Rings for skin that reacts

If jewellery has never agreed with you, one thing decides whether a ring will: the surface that rests against your finger.

A ring can be made of three materials at once, and only one of them ever touches you. Everything on the outer face is decoration. So the useful question is not what a ring is made of, it is what sits against your skin all day. On some of ours, the answer is not metal at all.

Why skin reacts to jewellery

Nickel is behind roughly 80 per cent of metal jewellery reactions. It turns up in alloys because it is cheap and it hardens them, and even a trace is enough once your skin has decided it does not like it. You would see redness, itching, dry or flaking patches, or slight swelling where the ring sits, usually somewhere between 12 and 48 hours after putting it on.

It can also start out of nowhere. Plenty of people wear something for years and then find it has begun to bother them, which is why choosing carefully matters even if nothing has ever troubled you before.

"Hypoallergenic" on a label proves nothing

The word is not regulated in jewellery. Anyone can print it on anything, with no obligation to say what is in the alloy. What is regulated is nickel release: UK and EU REACH law sets a limit on how much a material in prolonged skin contact may give off.

So rather than describing our rings with an adjective, we measure them. Samples are tested by SGS against REACH standards. Note the words prolonged skin contact in that rule, because they are the whole point: the regulation cares about the surface touching you, which is why how a ring is built matters as much as what it contains.

Choose by what touches your skin

Ring	Against your finger	Choose it if
Antler or wood sleeve	Antler or oak. No metal at all	Metal jewellery has reacted before and you would rather remove the question than test around it
Titanium, unplated	Titanium	You want the metal surgeons use for implants, chosen for how well the body tolerates it
Black zirconium	Zirconium's own oxide surface	You want a black ring with no coating that can wear through onto your skin
Carbon fibre	Carbon composite	You have reacted to more than one metal and would rather avoid metal in the band entirely
Tungsten carbide	Tungsten, tested against REACH	You have no known allergy, or a mild sensitivity, and want the hardest finish we make

Sleeve rings put no metal against you

This is the part of the range worth knowing about, and almost nobody explains it.

On an antler or wood sleeve ring, the natural material is not a stripe on the outside. It forms the inner wall of the band. Put one on and the surface touching your finger, for every hour you wear it, is antler or oak. The metal is on the outer face and edges, doing what metal is good at: taking knocks and holding a finish. It never meets your skin.

That changes the question rather than answering it. With any metal ring, however carefully tested, you are relying on a release figure being low enough. With a sleeve there is no metal at the contact surface to release anything at all.

Antler is bone, a matrix of collagen and calcium phosphate, so it is the same family of material as the skeleton you are already carrying about. It is inert, and it has been made into handles, buttons and jewellery for thousands of years. Ours is naturally shed: deer drop their antlers each year and grow a new set, so nothing is taken and no animal is harmed for a ring. Barrel oak is equally inert, and both are sealed during making to keep moisture out.

Three things we will not dress up

Some of our black rings are plated and some are not, and the difference matters to you. Ion plating is a coating applied over a paler metal, and we use it on certain titanium and tungsten designs because it produces a finish those metals cannot reach on their own. Any coating can eventually thin where a ring rubs, and when it does, the metal underneath becomes the surface against your skin. Black zirconium works the other way round: the black is the metal's own oxidised surface, grown by heat, so there is nothing sitting on top that could wear through. If you want a black ring and your skin is reactive, choose black zirconium. If you have your eye on a plated design instead, ask us and we will tell you plainly which it is.
Our tungsten is not nickel free, and we will not call it that. Tungsten carbide is bonded with a metallic binder, and that binder contains some nickel by necessity. Ours is a low nickel formulation and samples are tested by SGS against REACH standards for release in prolonged skin contact. That suits most people, including mild sensitivity. If your allergy is severe or diagnosed, pick one of the other options instead.
Meteorite is an iron and nickel alloy. Not a trace, that is what the material is, and it is one of the highest nickel things anyone sets into a ring. Which is exactly why we only ever set it into the outer face, sealed, never the inside of a band. On a meteorite ring the surface against your skin is titanium, zirconium or tested tungsten. If you would rather have no nickel anywhere near the ring, choose antler, oak or a plain band and we will tell you so.

Get the size right, then try it

Our rings cannot be resized, so size is worth settling before you buy. Ask for a free ring sizer and we will post one out, with no obligation to buy anything.

If your skin objects to a ring you have bought from us, tell us within 30 days and we will exchange it for a different material or refund it. UK returns and exchanges are free. Every ring also carries our Lifetime Warranty. And if you are unsure which material suits you, write to us before ordering and we will give you a straight answer, including telling you when the honest one is a sleeve ring rather than the ring you were looking at.