Gold Jewelry and How to Identify it

Hallo Welt!

A bunch of things have come up and I have not been able to get around to posting as much. I am sorry! I hope you all found my last post about pearls and how to buy them helpful! Working in the jewelry business, I get a lot of people that do not know exactly they are looking for when it comes to pearls or what they should look for. Today I will be talking about gold and what those stamps on the inside of your jewelry mean. I hope you find it informative and helpful!

When people think of jewelry the first thing that usually pops into one’s head is gold and diamonds and that it is really expensive to get those. This is not necessarily true. When it comes to gold jewelry there are some things to know.

First is that gold jewelry is not made of 24 karat gold. 24 karat is too soft and will fall apart. If a jeweler tells you that it is you are probably getting 24 karat gold plating over a base metal or silver. While it looks pretty, it isn’t very practical for everyday wear as it will wear off. The highest karat of gold most jewelers will carry is 18 karat gold. 18 karat is usually found in countries like India and China. In terms of karat gold the lowest that a jeweler will usually have is 10 karat. 10 karat isn’t horribly expensive, but it is brittle. Getting it in contact with chorine from swimming pools or bleach can destroy it. Sometimes you will find 12 karat gold. However, the only place I have seen that is in Turkish jewelry. The most desirable of karat gold for jewelry is 14 karat. It is not brittle like 10 karat and it is not too soft like 18 karat.

Another thing to take into consideration is the colour of the gold. The most common colours are yellow, white, and rose. Gold comes out of the ground as yellow and as such is the most common of the colours. White gold is often mistaken as silver for someone who does not know much about precious metals. White gold is gold alloyed with one of two white metals such as nickel or platinum. If you are allergic to nickel sometimes it is best to stay away from white gold. Thankfully, if you want the white metal look most jewelers are able to accommodate you with a variety of other white jewelry metals. Rose gold is also called pink gold, Russian gold, and red gold. It is made by mixing copper with the gold to turn it into a red to pink and sometimes orange colour. Other colours of gold include green, grey, black, purple, and blue. Green golds are made with silver mixed in. These golds will have variety of different shades and often one cannot tell if it is green or yellow gold until the two are placed side by side. Grey gold is different from white gold in that it is darker. Grey gold usually contains silver, manganese, and copper. Black gold is made in several different ways, but usually will contain cobalt and chromium. However, one can just as easily get the same effect by using a black rhodium plating (I will explain what rhodium is in a later post). Purple gold is made with high gold-aluminum intermetallic aluminum. This metal is more precious as it is a minimum of 18 karat gold a good majority of the time. Blue gold contains indium as its alloy. However, it may be pretty, blue and purple gold contain non-noble metals and can discolour when exposed to sweat.

So, what do those symbols on the inside of your ring and on the closures of your necklaces mean? When it comes to karat gold it will be marked 10kt, 12kt, 14kt, or 18kt. If it is marked anything other than that it is probably not gold. However, some countries will stamp the piece differently. For example, my favorite piece of jewelry that I own is a rose gold Jerusalem cross that is marked Au750. That means that it is 18 karat gold. If in doubt go to your local jeweler! Chances are that they will not charge you to check. Platinum is usually marked with the word or Plat. and is pretty easy to identify. If a piece is stamped .925, 925/100, or STERLING then it is sterling silver. Identifying silver from countries other than the United States can be tricky. When it comes to silver mad in the United Kingdom and Ireland you have other marks to identify. Again, your local jeweler should be able to identify whether or not your piece is silver or not. However, here is what to look for when looking at UK or Irish silver. Because the British still use the silver standard for their currency you must look at a series of stamps when trying to figure out what it is. On the plus side, if your product is faulty you can trace it back directly to the person that made it most of the time. The first mark to look for is the assayer’s mark which will tell you the purity of the silver. This is shown by a lion passant or, in the case of an Irish made piece it will be a harped crowned. Next to look for is the date mark which will tell you what year the piece was made. The city mark will vary to show you which city it was made in. The final mark on a British piece to look for is the maker’s mark which is the hallmark used to show who made the piece. Irish made products will also have Hibernia stamped on it. Older marks not used today are the duty mark that showed how much tax was to be collected on the piece, in use from late 1784 to 1890, and the tally mark which was used by a journeyman apprentice so that they could be paid correctly. The French also use various silver marks that have the head of Minerva and will be 95% silver or higher unless a 2 is stamped next to Minerva’s head. If the French piece was made for export it will have the head of Mercury and a stamp to show the purity of the silver between 1 and 3, 1 having the highest and 3 having the lowest silver content. As with the British hallmarks, French hallmarks also have a maker stamp.

Something to keep in mind is that just because it is gold and has a clear stone in it does not mean that it has a diamond in it! Sometimes it is a semi mount that has a cubic zirconia placed there for show. It could also be white topaz, white sapphire, or any other white gemstones. Also, just because it is silver does not mean that those white stones are not diamonds. They very well may be diamonds. Just ask the jeweler at the store and they will be able to tell you.

