Pure gold has a natural gold colored hue which in itself is very beautiful. However, pure yellow does not fit the jewelry very well as it is too soft and can easily get scratches. To counteract this and make the gold harder, it is often mixed with various metals, called alloys. Different blends of gold allow different colors to be produced.
Gold used for jewelry today is usually 18 carats and consists of 75% gold where the remaining 25% consists of various metals such as copper and silver to give the gold its specific shade.
Popular gold colors used for jewelry today are usually rose gold, white gold, and red gold. It is also common to mix different colors, such as white gold and rose gold in one piece of jewelry.
White gold
White gold or white gold is a mixture of 75% gold with nickel or palladium and possibly silver, platinum, and copper. Nickel, on the other hand, is no longer used in Sweden due to allergies.
Jewelry made of white gold must be plated with rhodium, which often has to be reapplied after a few years.
Red gold and rose gold
Red gold or red gold is the most popular and oldest form of alloy. The color is created by mixing 75% gold with copper and sometimes a small proportion of silver. Copper gives the gold its red color so the more copper the redder shade the gold gets.
Rose gold is a variant of red gold and is created by adding a higher proportion of silver. A common alloy is 75% gold, 8% silver, and 17% copper.
Yellow gold and green gold
To get a more yellow color on the gold, mix it with more silver and a smaller proportion of copper. For the green gold, you replace all copper with silver instead.
Blue gold
Blue gold consists of gold and indium. This type of association was common during the 19th century but is not as popular today.
Purple gold
Purple gold, also called purple gold, is a compound of gold and aluminum. This type of gold is very fragile and is therefore usually enclosed in another alloy just as you do with gemstones.
