Swarovski made of Rhodium?

[Miss Sparkly]

My mom fell in love with a Swarovski ring at Dillards that I planned on buying for her as a birthday gift. I asked the gal what the rings are made of as we both have metal allergies and she stated "rhodium". I told her no, that's not entirely possible. Rhodium is very expensive, and hard as a metal, and this ring should easily cost more than it does if that was true. So I asked did she mean rhodium plated? No, she insisted that it was "pure 100% rhodium". I've tried googling the ring and come up with the same results so I am now very confused .

 

[Sky56]

hi Sparkly Blonde - I looked around on the Dillards website at their Swarovski jewelry and all the descriptors of various pieces say "rhodium-plated."
I think there is base metal under the rhodium plating on all the pieces I looked at on the site - some of the entries list it as such.
Rhodium plating over sterling silver is common for jewelry such as this - but this line is not that way - the plating is over base metal.
This is considered costume jewelry.

 

[737liz]

I know I'm resurrecting an old thread. But I'm in France (chamonix) on vacation and popped in to see if I could bring myself to buy some costume bling for a fun black tie event I have coming up. The sales lady told me the same thing. I want to vent. I asked

'so cutting it open will reveal pure rhodium throughout?' Yes.
'Isn't there a base metal?' No, it's best for sensitive skin.
'There is no plating?' No,only gold over rhodium.
'Isn't this being sold at a loss?' No, why?
'Isn't rhodium brittle?' No, it's a luxurious metal.

Geeze. People have the internet. It's a mystery base metal that adheres to eu nickel content regulations. And plated in either rhodium, 23k pale yellow or 18k rose gold.
I doubt the woman even knew she was lying. Ok, rant over sorry.

 

[Austina]

Here in the UK, one of our big shopping channels has done a deal with Swarovski, to buy a million crystals a year from them. They then manufacture jewellery in mainly sterling silver overlaid with either rhodium or platinum, and recently some pieces in gold. They make a big deal out of the fact that Swarovski’s own pieces are base metal.