Skin Discoloration From Jewelry

425 Words1 Page

Reflective Journal #1: Skin Discoloration From Jewelry I have always heard that jewelry can make you skin turn different colors but never understood why. Gold is inert so it should not react with the skin. The most probable explanation for discoloration would be low-quality plating. Other metals are regularly added to gold to strengthen it and change its color. It is these metals that are blamable for the staining (Callahan). Even though gold does not corrode, the other alloys mixed with gold do. For example, the silver inside of sterling silver can oxidize when it touches the skin for long periods of time. This causes discoloring and can leave a dark-green or black stain. Copper is also responsible for this. The acid and moisture from the skin has a reaction with copper and causes it to corrode. This process creates copper salts. It is these blue-green compounds that leave a stain on your skin (Jacoby). Nickel reacts with the skin similarly to how copper reacts, but it turns the skin black instead of green. Nickel is generally used in low quality gold jewelry, and serves as a base for gold-plated jewelry. As the gold plating diminishes over time, the nickel underneath will get exposed to the skin and this will result in discoloration (Callahan). …show more content…

It is thought that people who have this issue, even with precious metals, have an abnormally high salt content in their sweat. The chlorides and sulfides in their sweat react with the copper and silver in the gold alloy. The reaction forms dark-colored salts of either copper sulfate or silver chloride

More about Skin Discoloration From Jewelry

Open Document