White Gold vs. Yellow Gold

When buying fine jewelry one of the main dilemmas we will face is whether to go for white or yellow gold. They are the two most popular colors for gold, but it’s worth nothing that gold can come in other different colors or alloys, such as green or rose gold.

Since we are becoming familiar with the jewelry lingo, “alloy” is a word worth learning. Basically an alloy is the mixture of a precious metal with another metal to improve its overall properties. Why? Jewelry alloys change the properties of the precious metal, such as its hardness and color, so it can be used for the creation of beautiful pieces.



Gold Alloys

Gold is alloyed with other metals to improve its strength and malleability, since pure gold is too soft to craft jewelry pieces. The most famous gold alloys are 18K yellow gold and 18K white gold, which are the ones you can find in our Fine Jewelry pieces. But if you are concerned about the total amount of gold, you should know that both 18K yellow and white gold have the same amount: 18 parts of gold and 6 parts of other metals (resulting in 24 parts).

White gold is an alloy of gold and at least one white metal (such as silver or palladium) and is also usually plated with rhodium, which adds some extra shine and durability to the piece.



Yellow gold is an alloy of gold and another metal, usually copper or zinc. The main advantage of yellow gold is that it is the most hypoallergenic of the three gold alloys, also traditionally the most popular color, always current season after season, and it is also the easiest to maintain.

If you are indecisive about what color gold to choose, well, it is indeed a very personal choice. Factors to consider can be your skin tone, your personal style or the current fashion. Although the best thing about gold is that, whether yellow or white, it never goes out of style.