Saturday, October 11, 2008

Gold Body Jewelry - Is It Really Gold?

By Jim Hofman

Gold body jewelry and gold belly button rings are increasingly popular women's jewelry accessories. Gold body jewelry in particular is highly desirable, symbolizing abundance and prosperity. Before you purchase gold body jewerly or gold belly button rings, make sure you know how to choose and what to look for.

Primarily, you'll want and need to know that your body jewelry being advertised as gold is really gold. There are specific ways to know for sure, so let's examine what to look for.

With body jewelry, you should look for 18 karat gold. The reason 18 karat is recommended for new piercings is there's a higher chance the jewelry will be accepted by the body. When body jewelry isn't true gold or the karat level advertised, allergies may result and you'll need to remove the body jewelry.

Usually this occurs because the gold used for body jewelry is an alloy that contains other metals in addition to gold. Often, gold body jewelry is only plated with gold; such jewelry should never be used in piercings even if the piercing is healed.

If your gold body jewelry is only gold plated, it's best to look for another option. Most gold plated body jewelry contains a high percentage of nickel, which gives you a higher risk for allergic as we've discussed.

It's important to check what other metals are present in your gold body jewelry. The lower the karat level in your body jewelry, the higher the content of metals like copper, zinc, and nickel. In fact, other metals are almost always used to formulate body jewelry because gold itself is so soft and needs other metals to form jewelry.

18 karat gold has a 75% gold composition. That's why, when choosing body jewelry, you should always go with 18 karat. Most very inexpensive body jewelry is 14 karat gold, so to avoid painful jewelry allergies, go with 18 karat gold.

Here are a few tips for buying gold body jewelry:

1. Only buy from stores that test their body jewelry for gold purity content.

2. Avoid trademark or logo body jewelry if there isn't a license stamped on the back. Any trademark must also display licensing directly on the body jewelry.

3. Have your body jewelry tested for purity at an independent lab or dealer if the quality is in question.

4. Be sure to closely examine your body jewelry before purchase. Check for any defects. To be absolutely safe, look at the jewelry under a jeweler's scope. to check for imperfections.

Finally, make sure you understand gold terminology. 24 karat gold body jewelry is pure gold, and the highest quality. Other karat content are less than pure gold. 10k gold is less than 50% gold and is the lowest karat content that can legally be labeled as gold. - 15366

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