Thursday 22 July, 2010
You should Only Wear Gold Jewelry
by Administrator |
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When I started designing jewelry over a year ago I decided to find out. Why does everything but gold break my mother out? I wanted to design jewelry for my mom that she could wear without fear of a breakout. Now I am going to let you in on what I have discovered.
My mother, like many people, develops contact dermatitis when her skin comes in contact with some types of jewelry. The dermatitis is a result of an allergic reaction to the nickel found in many types of jewelry. Nickel allergies are very common. One out of every seven people is likely to suffer from a nickel allergy. More women tend to suffer from nickel allergies than men. However this may be attributed to the fact that women tend to wear more jewelry than men and are therefore more likely to be exposed to skin contact with nickel.
First I looked at gold jewelry. Generally speaking, yellow gold will not cause an allergic reaction. However white gold may. White gold alloys contain nickel and other "white" metals to produce its silver coloring. One out of every nine people will react to the nickel in white gold.
Another form of gold jewelry is gold filled or "GF" jewelry. Gold filled jewelry metal is created when a base metal is coated with a layer of gold. Gold filled differs from gold plated by the amount of gold applied. The layer used in gold filled jewelry is typically 50 to 100 time thicker that the layer used to coat gold plated products. Next I looked at silver jewelry. For those who are nickel sensitive, fine silver and sterling silver are great choices for "white" metals.
Fine silver is by definition 99.9% pure silver. Jewelry is generally not made of fine silver because the metal is extremely soft and does not withstand normal wear and tear well.
Typically silver jewelry is made of sterling silver. Sterling silver is by definition 92.5% pure silver. Typically the remaining 7.5% metal is made up of copper. Copper is infused to harden the silver and make it more durable. Since copper is the normal metal used, sterling silver is a great metal for nickel allergic people. You can typically distinguish sterling silver by a "925" mark found on the jewelry. This is common on manufactured pieces, but may not be present on artisan jewelry.
Since I have given you a list of safe metals, I thought I would also give you a list of metal terms to watch out for when you are shopping for jewelry. Fashion or costume jewelry typically contains base metals that include nickel.
German tiffany silver or nickel silver is a metal to stay away from where jewelry is concerned. German silver does not contain any silver. The silver refers to the silver coloration of the metal. The color is derived from a combination of nickel, zinc, lead, and tin found within the alloy.
Surgical or stainless steel surgical grade stainless steel is made to be in the human body. I have heard varying reports as to how safe this metal is for people with nickel allergies. Since the steel alloy does contain nickel, I would tend to avoid it, but some people swear by it.
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