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Will a wedding ring turn your finger green?
Not if it is titanium, zirconium or platinum. A green mark comes from copper in the metal reacting with sweat and skin, so it shows under brass, bronze, sterling silver and some lower carat gold. The mark is harmless and fades within a few days.
Which wedding rings will not turn your finger green?
Titanium, black zirconium and platinum. A green mark is made by copper. Titanium and zirconium contain none. Platinum is one of the metals least likely to mark skin at all. Our titanium and zirconium rings are solid metal, not plated, so there is nothing underneath to wear through and show.
A precious inlay ring works the same way: the line of gold or platinum sits in a channel on the outside of the band. The inside that touches your finger is titanium or zirconium.
Is titanium good for a wedding ring?: Weight, wear and skin, answered.
Is black zirconium good for a wedding ring?: How the black wears and why it lasts.
Why does a ring turn your finger green?
Copper in the metal reacts with salts and acids in sweat, soap and lotion and forms a thin green or blue green film of copper compounds. That film rubs off onto the skin.
It is not a sign of poisoning or of a fake ring. It does not harm the skin. The mark washes off and fades by itself within a few days of taking the ring off.
Which metals can turn a finger green?
Brass, bronze and copper rings, which are mostly copper. Sterling silver, which often contains 7.5% copper and can also leave a black mark as it tarnishes. Cheap plated rings, once the plating wears through to the base metal.
Gold can too, now and then. Yellow gold is alloyed with other metals, often including copper. The lower the carat, the larger the share of those metals. Science Notes names 10ct and 14ct yellow gold as more likely to mark skin than 18ct. 9ct holds 37.5% gold, so if a gold ring has marked your finger before, 18ct or a platinum line in titanium is the surer choice.
Silver or gold wedding ring: Why silver is rarely chosen for a wedding band.
What is 9ct gold?: What 375 means and how it wears.
Green, black or red: what the mark means
Green is copper. Black is usually silver tarnish rubbing off. Red, itching or a rash is different: that is the skin reacting, most often to nickel. It is an allergy rather than a stain.
If your skin reacts to jewellery, titanium and zirconium are the easy answer, because neither contains nickel. Our metal allergy guide goes through every metal we make rings in.
Ring for a metal allergy: Which metals are hypoallergenic.
How to stop a ring turning your finger green
Take it off to wash up, swim or put on hand cream. Dry it and your finger before you put it back on. Trapped soap and moisture speed the reaction up.
The lasting answer is a ring with no copper to react. A titanium or zirconium wedding ring is made once in your size and will never mark your finger however long you wear it. The ring try-on shows any of them on a photo of your own hand before you choose.
How to look after a wedding ring: Cleaning and wear, metal by metal.
Ring try-on: See a ring on a photo of your hand.
Mentioned: titanium, black zirconium, 9ct gold.
