Tiffany Confusion

[elle_chris]

I emailed Tiffany asking if they use nickel in their white gold as I was dying to get the white gold clover pendant.

Received an email back saying, "Tiffany white gold is 75% pure. To minimize even the possibility of allergic reactions, Tiffany uses little or no nickel in the alloy."
I'm disappointed in the answer. How am I supposed to know which pieces have "very little" and which pieces have no nickel.

Also,Tiffany has stores worldwide, I thought they can't use nickel as it's banned in Europe. Are the same pieces made of different alloys depending on the market?

 

[turboflgrl]

Personally, I would reply and mention the exact item you were looking at and request that they tell you whether or not nickel is used to make it.

Off-topic and out of curiosity, why is nickel banned in Europe?

 

[elle_chris]

Yeah, I should have done that initially. Will call and ask about the specific piece. Thanks.

It's banned in jewelry because too many people (like me), have an allergic reaction to it. Wish they'd ban it here.

 

[AprilBaby]

Agreed! I cannot wear any jewelry that contains nickel.

 

[AGBF]

Yeah, I should have done that initially. Will call and ask about the specific piece.

After you call, please post the results in this thread; I am now quite curious!


Best regards,
Deb/AGBF

 

[candy]

I don't know the official answer, but wanted to chime in that I recently got a pair of Tiffany sterling silver earrings with posts made of 18k gold. I'm also allergic to nickel and have been wearing the earrings without any trouble, so my guess is that little or no nickel was used. When I purchased the earrings and mentioned my nickel allergy, the salesperson let me know that if I had any issues, I could bring the earrings back and they would swap the posts with a different metal.

 

[elle_chris]

So... the answer is: No one seems to know

I called, was put on hold numerous times while they tried to find out. There is no concensus lol.. Very odd.

I did wind up getting the pendant as their return period is long enough to see if i get the dreaded nickel rash.
Wore it all day yesterday and so far, so good. Yesterday was also very hot. I gave it a good test drive by wearing it out, against my skin (was soaked by the time i got home). Thought for sure I'd get a reaction, but again, nothing. I even slept in it and still no itching, scratching, red bumps.. nada. I'm impressed as I usally start to itch less than an 30 minutes into wearing any kind of white gold.

The thing is, I noticed that the color is a bit duller than my other WG pieces. Not quite as shiny and more of a grey look. But when I tried to take pictures, it came out yellowish looking in some. Strange. Then again I could just be seeing things, but I don't think so. Wanted to take a few more in different lighting just to compare but my camera died.

I also purchased the the oval link chain in 18". No reaction to that either. All in all I'm very happy with the quality. Not so sure I'd recommend it to other who are allergic, but I would say try it out. There's really nothing to lose.