Can Solid Gold Irritate Your Skin? The Essential Facts About Gold and Allergies

Can solid gold irritate your skin? The short answer is yes it definitely can. But before you panic and clear out your jewelry box, you need to know something important. Pure gold is almost never the actual problem. The real troublemaker is usually the extra metals that jewelers mix in with the gold to make it strong.

Look, nobody wants to spend good money on a beautiful piece of jewelry just to have it sitting in a drawer because it makes them itch. Whether you just bought a new wedding band or you are trying to figure out why your favorite necklace is giving you a rash, we are going to break down exactly what causes these allergies and how to fix them.

The Truth About Karats and Alloys

Pure 24K gold is completely hypoallergenic. Your body will not react to it at all. The issue is that 24K gold is way to soft for everyday wear. If someone made women's gold rings out of pure 24K gold, they would bend out of shape the second you grabbed a heavy grocery bag or gripped your car steering wheel.

To make gold strong enough to survive daily life, jewelry makers mix it with harder metals like nickel, copper, silver, and zinc. These metal mixtures are called alloys. When you buy 14K or 18K gold, you are buying an alloy. A piece of 14K gold is about 58 percent pure gold and 42 percent other metals. That 42 percent is where all your skin irritation comes from.

Meet The Main Troublemaker

Let us talk about nickel. Nickel is the absolute worst offender when it comes to skin allergies. Dermatologists say that roughly 15 to 20 percent of people are allergic to nickel. When your sweat touches a piece of jewelry that contains nickel, it dissolves tiny amounts of the metal salts. Your skin absorbs these salts, and your immune system goes on the attack. This leaves you with a red, itchy, and sometimes blistering rash.

This is exactly why your earlobes might get red, swollen, and hot when you wear certain gold and diamond earrings. The skin on your earlobes is extremely thin and sensitive, making it prime real estate for an allergic reaction. Even expensive pieces can trigger this if they have nickel hidden in the alloy mix.

How Gold Colors Effect Your Skin

The color of your gold plays a massive role in whether or not you will get a rash. Here is how the big three compare.

• Yellow Gold: This is typically mixed with silver and a little bit of copper. It is generally the safest choice if you have sensitive skin because it rarely contains nickel.
• Rose Gold: This gets its beautiful pink color from copper. Copper rarely causes actual allergic reactions, but it can react with your body chemistry and sweat to leave a harmless green stain on your skin.
• White Gold: This is where things get tricky. To make yellow gold look bright white, jewelers bleach it by adding white metals like nickel or palladium. Because palladium is very expensive, many commercial jewelers use nickel instead.

White gold is the most common culprit for metal allergies by far. If your looking to buy men's gold rings for a wedding band that he will wear every single day, you really want to make sure the metal is nickel free if he has a history of sensitive skin.

You might be wondering why your white gold ring was fine for two years and suddenly started giving you a rash. Most white gold is coated in a thin layer of a bright metal called rhodium. Rhodium is completely hypoallergenic. Over time, that protective rhodium plating wears off from normal friction, exposing the nickel underneath right against your skin. You can easily take it to a local jeweler and spend around 40 to 60 USD to have it replated and the rash will stop immediately.

Is It An Allergy Or Just Trapped Soap?

Sometimes your jewelry is not causing an allergy at all. Sometimes you just have soap and moisture trapped against your skin. We call this contact dermatitis.

Let us say you love wearing thick bracelets or you stack a bunch of diamond bangles on your wrist every day. When you wash your hands or take a shower, water and soap get trapped under the metal. As the water evaporates, the harsh soap chemicals dry out your skin and cause a red itchy ring that looks exactly like a metal allergy.

Jewelry also gets dirty. Lotions, dead skin cells, and sweat build up in the tiny crevices of your jewelry over time. This creates a bacteria trap that can easily cause a mild skin infection. To fix this, just take your jewelry off when you wash your hands or apply lotion. Make sure your skin is completely dry before putting your pieces back on. Clean your pieces regularly with warm water and mild dish soap. It is a simple habit but it saves a lot of itchy wrists and fingers.

How To Buy Jewelry For Sensitive Skin

So what should you do if you love wearing beautiful pieces but hate the itch? You have several smart options.

First, you should upgrade your karat count. The higher the karat, the more pure gold there is and the less alloy there is. Upgrading from 10K or 14K up to 18K gold dramatically drops your chances of having a skin reaction. If you are investing in large statement pieces that cover a lot of skin, like heavy gold necklace sets with diamonds, you want them to sit comfortably on your chest without making you scratch all night. Go for 18K yellow gold if you can fit it in your budget.

If you already own a piece that breaks you out, there is a cheap temporary trick you can use right now. Paint the inside of the jewelry with clear nail polish. This creates a clear plastic barrier between the metal and your skin. It only costs a couple of bucks at any local drugstore. You will have to reapply it every few weeks because it chips off with wear, but it works absolute wonders in a pinch.

Another brilliant strategy is changing how you allocate your jewelry budget. If you are shopping for a special gift or an engagement ring, consider buying gold jewelry made using lab diamonds instead of mined diamonds. Because lab grown gems cost significantly less money than mined stones, you can take those massive savings and put them straight toward a higher quality, completely hypoallergenic 18K gold or platinum setting. You get a bigger, clearer diamond and a ring that will never give you a rash. It is a total win win situation.

Ask The Right Questions

When you are shopping online or in stores, do not be afraid to ask direct questions. You are the customer and it is your money. Ask the jeweler plainly if the piece is nickel free. A good jeweler will know exactly what is in there metal alloys. If they do not know or try to dodge the question, take your money somewhere else.

There are plenty of custom jewelers who specifically formulate their white gold with palladium instead of nickel just to keep their customers safe from rashes. It might cost a few extra dollars upfront, but avoiding a lifelong allergy and getting to wear your favorite jewelry in total comfort is absolutely worth the investment.