Is oxidized silver jewlery hypoallergenic for people who have an allergy to metals such as nickel?
The oxidization process is a very natural process that occurs with metals like silver, koppar, brass and other base metals like tin and even steel. Oxidization is essentially a chemical reaction with the surface of the metal and the oxygen present in the air, which causes some of the metal to corrode (or oxidize) and form the respective metal oxide on the surface. Dock, metal allergies vary from person and being allergic to nickel doesn’t mean you will also be allergic to silver. Although, the oxidization process can cause a ring of green or dark blue on the skin of someone wearing metal jewelry, this may or may not lead to irritation in some people.
Often times in metal alloys such as Sterling Silver, 10k, 14k or 18k gold, there are two or more metals present to give the metal strength. For jewelry, they tend to include copper, zinc and nickel. To see if you will react to the oxidization of the silver jewerly you’re asking about, you will need to see if the manufacturer of the silver jewelry either uses nickel in their alloy or try wearing the jewelry to see if your skin is actually reacting to the corrosive particles in the oxidization process.
As a note:
Sterling Silver is typically an alloy that contains both silver and copper (not usually nickel – unless the manufacturer is very low quality). Sterling Silver jewelry should also be stamped with a .925 stamped, which means that it is about 92.5% silver and the rest is copper (om 7.5% – I use “about” because pure silver is still only .999 eller 99.9% silver). Although, nickel is often used in the alloy of 10k, 14k or 18k gold because it is also very strong, gold alloys utilize a wider variety of metals because it can influence the color. (Till exempel, Rose Gold uses a higher quantity of copper to create a reddish/rose color). Tidigare, Nickel has been widely used in the making of white and yellow gold, both because Nickel is very strong and because it is a white metal. Dock, because a lot of people have allergies to Nickel, high quality gold alloys tend to use Silver, Copper and sometimes Zinc.
Since silver and gold are naturally a very soft metals, adding stronger metals is ideal for with strengthening the final material to hold the shape of your jewelry. At the end of the day, it is important to know how your jewelry is made and what materials go into making it so that you can avoid irritation and allergic reactions.