Hope this helps you! I will be trying to keep this more up to date as best as my time allows.

Until next time!

Fashion Trend! Coloured Pearls and How to Buy Pearls

Hallo everyone!

My apologies! I was not expecting to get so busy at the store! Wow! It’s been crazy; especially because of the Black Friday/ Precious Gift Limited Edition Charm for Pandora.  However, I am back and hopefully I will be able to update this and my recipe blog more often.  I got a fancy new smart phone and have set a weekly alarm to update on here once a week. Let’s see if that will kick my butt in gear.

Today I will be talking about a newish fashion trend.  Honestly, I wasn’t sure if this was going to catch on or not, but apparently it did.  I am pretty happy it too. Today I will be talking about coloured pearls! They are really pretty and a good spin on an old classic. Also, I will be giving you some important information on buying pearls! This will help you when you go into your local jewelry store to buy.

First things first, as a person in the jewelry business will give you some helpful tips on buying pearls. The first thing you need to know is that there are different types of pearls. The four major groups are: Freshwater, Saltwater, Cultured, and Faux.

·         Freshwater pearls are quite a bit cheaper, but are genuine pearls. They are made inside of freshwater dwelling mollusks usually found in lakes and rivers. River pearls, for example, are a type of freshwater pearl.

·         Saltwater pearls are quite a bit rarer and are fairly expensive if you are buying a good quality set. They are usually found by pearl divers in what are called “pearl oysters” Sometimes, if you are lucky, you might find a pearl inside of your oyster at a restaurant or in the cans of oysters at the store that was missed.

·         The last of the genuine pearls is what is called a cultured pearl. These are the most common type of pearl sold in the United States. They are inexpensive when it comes to real pearls and can be dyed numerous colours, that isn’t to say that other natural pearls cannot be coloured or cannot be naturally coloured. I will discuss coloured pearls here in a moment I promise!  Cultured pearls are created by putting a piece of what is called “donor oyster” inside of the mollusk to grow. They look like other pearls, but are not fake!

·         Faux pearls are the cheapest pearl that you can buy. They are not real pearls and can be made of numerous materials. The most common ones are made of glass or plastic with an opaque “pearl” coating. Some can look incredibly real. That is where people often get taken advantage of at non-jewelry stores. They look real and if you do not know what you are looking at you may end up paying genuine pearl price for plastic beads.

Next you need to know about pearl shapes. Their seven basic pearl shapes. These are Round, Oval, Circlé, Button, Baroque, Biwa, and Mabé.

·         Round pearls are just what it says they are. They are round and are the most desirable shape. They can be fairly rare. However, they are not as rare as an internally flawless and completely colourless diamond. Typically the only place to buy round pearls is at a jewelry store. These pearls come with knots between each pearl.

·         Oval pearls are more oval shape than round. Most non-jewelry stores sell these. You can find them at jewelry departments at retail stores. These pearls will come with knots between the pearls.

·         Circlé come in several shapes, but they all share a common feature. All Circlé pearls have rings on their surface.  They are fairly uncommon and usually used for pendants and earrings. Circlé pearls will be knotted between each one.

·         Button pearls are similar to a round pearl when viewed from the front and this is how they are set. When you look at them from the side they are more oval. You can buy these at retail stores where they are sold as “round” pearls. These are usually used in earrings or rings. If used as a bracelet or necklace they will be knotted.

·         Baroque and Biwa pearls can both be classified irregular pearls. No two of these pearls are shaped the same.  The difference between these two shapes is that Baroque pearls are usually larger than Biwa pearls. Also, Biwa pearls are named so because they come from Lake Biwa in Japan.  These pearls may or may not be knotted between each pearl.

·         Mabé pearls are formed on the inside of the shell rather than inside the oyster “meat”.  They are basically half rounds. When they are removed from the oyster shell they affix a mother of pearl backing on them. These are used in rings and earrings. They are not suitable for stringing. The only time you find them in a bracelet or necklace they will be set in a Mabé mounting.

There are numerous other things that will have an effect on the price of the pearl. However, those are mostly used for jewelers when they are pricing them. These include the Complexion, Size, and Luster of the pearl. If you are curious about them you can ask your local jeweler in relation to the pearls you are interested in.

Now we come to the fun part! Coloured pearls! Pearls come in all colours and not just white. I had a friend that when she got married she wanted orange pearls and had a hell of a time finding them. Thankfully, the store I work at was able to find just the shade of orange she was looking for. Currently my store has cranberry, brown, black, peacock, lavender, white, and cream pearls in stock. My personal favorite is the cranberry which is a pinkish red. The coloured pearls are graded differently than the white and cream pearls. They come in all sizes and shapes. 

This is a picture of "loose pearls". This means that they have not been strung into a proper necklace or put in a propper setting. This picture shows the orange pearls that I was talking about earlier. There are also strands of pale pink, white, and cream.

