Why Surgical Steel Earring's?
The beginning of Solace Jewellery Ltd
For a few years, I was searching to find nice hypoallergenic earrings to give as a gift to a partner, similar to many people she struggled to find jewellery that did not cause irritation, and was upset that she could not wear earrings! So I decided to do some research, and thankfully I found something suitable to wear.
What are metal allergies?
Allergic reactions to metal are common throughout the world, and millions of people struggle to find jewellery they can wear comfortably. You can develop this allergy at any point in life, it's not just something you are born with. The most common allergy is to the nickel used in the combined metals to produce jewellery.
So what causes allergic reactions with metals? As the most common allergy is to nickel, I will discuss this first. Although many of you will deny you sweat on your ears (or anywhere), it is natural to sweat and oils from the skin react with the metal to create oxidation. This is the nickel reacting with water to create nickel salts, the cause of your irritation. Any moisture can cause this, perfumes, soap or lotion. Nickel salts cause contact dermatitis, symptoms include irritation, blisters, rashes or swollen skin.
Eventually I found a solution. 316L stainless steel, also known as surgical steel. Many people will point out that surgical steel contains nickel, usually about 8%, how then it is the most recommended metal for nickel allergy sufferers? Due to the robust nature of surgical steel, the nickel is so tightly bound in the metal it does not break down to produce nickel salts. Surgical steel is used by medical professional for implants and tools such as knives due to this low reaction rate, therefore it was adopted by jewellery makers to provide a solution to the 10% or so of the population with metal allergies.
Now there are other metals on the market that claim to be hypoallergenic, and they may work for you. Some are considered hypoallergenic because they are nickel free, like titanium and platinum. But it is common to have other metal allergies, therefore nothing can promise to be completely allergy free and something that claims to be nickel free may still not work for you.
The result of all this research was that surgical steel worked, but there was very little choice out there for quality earrings. So I decided to fix this problem and now I provide quality surgical steel earrings online to help others discover they can wear jewellery again!