six scents, is at each of our three houses in Ho Chi Minh City, open every day.
