Sep 05, 2022

Different Colors of Gold: Yellow Gold vs White Gold vs Rose Gold

There are many colors of gold, and each shade can mean something different to each person.

Gold is a precious metal that people have been using for thousands of years. It's very rare, and it's also very valuable.

You can find gold in the ground, but it's often mixed with other metals. This is how we get colors of gold like white gold or rose gold. In order to get pure gold, you have to melt it down and purify it.

We use gold is used for many things, including coins, computers, phones (yeah, you read me right), and of course, jewelry.

Gold Color Meaning

Unsurprisingly, the color gold means wealth and success.

Plus, according to Color Psychology, gold also signifies:

Achievement
extravagance
Quality
Esteem
Advancement

This is why gold jewelry is more than just a fashion accessory— it's literally a statement about how you see yourself as a person (as cheesy as it sounds).

Adding gold to your accessory kit can exude wealth, confidence, and esteem. Who doesn't want to feel like that?!

The question now is, which color of gold looks best on you?

The 3 Different Colors of Gold

There are many different types of gold to choose from, each with its unique properties. Depending on what kind of jewelry you're looking for, you might want to consider a specific shade of gold.

The most common types of gold in jewelry are white gold, yellow gold, and rose gold.

While I highly encourage stacking your jewelry with various metal finishes, let's try to figure out which one looks best on your skin tone.

Yellow Gold

Look Best On: Light Skin Tones

Pure gold naturally has a yellow tone. However, 24-karat gold jewelry is too soft for everyday wear.

To fix that, we have to combine other metals to create a gold alloy. We start with yellow (pure) gold and then add in materials like silver, copper, and zinc. This mix makes your jewelry stronger.

Yellow gold is more likely to tarnish than white or rose gold, but you can polish it back to its original shine. Yellow gold is typically used in necklaces and rings because it's softer than other types of gold, making it more prone to scratches.

Yellow gold has a warm hue, making it pair well with light skin tones.

White Gold

Look Best On: Pale Skin Tones

White gold has been alloyed with nickel, palladium, or silver to make it appear white. This makes the metal less reactive than pure gold and more resistant to corrosion, making it a better choice for jewelry that you can wear often.

This, combined with the fact that white gold is in higher demand, makes white gold jewelry a little bit more expensive than yellow gold.

People love this shade of gold because it looks expensive. For one, it looks like platinum jewelry, which is made from 90-95% pure metal. It's also typically less expensive than silver pieces but looks the same.

White gold is often used for wedding rings because it's affordable and looks great. It also has an icy-blue tint that looks great against pale skin tones.

Rose Gold

Look Best On: Tan or Darker Skin Tones

A Russian jeweler named Carl Faberge discovered rose gold and used this pinkish golden color in his Faberge Eggs.

Rose gold is created by mixing copper with pure gold. The resulting alloy has a pale pinkish hue. Sometimes it can look more orange because the tint can vary greatly depending on how much copper is used in its production process (usually about 2%).

Today, rose gold is trendy among young women due to its unique, almost vintage, look. It's also easier to maintain over the years, so you get the most bang for your buck!

Rose gold jewelry looks terrific on tan or darker skin tones without looking as washed out as white or yellow metals would look next to them.

Which type of gold is more valuable?

So, it's not really a matter of which "shade" of gold is more valuable. It's more a matter of how much gold is present in each piece.

For example, Caye Joailler uses gold alloy for our jewelry. That means we use pure gold mixed with various metals. I

f we were to have gold-plated, gold-filled, or even gold vermeil jewelry, that would mean the base of our rings and necklaces would be sterling silver or copper.

However, sterling silver tarnishes and copper turns your skin green. So we decided to use gold alloy to make 14K, 16K, and 18K pure gold pieces.

Okay, technically, 24K gold is the only "pure" gold, but you get what we mean!

So if we want to make rose gold jewelry, we use 14-18K gold with just a little more copper. If we're going to make white gold, we use 14-18K gold with just a bit more silver.

The karat determines the price or value of gold. For example, a 14 karat is obviously worth less than 18k or 24 karats! You can learn about the value of jewelry here!