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White Gold or Yellow Gold?

Yellow gold is traditional, White gold is modern

An important question you need to ask yourself is: what stones am I adding to the ring? Frequency of wear - occasional or daily?

Yellow Gold complements our warm skin tone but doesn’t go too well with diamonds because it gives the stone a yellowish tint, which dulls its bling.

A little insight into how these metals are made. Yellow gold is naturally found in countries like South Africa, China, Australia and many more. Pure gold is 24 karats and is initially traded in gold bars, which are called gold bullions. Standard gold bars held by central banks are 12.4kg and for trading we mostly use 1kg bars. Due to gold’s soft nature we add different metals (alloy) to make it stronger and more durable for everyday wear.

22 karat gold has the highest gold percentage but is also soft and may become dull after sometime because of tiny scratches. Polishing your item will give it shine but be aware that every time you polish you lose out on metal, especially with 22 karat gold.

For daily wear 18K and 14K are more recommendable. The colour of gold is a little lighter, which we feel, complements our skin tone more. Warmer coloured gems like Rubies go really well with yellow gold, it brings out the ruby’s redness.

White gold. White gold is never really white because you cannot change a yellow metal into white. We add different metals like palladium or silver to reduce the yellowish tint of gold. Each piece is plated at the end to give the product a white look.

White gold perfectly complements diamonds and blue sapphires. If you wear your jewellery everyday, chances are high that the plating wears off and the pale yellow base metal appears - then ask your jeweller to re-plate it for you.

If you’re actually looking for a white metal use platinum, which does come with a heftier price tag but is naturally white and for daily wear ideal. Palladium is a little cheaper than platinum and is also naturally white. Palladium belongs to the same group of metals as platinum. Palladium is similarly or little less priced than 18K gold and we think it’s the perfect solution. Both platinum and palladium are harder metals than gold, which results in longer lasting shine.

But at the end of the day you need to decide what suits you and your wallet best.

Happy jewellery shopping!