Chapter VI · Spicy Amber · Eau de Parfum
Where Summer Felt Like Freedom
Ký ức mùa hè tự do
Béton Chaud is a spicy amber eau de parfum by Rei Nguyen of R Parfums, inspired by childhood summers spent watching kites from inside sun-warmed concrete pipes. Peach, orange and pink grapefruit open onto cumin, caramel and Damask rose, then settle into cinnamon, star anise, frankincense and vanilla.
Chapter VI · The story
The early 2000s. A childhood lived entirely offline, one season at a time.
Every season had its game. When the wind came, the children of the street saved up for stingray kites, or made their own, and spent the hottest days on the empty lots where the concrete pipes lay. Grown-ups saw building material. The children saw a fort.
Béton Chaud does not retell those afternoons. It brings back what they felt like on the skin: heat, sweat, light, and a freedom nobody had to ask for.
“Back then, none of us children were afraid the wind would tear our kites. We only wanted them to spread their wings and fly high.”
“Ngày đó, bọn trẻ chúng tôi không hề sợ gió làm đứt cánh diều, mà chỉ muốn diều sải cánh bay cao.”
Rei Nguyen, writing in 2023 on how Béton Chaud began. Translated from the Vietnamese.
Béton chaud · French for “hot concrete”
Both definitions as first published in Vietnamese on r-parfums.com in 2023, with our English translation.
The composition
In perfumery, an amber is a warm accord of resins and vanilla; a spicy amber sets kitchen spices over it. Here the resin is frankincense, and the spices are cumin, cinnamon, cardamom and star anise.
Key note
Cumin
A seed of Indian kitchens, once among the spices of ancient Egyptian embalming. In Béton Chaud it is the burst of heat, set against the cool, aromatic edge of star anise.
“The allure of Béton Chaud does not lie in showy or demanding notes, but in the tension between them: each material is placed precisely where it can shine.”
The same scent in the Patina and the Ceramic bottle. No colourant is added: the amber in the glass comes from the raw materials.
In those red-hot summer days, the children from my neighborhood and I would sit inside concrete pipes in an empty lot, watching kites spread their wings across the sky. Looking up at them, I thought I was flying too. And inside those sun-warmed circles of concrete, we truly believed we were the freest creatures in the world.
Rei Nguyen, perfumer
Around Béton Chaud
Robb Report Vietnam, May 2025, on Béton Chaud: “the flushed cheeks of children playing freely” (“gò má đỏ của những đứa trẻ tự do nô đùa”, translated from the Vietnamese)
In the Archive: Open House & Showcasing, July 2022, the opening of the first house · On film: Béton Chaud, 2022
One scent, two bottles
Same scent, two bottles: Patina on Brass or Ceramic — see how each is made.
Patina on Brass · 50 ml
Béton Chaud wears the Brown Blue Patina, the deeper shade it shares with 221B and Shadow Éclat. Each plate is one of a kind.
Each piece is corroded, filed and set by hand. The idea came from relics in Huế; twelve months of research and development went into the Patina line. How the plate is made →
Film: Series #1, The Patina Bottle
Ceramic · 50 ml
A small sphere of fired clay closes the bottle, in a glaze that recalls Chu Đậu ware. In the photograph, Béton Chaud wears a speckled glaze with a black tassel. The kiln decides the glaze and the maker’s hand the tassel, so each Ceramic bottle comes to you as it was finished.
Each cap is cast in a mould and cut at the mouth. The glaze goes on pink; the kiln settles the final colour, a little differently in every firing. How a Ceramic cap is made →
With a tassel and a ceramic charm engraved with R.
Film: Ceramic and fire · 1:29 · silentPatina and Ceramic, compared
| Feature | Patina · 50 ml | Ceramic · 50 ml |
|---|---|---|
| The scent | Béton Chaud, eau de parfum | The same scent |
| Volume | 50 ml / 1.7 fl. oz. | 50 ml / 1.7 fl. oz. |
| The bottle | Glass, with Patina on Brass: three hand-finished pieces | Glass, closed with a clay sphere cast in a mould and fired at 1000°C |
| What changes | Piece I keeps its brass, piece II is caught midway, piece III has turned fully to patina. A UV-resistant coat slows the change; it does not stop it | The glaze comes out a little differently in every firing, and shifts with the light |
| Detail | Brown Blue Patina, shared with 221B and Shadow Éclat · UV-resistant coat | Ceramic charm engraved with R |
| On film | Series #1, The Patina Bottle | Ceramic and fire |
| Price, incl. 8% VAT | 4.860.000 ₫US$195 | 4.131.000 ₫US$165Currently unavailable · expected back late November |
| Go further | Béton Chaud in Patina Patina in all six chapters | Béton Chaud in Ceramic Ceramic in all six chapters |
How each is made: Patina on Brass · Ceramic and fire · All of the craft
For the record
Béton Chaud, by R Parfums, is warm, dry spice under bright fruit. Peach, orange and pink grapefruit open dry rather than fresh; the middle is cumin, caramel and Damask rose; cinnamon, star anise, frankincense, cardamom and vanilla stay on the skin. It is a spicy amber: cumin against the cool edge of star anise, held together by frankincense, cardamom and vanilla.
Béton chaud is French for “hot concrete”. The scent comes from a childhood summer: children sitting inside concrete pipes on an empty lot, the walls warm from the sun, watching kites overhead. It is Chapter VI of R Parfums.
Yes. Smell it at our three houses in Ho Chi Minh City, open daily: 34 Nguyễn Duy Hiệu, 42 Nguyễn Huệ and 26 Lý Tự Trọng. To try it at home, there is a 2 ml sample (224.640 ₫US$9), the 12 ml (1.285.200 ₫US$50), and the Discovery Set, five 2 ml vials including Béton Chaud (918.000 ₫US$35). See Smaller sizes.
We deliver within Vietnam only — see Stockists for Taiwan.
Smell it in person
Smell Béton Chaud on paper, then on your skin. Each house has all six scents to try on skin before you choose.
House I
Open daily · 8:00–18:00
House II
Open daily · 9:00–22:00
House III
Open daily · 9:00–22:00
A red-hot summer, held between concrete and sky.
