"Isn't the parallel of white gold and pearls beau chic, honey?!"

Most pearl dealers worth their sea-salt (har de har!) will give you a choice of fittings when you are purchasing your pearls. While yellow gold gives a traditional, classical impression, and sterling silver is cheaper than anything else, it is white gold teamed up with pearls that gives you that sleek modern look, without the enormous price tag of diamonds!

White gold is created by mixing pure gold with differing parts of platinum. White gold has gotten a bad rap over the years, as around one in eight people have a mild allergic reaction to the nickel that used to be used to create white gold. Since jewellers upped their standards and started using platinum, rarer and more expensive than nickel, there have been few problems reported.

Lavender Pearl Earrings on White Gold

If you love the subtlety of pearl jewelry in general, white gold is the best base to choose to maintain that barely-there look. You can see how it creates a very cool-colored, sleek and aloof look with the lavender pearl earrings above.

Another way to use white gold in pearl jewelry is to create the complete opposite of tradition … have golden pearls set on white gold, rather than white pearls set on golden gold ;-). This approach works best when you can see the base metal, as in hoop earrings or in cufflinks for men. Striking and sexy!

While pure gold is 24 carats, in this case, more pure is not necessarily better. Pure gold is the most malleable and ductile of all metals, with a single gram being able to be beaten into a sheet a meter square. You can just imagine how that would stand up under your everyday treatment! This is why gold is usually alloyed with something … and as white gold is an alloy by definition, the highest caratage you’ll find it in is 22ct.

However, around 14ct is the perfect purity for white gold pearl jewelry. It is affordable, difficult to scratch, and very durable. And really, you’ll be the only person to know whether you are wearing 18ct or 14ct!