Patina

This place is so addicting. I should say don’t even step foot inside because you’ll just buy everything insight but that would make no pro-​consumer sense. So many great gift ideas and cute things for apts/​houses. I got so many amazing, well made, decretive lanterns from here and yes they added up but made my apt into an amazing wonderland. I would go back any day, but my wallet would not be able to. Staff are chatty and fun, good personalities, even going in with no money just to window shop is fun.

I love looking around for little gifts for my girl friends birthdays. The store is always filled with fun things to look at and great present ideas. It can be a little expensive but you can find things that you wouldn’t be able to at other stores.

I was lazy, and I forgot about my friend’s birthday until the day-​of. Actually this happened two times, so you can make your own assumptions about how prepared I would be in case of a zombie apocalypse. Get ready to fight those dead suckers with nail polish remover and tonic water.
Luckily for me, Patina is less than a block from my house and stocks scarves and sarcastic magnets galore. They also carry high-​heeled shoes to hold wine bottles. (Hint hint for anyone who um… wants to buy me an Easter present?)
This place is like Target – go in for a card and prepare to leave with $ 80 worth of stuff, but the gifts they carry are genuinely perfect for everyone. Where else can you find a note pad of «B!tch Citations» for that non-​PC friend in your life? (That one backfired, as they eventually were all made out to me.) Need a fun ice breaker for company your mom decided to bring over to your house without telling you? Find it here! How about a coffee mug where the clothes melt off the characters as the coffee heats up the ceramic? Check! Check! Check!
For a bonus star, I’m pretty sure they would also carry anything you possibly need to fight zombies. Including Political Party Breathmints, for those that have been eating Republican/​Democratic brains.

Patina is the place you go when you need to pick up something for someone who is hard to shop for — they have tons of quirky stuff that no one needs but most will find amusing at least.
I was just at this location yesterday and wasn’t super pleased with how the clerks behaved — they seemed to be gossipy acting with each other… more interested in snarky convos and attitude than customers. Also, at check out they were less than friendly with husband and seemed preoccupied with watching other customers. Poor customer service aside, I enjoyed walking around this rather large patina and was able to find a few fun gifts for family/​friends while I was there.
The location of this shop is great — right on the corner of Selby/​Snelling — it’s convenient and there are other fun small shops right around it as well as a Starbucks and O’Gara’s.

I was looking for some candles, the tapered kind, but they don’t carry them. But as you walk in there is a gorgeous display of holiday stuff 75% off. For $ 10. I found a small tinsel tree for my piano. They had a package of mixed tree ornaments, all red. Very hard to resist. There were lots of displays to hold various type candles. Parking is a bitch around that block. I did alright for just popping in.

do you like to browse? Need a little gift? Patina is your place. They have different areas that will please all the people in your life. Some practical jokers they have little funny gifts and books. Lotions, soaps, candles, jewlery, mittens, scarves, purses… novelty items… lots of whimsical items. You can buy little tiny gifts just to make somebody happy for as little as 5.00 and they will do free gift wrapping —they have cute little boxes and will put ribbon around them so if you buy nothing but a lipgloss for somebody it looks extra special… there is an upstairs and a downstairs… so you are sure to find something for just about anyone…

Patina is my go to store when I’m getting a gift for a girlfriend, or my mom, or my sister, or a female cousin. I’ll go to any of them but I just happen to go to this one the most often. Most of the stuff I wouldn’t buy for myself. but they make good gifts, and I wouldn’t mind getting them as a gift.
PS — when I do go to buy a gift, it’s usually when I have a lot of time on my hands because its not usually a quick run in the store.

I go to buy gifts for just about anyone and everyone. Co-​workers, mothers, boyfriends, couples getting married, couples having babies, friends whose dog is having surgery… You get the idea.
They have something for everyone, and it’s cute and (mostly) reasonably priced. I personally love the jewelry counter the best, I got some super cute necklaces and earrings!
They also carry my favorite hand lotion in the winter when everything gets super dry, Lollia, go in and smell that stuff! It’s amazing.

This is such a great shop for gifts and just to browse. There are things for people of all ages and for whatever price point you’re looking for. I come to one of the Patina stores almost every time I visit St. Paul and always find lots of cute stuff.

