Why Do Fingers Turn Green When Wearing Jewelry?

Have you ever taken off a new ring or bracelet and found that your skin has turned green? Many individuals have gone through this experience before. It can be quite embarrassing. It’s important for individuals to purchase jewelry from a well known, trustworthy source in order to avoid this type of situation.

Fake Jewelry

• It’s common for individuals to have worn at least one piece of jewelry in their lifetime that has turned their skin green. In some cases, a man will have purchased a piece of jewelry from what they believed was a reliable source, then they came to find out it was, in fact, fake. This is not only embarrassing for the person wearing it, but also for the person who purchased it as a gift.

Purchasing Cheap Jewelry

• The best way to avoid making the mistake of purchasing fake jewelry is to purchase the items from a trustworthy source. If someone is going around selling jewelry door to door, this is obviously not completely trustworthy. It’s also best to stay clear of purchasing items from unfamiliar websites, garage sales or swap meets.

Why it Turns Skin Green

• Cheap jewelry turns skin green due to the metals in the ring that react with the acid in a person's sweat. The acids cause the copper to wear on the surface of the metal. The salts then absorb into the skin, resulting in a green color.

Allergy to Jewelry

• Some individuals mistake the green color on their skin as an allergy to metals or jewelry. This is not an allergy, it’s just a sure way to tell that the jewelry is low-quality. Allergy symptoms do not turn the skin green. The symptoms would be redness, rash and swelling.

Real Jewelry

• When shopping for jewelry, the clarity of the item is often explained by the jeweler or in the product description. When it comes to gold, the item will have a stamp, such as, 24k or 18k, which explains the purity of the gold. Gold is very soft and often bends easily. This is why when wearing a gold ring, it sometimes bends to the shape of a person’s finger. To make gold somewhat stronger and more durable, it’s mixed with other metals, such as, copper, nickel or palladium. Silver is often stamped with a hallmark, stating the clarity of the silver. However, this may be difficult to read without a magnifying glass. Overall, silver, platinum and gold will not turn skin green.