A lot of my wire jewelry is made from copper wire. A lot of people have heard that
copper makes you skin turn green. But why does this happen?
The natural acidity of oils and sweat from our skin causes the copper to corrode. This produces salts that cause the skin to turn green where they are in contact with the skin for a given length of time. Contrary to popular belief, the phenomena of your skin turning green from copper
is not a result of a metal allergy to copper.
As far as metal allergies go, nickel is the biggest culprit. I know about nickel allergies, my mother and myself are among those 15%. Since my mother' s allergy more prevalent than mine, it makes giving her jewelry as a present a bit tough. Her birthday was last month, so I did some research so that I could create a nice wearable necklace for her. Here is what I found:
Around 15% of the population have allergic reactions to nickel.
Most base metal alloys contain some nickel.
Jewelry Copper does not appear to contain nickel.
White gold does contain nickel (it is one of the reasons the metal is silver colored)
Sterling silver may be coated in nickel to protect the finish. (The coating is not applied to all SS)
Fine silver, platinum and , yellow gold (above 18kt) are considered "nickel-free"
If you have a question about whether a piece may contain nickel, you can buy
a nickel allergy kit to determine if nickel is present.
