actually, surgical steel is a variety of stainless steel. They both irritate me.
White gold is alloyed with nickel, 99% of the time in the US. It is also often plated with Rhodium, which would alleviate any irritation until the Rhodium wears off (which is does with some regularity). In europe, it is somewhat more common to get white gold alloyed with palladium, but that alloy is rare in the US.
Huh. Guess I don’t know what I’m talking about then. I feel like finding a piece of surgical steel now to see if it bothers me.
@Hello Again: My wedding and engagement rings are white gold, and they’ve not bothered me. I guess this means they’re coated in rhodium.
I once met a town office worker that was allergic to the chrome used in paper clips.
Nickel and gold is an illegal mix many places now. Thanks for the heads up. No American gold for me.
I’m not sure you’re correct here. Can you give me a source that says so.
White gold, which has been made in the US for perhaps 100 years, has nickel in it. Trace amounts, relative to the main components, but still…
We buy MUCH jewelry from the public the last two years, since prices for gold and silver are so high, relative to most of the last 100 years.
We see INCREDIBLE amounts of “silver” jewelry" which was bought, no doubt, in good faith from kiosks, etc as sterling jewelry. Much of it is stamped “sterling” or “.925”
It ain’t. I’m only condemning about 10-20 percent of this, but most of it was made in the last 10-20 years. Stuff from 30-60 years ago, which was stamped, is always legit.
One note about rhodium plating - they often do a layer of nickel beneath the rhodium. In fact many plated pieces have a layer of nickel applied first. I don’t know how likely it is that it will come in contact with your skin but you might want to ask about this before you go and get all your jewelry plated.
I think she might be refering to the European Nickel Directive:
According to FTC regulations any piece of jewelry that is stamped with a quality mark also needs to be stamped with a registered trademark. Since getting a registered trademark is a fairly expensive and complicated legal process, many U.S. based art/independent jewelry makers don’t stamp their work in order to remain in compliance (though there is some debate about the wording and whether just stamping a maker’s name is adequate).
See section 297 subsection A here:
I have no idea, but that surprises me as (said above) my stainless steel watch has never, ever bothered me. Most of my other jewelry is pewter or gold.
I sure hope it doesn’t come in contact with my skin, or else what’s the point? I’m wearing contact lenses right now because there’s a tiny little plate inside of my plastic-framed glasses that has caused my face to become very unhappy. Arr!
I have this too. Fortunately, I’m not a big jewellery-wearer anyway and I quite necklaces and bangles made of wood, leather or whatever rather than metal.
Belt buckles were the worst, especially because my body shape makes belts a necessity for pretty much all trousers (designers often seem to forget that waists are significantly narrower than hips). Wearing boxer shorts solves that problem, as long as the top you’re wearing isn’t going to show your midriff. Any other underwear that’s high at the front would work too. So would tucking your t-shirt in, but that’s so 1983.
Thank you,Nicest of the Damned. I was specifically thinking of Scandinavian rules, but ultimately an EU directive is probably behind it yes.
Samclem, I can give lots of cites, but not many you can use. The handbook for Norwegian goldsmiths list the only legal recipes for white gold, specifically banning nickel. Nothing bearing the stamps “925” or “585” (or even “830” or “950”) may contain nickel either. All of this is on Norwegian, so I’m not sure how useful that is to you. I believe the rules are much the same in Denmark, Sweden and Germany, which gets us to “many” in my book.
And yes, “many places” does not mean “many places in America”.
I am aware that many independent American jewelers don’t stamp, even if their stuff is legitimate. I would not buy from them. Sorry.
Can’t wear stainless or surgical steel. Until I figured out I had a nickel allergy, I made many failed attempts at pierced ears (with surgical steel studs) which always resulted in itching, rashes, and ultimately weeping sores that drove me to remove the earrings and cry. (Once it was so bad I had to go on a course of prednisone.) I always thought I just wasn’t caring for the piercings well enough, even though I practically doused my head in alcohol every 20 minutes. Then I twigged to the whole nickel allergy thing and had them pierced with TITANIUM! Gold or Simply Whispers earrings are all I will put in my ears.
I put a piece of moleskin over the inside of the jeans brad. I have a Simply Whispers watch as well as a Timex Ironman with woven fabric band and velcro closure. Lots of necklaces with wooden beads and fabric cords. Pins are my best friends! 
Two pairs of glasses: one titanium, one plastic.
A couple of years ago I was getting welts and itching and generally a big mess of crap on the palms of my hands. Turns out it came from the pole I use to skim and vacuum my pool. Now I wear rubber coated gloves when I handle it. They are as much a part of my pool equipment as chlorine tabs and algecide.
Not related to metal, but I get hives from touching dust and grass too. When my daughter was born via C-section, the surgical tape on the incision gave me huge, wet blisters. Cat scratches raise welts. When my (then) kitten launched himself from the bed, landed on my bare back and clawed down to my waist, I treated the scratch with **Neosporin **to ward off an attack but it got so bad I had to see the doc. He said that one of the agents in Neosporin can irritate people with nickel allergies. Told me to test by smearing a little Neosporin on the inside of my arm and see what happened. Yup, I broke out. So I stick to Bactine for cuts.
Oh my god, that explains so much. Curse you Neosporin!
I gave up on wearing jewelry at all because of my nickel allergy. I still shudder to think about my poor skin in high school.
:eek: I haven’t used Neosporin in years, and now I’ll make a point not to! I haven’t used it since I was a little kid, and I never got rashes then, but I think my allergy has gotten worse through the years. I don’t remember my jeans breaking skin out in rashes when I was a tot, or watches causing a problem.
I know this is an old thread, but I’ve been looking for info on this for years. My wrists break out badly from sensitivity to nickel… now nickel is toxic, but it doesn’t bother most people. My wrists break out, itchy, and they seep water or whatever that is, like pooling puddles on my wrist, and becomes inflamed. I wipe the wrist with baby wipes, but I’m not sure if there’s some answer, like a very thin rubber wrist band or something I can wear under all bracelets or watches?
Anyone figure this out yet?
Heads up on dental work. According to my hygienist, some crowns have a line of nickel along the edge which of course inflames the gums for sensitive people. Discuss with your dentist before having work done.
In addition to avoiding nickel and applying barriers to nickel items, also consider using barrier cream on your skin. When I worked in a nickel mill (constantly working in contact with nickel concentrate in granular and slurry form), we all used barrier cream.
Who’s Brad, and why did you let him in your pants if you’re allergic to him? 
I know this is an old post, but I couldn’t resist.
My doctor diagnosed me with this when my watch left a rash on my wrist. I told him that he looked as sad and sympathetic as if he were giving a fatal diagnosis.