Hi friends, I’m here to help you navigate the tricky waters of jewelry metals when you have allergies! Do you love Fantasy jewelry? Do you also love DND engagement rings, anime and Joan of Arc? Do you also have allergies!? Me too! and I can help!
If you're anything like me, you need a 10 page document signed by your allergist every time you go to a DND game night with snacks! And when you give the list to the host you hear ‘groan, could you maybe just not eat anything and bring your own snacks?’ (Course your DND night host wouldn’t actually say this cause they’re a nerd too and likely already planned gluten free, no food coloring, dairy free snacks! 😜)
Maybe it's something about my brain size interfering with my immune system? Or maybe I'm just lucky, but there seems to be something innately connected between nerdum and allergies.
That's why I create real Dragon engagement rings that won't turn your skin green or give you an unsightly rash.
As a kid I was constantly breaking out in rashes from the fun earrings that I would find at the mall.
And it was incredibly frustrating to me that when I was told I had metal allergies and I was taken to the higher end boutiques. The jewelry was super boring.
It was lacking color and fun symbols. It was just smaller and had no artistry whatsoever.
So I've got some tips and tricks for you on how to wear your existing costume jewelry because I know some of those pieces are just so fabulous you still want to wear them!
And I've also got some tips on what you may want to buy in the future and how you could possibly get those costume pieces re-made or you can find new pieces that will be kinder to your skin.
Okay, so I'm not going to get into all of the nitty-gritties of allergies because they are vast and wide and varied. All you really need to know is does your skin react when you wear a certain metal? And if it does slowly narrow down which metals.
So for example, if your skin reacts when you wear something from Claire's or the mall, if it turns green, that's not necessarily an allergy. It's just a chemical reaction between the oils and your skin and the metal.
Usually happens with copper.
So in that case the piece is probably what's called the ‘base metal’ which can be an alloy (fancy word for a mixture) of various metals. Most likely the culprit is copper or nickel or lead *cringe.
And the oils in your skin are having a chemical reaction with the copper. That's what's turning your skin green.
If you're getting a red rash, it's probably the same culprit: a base metal with a silver or gold coating over top, which is why it doesn't happen right away.
So the best trick for this, if you really love the piece is simply coat it with clear nail polish. There’s a few drawback to this. The first is if you have really sensitive skin like me. The nail polish might cause it’s own reaction, but it might irritate it less than the base metal. The second is it will rub off so you need to keep doing it. It’s a great solution for a cosplay or piece you only plan to wear for a special event!
Another idea if you're really crafty is to just coat it in any clear coating like a spray or a hodgepodge or what have you? But again, most of those are chemicals so it might still bother your skin. If you happen to have a clear silicone that would probably be the best because silicone is often food and skin safe, but it's often soft so that might not really work. It might just peel right off!
Useful tip: If your costume pieces do break, it's pretty pointless to take it to a jeweler to fix it because we can't really do much with it. So if a jeweler does so say sorry it's not worth it. They're not trying to be mean or pretentious, it's just the truth. We can't really solder base metals and they're fairly weak. So any work that we do, it'll probably just fall apart again and we don't want to charge you for work that's not going to hold up.
So the best bet is to just fix it yourself with strong craft glue like E6000+ or B-7000 and be super gentle with it. You can also add support with thin wire if you are crafty as well!
Another great glue is: five minute epoxy is actually a pretty common jewelers go to, so you can pick that up at the store and do your best.
When you are shopping for new jewelry and you don't want it to react to your skin, here are some online keywords to use in the search bar to help narrow down the results:
‘Hypoallergenic’: Note this is often miss representational since the sellers don’t know ALL of your allergies, but it can help. If you look at an item labelled this way see what it’s actually made of and then decide if that will work for your skin or not.
‘Sterling silver’ is my favorite as it’s generally hypoallergenic. If you find you ARE allergic to sterling silver you may have a copper allergy that’s more intense as sterling has a bit of copper in it.
Note: this is a HUGE caveat. Do not simply type in silver. Silver is technically a color!
So if you Google ‘silver diamond engagement ring’ you will get all manner of metals. Most of them will be base metals plated with sterling silver.
So instead you want to search:
‘sterling silver diamond engagement ring’ and you can even throw in a ‘925’.
