Precious Metal Guide
Aquamarise offers jewelry made with traditional metals like gold, sterling silver, platinum, and vermeil.
SOLID GOLD JEWELRY
Yellow Gold
In its most pure form (24k) gold is soft, almost orange in color, scratches easily, and is altogether too weak to work with. Because of this, alloys are added to create a more structurally sound metal that mixed together, is known as “solid gold.”Yellow gold boasts the rich hue for which gold is famous, and its luster is beautiful. The amount of pure gold in the jewelry depends on its karat. The higher the karat, the greater the purity. Yellow gold is also the most hypoallergenic of all gold types.
Rose gold
Rose gold is a lovely alloy of gold and copper, with a lustrous blush-pink tone. It's not considered hypoallergenic and does require more polishing than other golds to maintain its shine
White gold
To create the white‐silver color, gold is mixed with palladium and silver or with nickel, copper, and zinc. White gold also needs to be coated with platinum or rhodium to improve whiteness and add durability and shine. White gold jewelry will occasionally need to be re‐dipped after the coating wears away.
To determine the karat gold used in a piece of jewelry, check its markings, also called its hallmark. This is usually found on the inside of the shank or the reverse side of a pendant, earring, or bracelet.
PLATINUM JEWELRY
Rare and precious, platinum is a bright white metal thirty times rarer than gold. It is extremely durable, doesn't tarnish, and is hypoallergenic. It's shiny, beautiful, and will last for generations — an excellent choice for jewelry. Platinum is the most expensive of the precious metals, due to stunning appearance and superior durability.
STERLING SILVER JEWELRY
Once considered even more valuable than gold, today silver is the most affordable of all the precious metals. Because pure silver is too soft to be used in jewelry making, it's mixed with copper or other metal to create sterling silver, which is more durable. Sterling silver must contain at least 92.5% pure silver, which is why it is stamped as .925. You can find this hallmark on the inside shank of a sterling silver ring or stamped on the back of jewelry.
VERMEIL JEWELRY
Gold Vermeil is a common type of gold plating, which uses sterling silver as the base metal. Vermeil is more hypoallergenic and has a thicker layer of gold than normal gold plating, which is why you'll see it in stores selling fine jewelry. However, with enough scuffs and scratches the plating can wear off.
