When we suffer an allergic reaction to any of our silver jewelry or our precious stone jewelry, we immediately think we are allergic to silver and look for information on symptoms or possible solutions, but... what if I told you that the problem is not with the silver?

Let's start with the basics: the composition of your jewelry

First of all, you must understand that there are two types of metals involved in the production of jewelry: -Reactive metals such as nickel, cobalt... which have the quality of interacting with their surroundings, in this case, particles. -On the other hand, we have more stable metals such as silver or gold, which, unlike the former, do not interact with their surroundings. That said, as you might not have expected, it is not the silver that reacts with your body, but rather one of the reactive metals that may compose it.

What are the symptoms of a silver allergy?

When sweat mixes with some of the reactive metals that the jewelry may be made of, it causes a harmful reaction on your skin that manifests as itching, redness, pain, swelling, or other effects depending on the degree and type of skin on which it occurs. If silver doesn't cause an allergy, then...

Why do some silver pieces of jewelry cause a reaction?

Well, for jewelry to be harder, it is mixed with reactive metals that have a greater hardness than silver, and that is when the reaction with your skin can occur.

And what do I do when a piece of jewelry gives me an allergy?

The first thing you should do is remove the piece of jewelry that is causing the reaction and apply a soothing cream to the area. In many cases, the reactions are strong and a soothing cream is not enough, so you should go to a dermatologist to prescribe a corticosteroid cream, which will help much more to alleviate the damage to your skin.

Now you know that when you buy a piece of jewelry, you should look at its composition, not only to know if it is 100% silver but to be able to identify those reactive metals that cause you an allergy. Even so, here are a couple of tricks to be even safer: -Cover the parts of your jewelry that are in contact with your skin with clear nail polish, and where the reaction could therefore occur. -Clean them every time you decide to take them off or put them on, as you will eliminate any possible residues that may have remained on both the jewelry and your skin. At Luz de Nehca, all our sustainable silver jewelry is 100% silver, so, just as you have learned in this blog, it will be very difficult for it to cause you an allergy.