Gold Or Silver Jewellery: Which Suits You Best?
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Gold Or Silver Jewellery: Which Suits You Best?

Jewellery is incredibly personal. And when it comes to metals, most like to stick to one metal over the other (personally, we love mixing and matching both). However, it’s suggested that depending on your skin tone and colour palette, you’re either better suited to gold or silver jewellery. 

Different Jewellery Metal Colours

The choice of metal for jewellery has traditionally involved two primary options: gold and silver. However, other metal variations include:

Yellow Gold – widely regarded as the traditional classic for jewellery, featuring a rich warm hue.

White Gold – the contemporary option, featuring a sleek, silvery tone that beautifully complements diamonds.

Rose Gold – a popular option in recent decades, offering a warm pink tone that presents a romantic appearance. 

Silver – soft metal with silvery hues and a bright shiny appearance. 

Platinum – the durable option, featuring a lustrous white finish that is highly resistant to tarnishing.

metal properties

Wearing Gold Jewellery vs Silver Jewellery

Before we jump into whether you should wear gold or silver jewellery (spoiler, you can wear whatever you want! But we’ll get into skin tones shortly), there are a few key differences in gold vs silver jewellery wearability.

Gold has long been the traditional metal used to create jewellery. It’s also known for being incredibly long-lasting, lavish, and highly malleable - which means it can be crafted into different designs. Gold comes in levels of purity (karats) - the higher the karat, the higher the quality the gold jewellery is. 

However, gold can also be prone to scratching. It is commonly mixed with alloys to prevent scratching, and is favoured in yellow tones, white tones, and rose tones. 

Silver is more affordable and accessible than gold as a metal. It’s also extremely popular in the jewellery industry, as it’s very malleable, reflective, and long-lasting. Compared to gold, silver can tarnish over time - but it can always be polished!

Matching Your Jewellery with Skin Tone

To determine which metal suits you best, it’s important to understand how skin tone variations work, and how gold or silver can complement different skin complexions. 

All types of skin (regardless of colour) can be categorised into two main groups; warm skin tones and cool skin tones. 

To tell if you have a warm or cool skin tone, look at the colour of the veins on your hands. If they appear greenish, you have a warm skin tone. If the veins appear bluish or purplish, it’s more likely that you have a cool skin tone. 

Another way to tell between skin tones is how your skin reacts when exposed to the sun. 

Warm skin tones tend to become tan before being burnt, while cool skin tones may burn more easily before appearing tanned. 

caring for your gold and silver

Jewellery Colours That Suit Warm Skin Tones

Warm colours like yellow or golden hues complement warm skin tones well. Jewellers often recommend yellow gold for individuals with warm skin tones as the similarity in hues really highlight the pigmentation. Rose gold is another favoured choice for warm skin tones, as the pinkish hue can add a splash of brightness against the skin without too clashing or contrasting. 

Jewellery Colours That Suit Cool Skin Tones

Those with cool skin tones should explore white and silver jewellery. White gold and silver both complement cool skin tones well - whether it be in the form of an engagement ring, bracelet, necklace, or earrings.

Can You Wear Jewellery Colours Not Suited for Your Skin?

Absolutely! There’s no rule against wearing whatever jewellery you like. Obviously, the skin tone pairings are just a general guide to help decide between white gold and yellow gold - there are plenty of exceptions. It’s also becoming more common to mix and match metals. 

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