This will narrow the search down substantially because I believe it's illegal to label a piece as sterling silver if it is just plated.
However, you will see in a lot of descriptions that it's real sterling silver but then when you look at the actual ‘ingredients’ which they do usually need to tell you. It will say something like sterling silver plated which means it’s real sterling silver over copper or over base metal and it will rub off sometimes within days and then yep you guessed it rash o rama!
You don't want that, you want solid sterling silver. But most retailers won’t use the wording solid but you can try it.
Sterling silver is generally hypoallergenic and won't react to your skin.
However, and this is a big however, some people are allergic to sterling silver because it does have a little bit of copper in it.
So if you've worn sterling silver and you've had a reaction, then that's your answer. You're allergic to one of the metals in sterling silver that’s used to make it strong enough for daily wear. You see Fine silver may seem like a good solution to your allergy, but pure silver is too soft to use for jewelry worn daily, which is why the other metals are added and can cause a reaction.
SO, you’ll need to upgrade to white gold. Here’s where shopping gets quite tricky. Most gold pieces are ‘high end’ and well…boring. So it might depress you a little that you can't get the fun designs you want in gold. You should be able to get anything that you find made by a professional custom jeweler in white gold. That’s where a custom fantasy jeweler like me can REALLY help! I LOVE costume and cosplay styles inspired by Anime, DND and other fantasy realms and I have the skills (Yes I have my MASTERS in jewelry design!) to create pieces that are beautiful, comfortable and yes actually allergy free!
Therefore, If you find a piece that you want and it’s only available in cheap base metals, and you need it in silver or gold, just send me a message and we’ll make it unique for you! If it’s an old antique piece, we can do an exact replica. If it's a current artist, I suggest contacting them directly to see if they can make it in gold for you. If you have a collection of pieces that inspire you send them to me and we can combine them and make some magic happen.
Well, if you've read this far and you're an ultra nerd, it is very possible that you can't wear gold either. Not that being a nerd is scientifically proven to be correlated to skin allergies I have my suspicions! 🤔😜
So if you can't wear silver and you still get a rash when you wear gold, I’ve got one more option for you. Actually I've got a few more options, but the last of the precious metals is:
PLATINUM
This is the metal to end all metals. It is the queen of the crop. The sultan of the sand dunes the priestess to end all priestesses.
It is the strongest metal. It is truly hypoallergenic. I have never heard of anyone allergic to platinum (Though I’m sure that one person will read this and fill up my DM’s 😝). It has a beautiful dark silvery shine and has this really nice weight to it.
The only drawback for Platinum is it is by far the most expensive. A very rough calculation is to take the gold price and multiply it by 3 and you will get the platinum price.
I love working in this metal so if you’d like a quote send me a DM or email contact@ricksonjewelry.com.
Fun fact, All white gold jewelry in the industry is rhodium plated and rhodium is a sister to platinum being the actual rarest and most valuable metal in the world!
If platinum is too high of a price point for you, I have a couple other suggestions:
Titanium is a fabulous option. It's light. It's very strong and it is hypoallergenic. I have a few pieces in my shop. The drawback for titanium is it needs to be tooled which means it cannot be cast. So all of the intricate dragon and mermaid rings that you see in my shop. Unfortunately we cannot produce those in titanium.
However, we can produce a sweet sound wave ring or a song ring in titanium because we are simply engraving the pattern on the titanium band.
I'm going to leave you with my favorite allergy tip when clients come to me saying that they're Rickson jewelry is giving them a rash and they've never had a rash with sterling silver or gold or platinum before, I give them this simple hack that always works.
Simply wash your jewelry with an old soft bristle toothbrush and soap and water!
I kid you not! Because my jewelry has a lot of carvings and you can use this trick for your other jewelry because lots of jewelry has these little nooks and crannies for dirt and debris and perfume and lotions and oils and things to get caught in.
Half the time when you're having an allergic reaction, it's simply to the dirt stuck in your jewelry lol.
Literally every time I give clients this piece of advice they come back saying the rash is gone and they love their jewelry.
So tell me what allergies do you have and have they affected your jewelry buying and your relationship to your jewelry?
Feel free to reach out if you don't know what you're allergic to and need some professional guidance. 🤗 contact@ricksonjewelry.com
