Materials & care

BonBon Boutique only uses the highest quality in materials. Chipping gold layers or green fingers are just not acceptable! For that reason most of our jewellery is made with 14kt gold filled materials and solid sterling silver. For a more economic wallet (although let's be fair, gold filled is pretty economic already...) we offer some necklaces and bracelets in brass.

We've been using these materials for over 10 years and have seen a lot of very loyal and satisfied returning customers!

Even though our experience tells us, that even sensitive people can wear our gold filled items, we do like to note that a very small percentage of highly sensitive people could still have a reaction to it.

 

What is gold filled?

Gold filled is a material with a thick layer of 12 or 14kt* gold fused onto a brass core. This layer will not chip and will often take anywhere between several months to a lifetime to wear off, depending on the weight of the item. It will last a lot longer than regular gold plated jewellery!

For a more detailed explanation, please read it here.

 

This means that most of our rings can be worn daily and last for many years (even with regular hand washing). Necklaces will wear a little quicker, because of the fineness of the material, but you should expect it to last anywhere between 6 months to a few years. This will depend much on how you treat it and, not always fair, the acidity of your skin.

We advise not to polish your gold filled items. They usually don't need it and it would make the gold layer wear off quicker.

When eventually the gold layer does wear off, the brass core underneath is slowly revealed. Once all the gold has worn off, you can polish the item and keep wearing it! Rings can most likely still go without polishing, necklaces will retrieve some of that golden shine after polishing.

*Pretty much all of our gold filled materials are 14kt, with a few exceptions. If you are concerned about this, or you'd like to know which parts we use are 12kt, please contact us.

 

What is brass?

Brass is a sturdy and popular metal, widely used in jewellery making for it's long lasting and subtle golden shine. Brass is easily polished with a jewellery cloth in case tarnish or dullness appears over time.