Most jewellery sold online under £100 is plated, and most shops are vague about it. Here is the plain version.
Solid gold
Gold all the way through, measured in karats. It does not wear off because there is no coating to wear off. It also starts at several hundred pounds for a pair of earrings, which is why most people own very little of it.
We do not sell solid gold and we will not describe anything we sell as if we did.
Gold-plated
A base metal — in our earrings, copper — with a layer of gold bonded to the surface. It gives the colour and the warmth at a fraction of the cost, and it lets a sculptural shape exist at a price you would actually pay.
The honest limitation: plating is a surface, and surfaces wear slowly. How long yours lasts depends mostly on what you do to it. Everyday water is fine — you can shower with it on. What removes plating faster is perfume, chlorine, constant friction and soaking for hours at a time. Treated sensibly, a plated piece stays bright for years.
925 sterling silver
92.5% silver, the rest usually copper for strength. It is solid metal, not a coating, so it does not wear off — but it does tarnish, which is different. Tarnish is a surface reaction that polishes away; worn plating does not come back.
Our Pavé Band Ring is silver, in a gold or white-gold finish.
Stainless steel with gold-colour plating
The toughest of the group. Water resistant, does not rust or corrode, and the base metal underneath does not react with skin the way cheaper alloys can. Our Baguette Open Ring is built this way.
So which should you buy?
If you want one piece to keep for thirty years, buy solid gold from someone who sells it. If you want a collection you can build and actually wear — and replace in a few years when your taste moves — plated is the sensible answer, as long as the shop tells you that is what it is.
Every product page here says what the piece is made of, in the piece's own words. More about how we work.