Gold body jewelry and gold belly button rings are increasingly popular women’s jewelry accessories. Gold body jewelry in particular is highly desirable, symbolizing abundance and prosperity. Before you purchase gold body jewerly or gold belly button rings, make sure you know how to choose and what to look for.

The most important factor in choosing any gold body jewelry is knowing if your jewelry is really gold. There are a few key elements to watch for which will pay off for you in the long run.

The first aspect to consider with body jewelry is karat content. You never want to buy body jewelry less than 18 karat gold. Lesser karat content, like 14k gold, means you’ll run the risk of a body jewelry allergy, which are discomforting at best and downright painful at worst.

Body jewelry allergies usually occur because the gold body jewelry contains significant other metal content. Inexpensive body jewelry is usually just gold plated. If the body jewelry is simply gold plated, it should never be used in piercings.

Gold plated body jewelry exposes you to a high risk for allergic reaction, because the gold plating will wear away. Most gold plated body jewelry contains nickel, a common element for body jewelry. Most white gold belly button rings contain nickel, and it’s important to find out how much. Very inexpensive body jewelry almost always contains a high percentage of nickel.

Even if you choose gold-plated jewelry, always check what kind of base metal it includes. For example, gold belly button rings advertised as 14 karat gold have only fourteen parts of gold in their entire composition. The other common elements are usually silver, nickel, zinc, and copper. Did you know that gold in its pure form is extremely soft, making it impossible to use as jewelry? That’s why other metals are needed to form a piece of body jewelry.

18 karat gold has a 75% gold composition. That’s why, when choosing body jewelry, you should always go with 18 karat. Most very inexpensive body jewelry is 14 karat gold, so to avoid painful jewelry allergies, go with 18 karat gold.

Here are a few tips for buying gold body jewelry:

1. Only buy from stores that test their body jewelry for gold purity content.

2. If your jewelry has a trademark, for example a sports team, it must have a license stamped on the back. If it doesn’t, there are serious quality issues. Stay away.

3. To make absolutely sure you’ve got legitimate gold, you can have the body jewelry tested at an independent lab for $20. Labs are available in almost every large city.

4. Be sure to closely examine your body jewelry before purchase. Check for any defects. To be absolutely safe, look at the jewelry under a jeweler’s scope. to check for imperfections.

One last item … remember that 24 karat gold is the only pure gold. 18k, 14k, and 10k all have gold and other metals present. For reference, 18k gold is 75% pure gold, high quality, affordable, and your best choice to reduce the risk of any problems.

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