Gold earrings turn ears green because of the other metals mixed in with the gold, usually copper. Copper reacts with moisture and the natural acids in skin, and the compounds it forms are green. Pure gold does not do this. The lower the karat, the more room there is for the metals that do. Our 24K Pure Gold collection is finished in pure 24 karat gold for exactly this reason.
It isn't the gold
This is the part most people have backwards, and it's worth getting straight before anything else.
Gold is one of the least reactive metals there is. That's why it's used in dental work and in electronics, where nothing is allowed to corrode. Left alone, gold sits against skin and does essentially nothing.
So when a gold earring marks an ear, the gold isn't the culprit. Something else in the earring is, and the reason you weren't told about it is that nobody is required to tell you.
What "gold" usually means on a label
Karat is the number that matters, and it measures purity rather than quality or value.
Picture the metal split into 24 equal parts. The karat number is how many of those parts are gold. The rest is other metal.
- 24 karat is all 24 parts gold
- 18 karat is 18 parts gold, 6 parts something else
- 14 karat is 14 parts gold, 10 parts something else
- 9 karat is 9 parts gold, 15 parts something else
A 9 karat earring has more other metal in it than gold. That other metal is commonly copper, along with zinc, silver and sometimes nickel. Copper is added because it hardens the gold and because it's cheap.
And here's the part that causes the trouble: what that other metal actually is almost never appears anywhere on the listing. Two earrings both stamped 9K can contain quite different recipes.
What makes gold earrings turn ears green
The reaction is straightforward chemistry.
Copper meets moisture, oxygen and the mild acids in perspiration. It forms copper salts, and those compounds are green. They sit on the skin around the piercing and transfer onto it.
Several everyday things speed it up. Perspiration, obviously, so warm weather and sport make it more noticeable. Water sitting against the metal after swimming or showering. And products applied over the top: perfume, sunscreen, lotion, hairspray and soap all end up on the lobe.
Skin chemistry varies too, which is why one child marks and another doesn't wearing the same pair. How much she perspires and the composition of that perspiration both change how fast the reaction runs. Neither child is doing anything wrong.
The green marks themselves wash off and aren't dangerous. What they're telling you is more useful than the stain is annoying: the metal is releasing something into her skin, and it has been for a while.
Why plated gold goes green eventually
A plated earring is a layer of gold over a base metal. Gold fill is a thicker layer. Vermeil is gold over sterling silver. PVD is a harder coating applied as a vapor.
All four describe the surface. None of them describes what's underneath.
While the layer is intact, skin touches gold and nothing much happens. Every layer wears through eventually, and the points of most contact go first, usually around the post and the back. After that, skin is against whatever the base metal actually is, and on inexpensive jewelry that's frequently brass, which is mostly copper.
That's why a pair can be fine for months and then start marking. Nothing changed about her ears. The coating ran out.
Why this got worse rather than better
There's a commercial reason behind all of this that's worth knowing, because it explains why the problem has grown.
The price of gold has risen sharply over the past five years, roughly two and a half times. That increases what it costs to manufacture any piece of gold jewelry, and a brand facing that increase has two choices. Raise prices, or hold prices and reduce what goes into the product.
Raising prices costs customers, so the reduction is the more common route. Karat drops from 18 to 14 to 9. The core moves from a stable steel to something cheaper and unnamed. A coating goes over the top to keep the look intact for the first few months.
I went the other way, and it cost me. My previous jewelry brand ran 18 karat when gold was around $1,800 an ounce. purepixxi runs 24 karat now, with gold near $4,400. I increased the gold content while the price multiplied, at the exact point most of the category was quietly reducing it.
How to stop it happening
Check the karat, then convert it. If a listing says 9K, that's about a third gold. If it doesn't say at all, assume plated over something unnamed.
Ask what the base metal is. On plated jewelry this is the question that actually matters, and a vague answer is an answer.
Ask about the post and the back. Backs are frequently bought in from a different supplier than the earrings, so the metal in the back may be different from the metal in the front, and it sits against her lobe for exactly as long.
Jewelry on last, off first. Perfume, sunscreen, lotion and soap go on before the earrings, and the earrings come out before anything else comes off. This one change solves a surprising number of cases.
Take them out for swimming, or at least dry the lobe properly afterwards.
What we do instead
purepixxi uses two materials, and that's the whole list.
S316L Surgical Steel, the same grade used in medical instruments and implants, chosen because it resists corrosion and therefore releases very little.
24K Pure Gold, which is pure 24 karat gold finished onto a solid S316L Surgical Steel core with Aunix™ 24K, our engineered gold finish. That's a gold-plating process and we say so. The difference isn't the absence of plating. It's that the gold is pure 24 karat rather than a low-karat alloy, and the core underneath it is surgical steel rather than a base metal nobody will name.
The setting, the post and the butterfly back all carry that same core.
It's independently tested. I sent SGS the pieces with the largest surface area touching an ear, and they tested the setting, the post and the butterfly back. Eight pairs, all of them. Nickel release was not detected under EN 1811. Tested to ASTM F2923 and CPSIA, with lead below a tenth of the United States legal limit. Report BTO 341803/1, and you can ask me for it.
You can see how we describe all of it on the materials page.
Questions parents ask next
Will the green marks harm her? The staining itself washes off and isn't dangerous. It's a signal rather than an injury. What it tells you is that metal is transferring, and prolonged exposure to reactive metals is what leads to sensitivity over time.
Can I stop it with clear nail polish on the posts? It's a common suggestion and it's a temporary patch at best. The coating chips quickly, it's not made for skin contact, and it hides the problem rather than removing it.
Does more expensive gold jewelry mark less? Only if the price bought more gold. Price tracks design and brand as much as material, so a costly 9 karat piece can mark more than an inexpensive well-specified one.
Why do her ears go black rather than green? Dark gray or black marks usually come from a different reaction, often involving abrasion between metal and skin, or a reaction with cosmetics and soaps. Same principle, different compound.
She's worn these for a year with no problem. Why now? Most often the coating has worn through and the base metal is now in contact. It's also worth checking whether anything else changed, such as a new sunscreen or a summer of swimming.
The plainest way to rule this out is a pair with nothing plated over anything, which is what the 4mm Ball Stud Earrings in Surgical Steel are.
Related reading
- Do gold earrings contain nickel?
- What karat gold is best for sensitive ears?
- Is 14K gold good for sensitive ears?
- What children's earrings are actually made of
About the author. Matt Westmore is the founder of purepixxi. He came to children's jewelry from manufacturing and sourcing rather than marketing, which means he has walked the factory floors and knows what is actually inside a product rather than what a label says about it. purepixxi uses two materials only, names them exactly, and has them independently tested.
