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Friday, October 17, 2008

How To Make Sure Your Body Jewelry Is Real 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.

The most important factor in choosing any gold body jewelry is knowing if your jewelry is really gold. There are a few key elements to watch for which will pay off for you in the long run.

Without question, 18 karat gold is the best choice for gold body jewelry. With any lesser karat content, there's a good chance you'll experience a jewelry allergy or that your body will reject the gold body jewelry entirely.

Most inexpensive body jewelry is only gold plated and should be avoided. Gold plated body jewelry contains a small percentage of gold and a large percentage of other metals, thereby increasing the chance for your body rejecting the jewelry.

After the polish goes away, the allergic risk is high, especially if the other metal used is nickel. Nickel is the most common metal used for body jewelry, particularly for white gold belly button rings. The cheaper the body jewelry, the more unlikely it has a high level of gold purity.

Since gold in its natural state is quite soft, it's very common for body jewelry manufacturers to use other metals along with gold to formulate a piece of body jewelry. For example, 14 karat gold belly button rings are just over half gold, with other metals comprising the remainder.

To avoid potential body jewelry allergic reaction, always choose 18 karat gold body jewelry. Most body jewelry you'll see on the market is 14 karat gold, but 18k gold is also readily available. The less gold content, the less expensive. The downside, of course, is the high chance you'll have to return or even discard the body jewelry.

Here are a few tips for buying gold body jewelry:

1. Look for gold body jewelry sellers who adhere to a strict quality assurance program, and are willing to tell potential buyers what it means.

2. Look for a license stamped on the body jewelry if a trademark or logo is present, i.e. the trademark for a large company. If a trademark or logo is on your body jewelry but there is no license stamped on the back, your body jewelry is suspect in quality.

3. Test your body jewelry at an independent lab if you have any questions about the gold content. Typically these tests are about $20.

4. Closely examine the body jewelry's quality. Look at your body jewelry with a jeweler's scope. If edges are frayed or there are imperfections, there are quality and manufacturing issues.

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.

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