Hi, this is Wayne again with a topic “How to patina your phone case”.
This is my iPhone X and I love it. I think it’s great, but I also think it kinda needs a case and for me the best case, even though it’s a little bit overpriced is the official Apple iPhone X, leather case.. I think it’s a really nice balance of protection and usability. It feels pretty good, but I think it also looks kinda ugly out of the box.. Look how I don’t know, yellow it is.. Now, if you use this for a few months, you eventually get something like this, which I think is lovely..
It’S got this nice patina and it just feels really personal to me, but I don’t wan na wait a few months, so I’m gon na show you later on in this article, how I went from this to this with sandpaper and oil and a whole bunch of Crazy work., But here’s a question.. Why do I care this much about cases Turns out the best person to answer that question. Isn’T me it’s The Verge’s resident case expert, Ashley Carman. So let’s go talk to her. ( light electronic music ) Man.
I think this was last summer. I reviewed this phone case, the pom pom phone case, and I was so excited when I opened it. I was like this is the cutest thing I’ve ever seen in my whole life and then within three weeks. It was literally like a torture device, because these little hairs kept showing up everywhere, like in my food seriously like in my food like the most random bowl, like a bowl that wasn’t even near my phone. Right.. I would just like get food and it would be in there the hairs.. It would be on my clothes., These little filaments that come off and they like float around your whole. Oh my God. Yeah. It would be in my dreams.
Yeah, you have one now., (, Dieter laughs, ). They stick everywhere.. I have like shunned this, but I brought it out just for this occasion. When I buy a phone case.
The first thing I’m thinking about is like ,’Okay, I’m gon na protect my phone”so that when I drop it, it won’t smash.’. None of these cases are that basic and functional so like what are you looking for with a case? Well, yeah, I’m not really looking for protection, which is probably a mistake.. I more am just trying to find the weirdest case.. Well, I mean the reason I wanted to talk to you is like, so this is the after of my iPhone X, case., Oh wow., And so the Apple case on it’s own is really like, yellow and tan.
Yeah., And I wanted it to look cool and weathered So I just started thinking about why I am caring this much about the way a case looks when up to now. I just thought about it like protection.. If everyone has the same looking phone, every phone looks the same. Right..
How are you gon na differentiate it? How are you gon na express your own personal style Right? Applying the term fashion to cases seems, I don’t know frivolous, but it actually like it makes perfect. Sense. You this of fashion as clothes like clothes need to have like primary function. They need to keep you from dying in the cold weather, whatever ( Ashley laughs ) like they’re functional., But like it’s, how you present yourself to the world, but I also think it’s like how you present yourself to yourself.
You feel different depending on what you’re wearing. Yeah. And there’s no reason that shouldn’t also apply to phone right..
I totally agree, I think, there’s people out there who buys you know unique, Android phones or maybe not just the mainstream ones, because they’re, like I wan na, be able to show that I am into OnePlus or something like that. Right yeah. With iPhones …
They’re. All the same. Yeah.
You are giving away your fashion sense to Jony Ive and he’s got great fashion sense. I guess he wears like the t-shirts and the weird pants whatever. ( laughs, ) Yeah! No, but I mean like- But like I’m, not Jony, I’ve, I’m super not., It’s good design, but I don’t know- Design, isn’t fashion..
I wan na be individual and it’s hard though. Right.. I mean there’s a lot of cool cases, but eventually start running into the same things like this glitter falling case.
You see a ton of these now. Yeah. And it’s like the liquid. So it’s hard to find these more unique, styles..
Okay. So what did we learn? Well, first of all, we learned Ashley is amazing.. Thank you Ashley..
Now. I feel way better about this project that I’m about to embark, on. Tools, cardboard. Of course I have the unsullied Apple case. I went to Walgreens and I got some sandpaper blocks and also coconut oil, 100 percent extra virgin with shea butter and, of course, paper towel.. So if you know anything about leather working, what I’m about to do to this case is going to horrify you. But you know what I don’t care. It’s my case. I wan na make it feel more like my case and so to make it better. I’M gon na destroy it a little bit first..
Let me show you how., So there are four basic steps to get from this to this.. The first step is that this case has a protective coating on it. You need to get that off.. I’M gon na sand it off, but you can also use like nail polish remover..
The second step is, you need something to darken the leather once you’ve got that coating off., I’m gon na use coconut oil, but some people use shoe polish. I mean you could spit on the thing. If you want to., The third step is leave it out, preferably outside in the sun, because it’s gon na smell, bad and also the sun helps speed up the darkening process.
And then the final step – and this is kinda important – is once it’s back on your phone. You just kinda have to work it at a little bit to smooth it out and just sort of get all the little weird bits that happen in the whole process smoothed out and looking better., Okay, so ( exhales ). Here we go. I’m starting with a pretty heavy grit, but then I’m gon na go to a lighter grit, but you could just use whatever you got sitting around the house and immediately you’re gon na see. This is this is a really scary thing? I’M doing.! You know just be careful, don’t oversand it and end up just completely ruining the case, but I’m just kind of hitting all the corners hitting all the edges.. Another thing to be aware of, is you don’t have to hit the edges quite as much as you do? Like the back and the Apple logo, simply because that’s where the natural oils, from your hand, are gon na be hitting the phone the most anyway and so they’re gon na get darker on their own.. This case is gon na be sitting around my house.
It’S gon na be sitting around me all the time and there’s a lot of stuff that sits around. My house sits around me all the time that I want to be nice and I want to feel like it’s mine, so Ashley and I talked a lot about cases in terms of fashion, but it’s also a thing. That’S just around.. I have a favorite chair.
I have favorite blanket and I’ve got – I don’t know nice plates and looking at this case every day, I can look at and I’ll be able to feel better about this thing that I helped make. But yeah. I think this thing is ready for oil. Alright.
So, as I’m spraying, this thing it’s pretty intense, it smells really bad sorry about that, and then I do need to work it in a little bit just to make sure it hits all the different parts of the phone.. So I was inspired to do this by this thread over on the Mac. Rumors forums called patina proud, which is just a whole bunch of people who have this case that were showing off how they managed to get a really nice patina on their case, and they talked about their different methods for getting there..
And you end up with something that looks like this, and I think this looks awesome.. It looks distressed and cool and mine and that’s the point. It looks like it’s mine.
Whether you do what Ashley does and you buy a bunch of weird cases that are unique to her or you do what I do and you literally destroy a phone case. You want it to feel like it’s, yours. Technology can be alienating and it can feel generic everybody has the same thing and so customizing your case can make technology be what it’s supposed to be.. It’S supposed to belong to.
You., Hey everybody thanks! So much for watching my weird science experiment.. If you wan na see actual real science, you should check out our brand new YouTube channel. It’S Verge Science., You absolutely wan na click, the link somewhere here.. It’S awesome! .