An earring hole smells because it's an enclosed channel lined with skin, and skin sheds cells and produces oil continuously. With an earring in both ends there's almost no airflow, so that material collects instead of washing away, and the ordinary bacteria living on everyone's skin break it down. It's normal, it's common, and it isn't about hygiene. Our Polished Surgical Steel collection gives it a smoother surface to deal with.
Why an earring hole smells, in short
Three things combine.
A sealed space. An earring blocks both ends of the channel, so nothing flushes through.
Constant supply. Skin inside the channel sheds cells and produces sebum exactly as skin everywhere else does.
Ordinary bacteria. The ones already living on your skin break those oils and proteins down, and some of the compounds that produces smell strongly.
That's it. No infection, no dirt, no failure on anybody's part.
Why washing doesn't reach it
This is the part that frustrates people most.
You can shower daily and scrub the outside of the lobe and the channel stays untouched. Water runs over the ear rather than through the hole, and with an earring in place there's nowhere for it to go anyway.
So the smell persists through a cleaning routine that's working perfectly well on every other part of the ear, which naturally makes people assume they must be doing something wrong. They aren't.
Why it's often described as cheese
The comparison is chemically closer than most people expect.
Cheese ripens through bacterial breakdown of fats and proteins, which produces compounds including butyric acid and various sulfur-containing molecules. Skin bacteria breaking down sebum and dead cells produce a similar family of compounds.
Different setting, related chemistry, similar result.
What makes it stronger
Not taking the earrings out. Contact time is the biggest single factor. A pair that's been in for six months has had six months of accumulation with no opportunity to clean either surface.
A back that seals the lobe. Flat backs are worth knowing about here. The disc sits flush and creates a small cavity that holds moisture and debris against the back of the lobe.
A rough or corroding surface. Debris clings to texture. A post that's tarnished, pitted or worn through its plating holds more than a smooth one does.
Long hair. It keeps the area warm and damp and carries shampoo and conditioner residue to it.
Heat and perspiration.
Products. Shampoo, conditioner, hairspray and dry shampoo all run down onto the ear.
How to clear it
Take the earring out. Nothing works until you do.
Wash both. Warm water and mild soap on the earring, and gently on the lobe front and back. Rinse and dry properly.
Leave them out for an hour or two if you can, so the channel gets some air.
Repeat weekly rather than doing an intensive clean occasionally. Frequency beats intensity here.
Don't twist the earring in the hole. It's often suggested, it abrades the channel, and it pushes material further in rather than clearing it.
Don't use alcohol or antiseptic routinely. Occasionally is fine. Regularly dries the skin lining the channel, and dry irritated skin sheds more, which increases the supply of exactly what's causing the smell.
Jewelry on last, off first. Hair products go on before the earrings go in.
When to stop reading and see a doctor
Smell on its own from a settled piercing is ordinary.
Smell with heat, spreading redness, swelling, colored or persistent discharge, or pain that's worsening is a different situation. That's your pediatrician rather than an article, and it needs someone who can look at it.
The simplest distinction: ordinary build-up doesn't hurt. If it hurts, something else is going on.
Does the metal make a difference?
Some, and less than the airflow does.
A metal that corrodes develops a rougher surface over time, and rough surfaces hold more debris. A metal that tarnishes does the same. A plated earring is smooth while the coating holds, and once it wears through, usually at the post first, whatever is underneath is exposed and often starts to corrode.
S316L Surgical Steel is used in medical instruments and implants partly because it resists corrosion, so it keeps a smooth surface over years rather than months. Pure 24 karat gold is chemically inert and doesn't tarnish at all.
Neither eliminates the process, because the process is about skin rather than metal. Both give it less to cling to.
What we do
purepixxi uses two materials, and on one range only one.
S316L Surgical Steel, the same grade used in medical instruments and implants, chosen for corrosion resistance. On the Polished Surgical Steel range that's the entire earring, one material throughout, so there's no coating to wear through and expose something rougher.
24K Pure Gold, which is pure 24 karat gold finished onto a solid S316L Surgical Steel core with Aunix™ 24K, our engineered gold finish. At 24 karat the gold has no alloy in it, so nothing in the finish tarnishes.
The setting, the post and the butterfly back all carry the same core. The post is the component that actually sits in the channel, and it's the one most commonly bought in from a different supplier and left out of testing.
We use butterfly backs rather than flat backs, and this is one of the reasons. A butterfly leaves the back of the lobe open rather than sealing a cavity against it.
Independently tested by SGS to ASTM F2923 and CPSIA, with nickel release not detected under EN 1811. Report BTO 341803/1. More in our safety FAQ.
The easiest pair to keep clean is the one with the fewest places for anything to gather, which is why we make the 4mm Flawless Crystal Stud Earrings in Surgical Steel.
Questions parents ask next
Is it the earring or the hole that smells? Both, and they're the same source. Material accumulates on the post and in the channel together.
Why does one ear smell and not the other? Usually the side she sleeps on, or a slightly tighter back on one side holding more against the lobe.
Does it mean the piercing never healed properly? Not usually. A fully healed piercing still has a skin-lined channel doing exactly what skin does.
Will silver or gold stop it? Neither stops it, because it isn't caused by the metal. A smooth non-corroding surface reduces how much clings on.
She's had the same earrings in for a year. Is that the problem? It's very likely a large part of it. Nothing gets cleaned while they stay in.
Related reading
- Why do earrings smell like cheese?
- How do I stop her earrings from smelling?
- Why do earrings smell?
- Why her ears react to earrings, and what to do about it
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.