I was excited when this specific location opened up. It’s right on the bus line, easy to get to from the interstate or my neighborhood, and it is nestled between many other cute gift shops. I personally like the 2-​level set-​up for this store, but that’s me. Shows off the age of the building, and adds that sense of style and gifts-​that-​one-​must-​share :)

Let me preface this by saying that I’m slightly addicted to ALL of the Patina stores. I can’t step into this place without walking out with something fun. Anytime I need a gift for a birthday or holiday (or myself, if it’s one of those kinds of days), Patina doesn’t let me down. And the store on Selby and Snelling is my favoritest of all of them! I love the way it’s laid out on two levels, the friendly staff and the selection. Step in their doors and you’re pretty much guaranteed to have a new addiction in your life.

Gifts. Go here for gifts for the women in your life. Sometimes the men too, but mostly the gals.
This location is enormous, being that they have a huge basement in addition to what seems like a typically sized store upstairs. I was here right before xmas and it was insanity, but on a regular day it’s not bad.
I would never buy anything for myself there because a lot of it it is quite novel (there’s never anything you NEED at Patina). I also don’t think the quality of the accessories or the less expensive jewelry is up to par in the least. It all seems kind of cheapy or like it would fall apart in a month. However, the other merchandise like soaps, décor, books, baby stuff, kitchen stuff, etc. is like-​able.
That said, this store becomes really clutch in rushed situations where you need something for a last-​minute hostess gift or a birthday present (as long as you stay away from the cheap-​looking things). I like this location too, because the Selby-​Snelling corner is the bomb for shopping!

Patina is the place to go when it’s time to buy a present for the women in your life: grandma, daughter, mother, best friend, girlfriend, etc… Patina has it all. There’s a kitschy, pop-​art, and vintage feel to their selections of merchandise. This is my favorite Patina location, despite the busy corner traffic and hard to find parking.

I enjoy the stuff you can find at Patina. A lot of it is not for me, but a lot of it is good for gifts, and at the very least entertaining to look at. I have visited this location and the one in Highland Park — the only reason this location gets three stars instead of four is that this location seems way more cramped, is spread on two levels, and if you have even a tiny umbrella stroller with you, you’re screwed. This would seem to be a niche that would be angling for the mom crowd, so being a bit more stroller friendly would be a good thing, but the space is tough. Staff are great, selection is unique and changes with some frequency.

Patina is a browser’s paradise. It’s got everything you don’t need, and its displays force you to bump around from kitchen items to holiday ornaments to gag gifts to stationary like a living breathing pinball game. I love it. Where else can you get bacon toothpicks, bacon dental floss, bacon chocolate (milk & dark), chocolate chip bacon pancake mix, bacon wallets, bacon soap, bacon lip balm, and meatball bubble gum?
I also want the up-​and-​coming Snelling/​Selby neighborhood to keep up-​and-​coming, so I’m happy to see the great businesses settling in here, with Patina being one of the best established. But dang, given the time, I’m going to the Highland location, just because the staff at Snelby (the Hollywood Couple name for Snelling & Selby) has so often ranged from listless to downright rude. I was greeted with a breezy hello, but then was made to feel in the way when a staff person wanted to lay out several large boxes in order to shelve new merchandise. Downstairs, the jewelry counter lady puttered around, avoiding all eye contact, and then seemed put upon when I asked for assistance. She needed to call the manager down to help with the question, and *she* kept repeating my request as though it was unheard of to want an item other than the sample that had clearly seen heavy use.
For a place like Patina, friendly, helpful staff is part of the whole experience. If you leave having paid a lot of money for stuff you don’t need (however cute it may be), you want to leave with a smile. At the Highland location, I always do. Here, I haven’t yet. But I did get the bacon dark chocolate.

Xmas shopping minireview #4
Wandered into Patina by accident. I barely made it more than a few steps. I would find it challenging to find a perfect summary of everything I was looking to avoid this shopping season.
Mass produced, knickknacky crap that is of little use to anyone, but that is ritually exchanged among people with little regard for one another due to mass media guilt campaigns. No thanks!