If you are looking for something that will match most everything you wear then white, cream, or black would be the way to go. However, if you are looking for a fun fashion statement to match your favorite dress then coloured pearls would be the way to go. Also, if you are looking for something to add a bit of colour to your LBD or LWD then coloured pearls are perfect for this!

Something to keep in mind with coloured pearls, and all coloured gems really, is that certain colours do not look good with certain skin tones. It is the same way with make-up. I do not look good wearing brown pearls for example. However, I do look okay with the cranberry pearls. It all depends on skin tone.

Coloured pearls are fun and are in fashion right now! As are coloured diamonds! Just go into your local jewelry store and check out the different colours of pearls they have. They may not have them in stock that day, but more often than not they have the ability to order them in for you in whatever length you need.

When it comes to length there are some things you should know. Rather than saying you want a 16 inch pearl strand, each of the standard lengths has a special name that it goes by. They are as follows.

·         10 inch to 13 inch necklaces are called a collar length. These are commonly made up of several strands rather than one strand. They also do not hang down at all.

·         14 inch to 16 inch necklaces are called pearl chokers. They hang right at the base of the neck.

·         17 inch to 19 inch necklaces are called a princess length necklace. These are the most popular strands. They are not too long and they are not too short.  Also, they go with pretty much anything from scoop neck dresses and blouses to plunge neck dresses and blouses.

·         20 inches to 24 inches are called matinee length strands. These look good with a lower cut dress or blouse.  

·         28 inches to 35 inches are referred to as opera length necklaces. These were traditionally the length that one would where when going to the opera when doing so was considered a special occasion.  However, today they are worn with a variety of dresses and blouses. These look particularly cute with turtle neck dresses because they stand out and add depth to your dress.

·         45 inches and longer are called a pearl rope. These typically do not have a clasp of any kind, but rather go over the head and longer strands may be wrapped around several times.

Hope this helps you when you go out to buy your pearls! Pearls are classic and no girl should go without at least one strand of pearls!

Stay lovely and happy!

Product Review! "Walk the Line" Eyeliner by Hard Candy

Hallo neue Preußen!

It is product review time! Today I will be doing a review for a liquid eye liner. The particular eye liner being “Walk the Line” by Hard Candy. This is the stuff that I talked about in my previous post. Well, let us get to the review shall we?

First things first, putting liquid eye liner on is a holy terror of a job! I spent a great number of hours practicing with a cheap dollar brand. That being said, I discovered that if I was sitting in a chair with arm rests or had something to rest my elbow on I could get it on with few mistakes since my arm/hand was stablelized. After putting this technique into use and having practiced getting it right, I felt comfortable moving up form dollar junk to the good quality stuff. I tried several, but in the end I settled on my favorite animal loving brand that also makes my favorite pencil liner, Hard Candy.

So, “Walk the Line” liquid eyeliner. What is so great about it anyways? One thing that I love about Hard Candy is that none of their products are tested on animals! They also have bright and fun colours in addition to the basics. However, the thing that sold me on this product was that it did not run or even smudge during my dancing. For those of you who do not know, I do tap, jazz, contemporary, ballroom, and jingle dress in terms of dance. If this stuff can last through jingle dress dancing in 105⁰F heat, it is amazing! See!

 

When it says it is long lasting, it means it. Also, the colour is pretty amazing. It stays true to the colour in the bottle when applied. I just cannot say enough good things about this product. The applicator makes getting good lines really easy and does not have bristles to get in your eye or out of shape.

Alright, so what are the bad things about this product? Well the first thing that pops into my mind is that it is really hard to get off. I mean really hard. I have problems getting it off with waterproof make-up remover. Some evenings, I do NOT recommend this at all, I wash my face and all that jazz only to have it still on so I leave it. I pay for it the later so, like I said, do not do it. The other bad thing is that the little applicator tip is, as mentioned above, one piece and is not a brush. That means that if it breaks you are pretty much screwed and have to go buy a new bottle of it or spend a long time trying to get the little thing that helps remove the extra liner from the applicator off of it so you can stick a different brush in it.

Other than that, it is wonderful. Would I recommend this? Yes! If you are looking for a long lastly, easy to apply liquid eye liner, this is the product for you! As long as you leave yourself time to scrub the stuff off your face in the evening, you are as good as gold. Gold is also one of the colours you can get. Just you all know. The good thing about this product is that you can get it at Walmart! Also, if you are lucky, sometimes you can find it on Amazon. 

I hope you all have found this review helpful! If you would like a review on any product you would like to try feel free to drop me a note!
Stay beautiful and sweet everyone!

Fashion Trend! Bright Eye Liner!

Grüße Glorious Neue Preußen!

I have been so busy with work, school, and vacation to Vegas that my blogs have suffered a lack of attention on my part. I am very sorry!!! Anyways, I am back and have so many topics to write about! Vegas is a great place for fashion. If you have been there you know this is true. Today I will be writing about a fashion trend that will lead into my product review for next time; brightly coloured eye liner!

Most ladies at some point in their life will wear eye liner. Some wear it every day. I am not one of those people. I need a break from waking from waking up early every day for work and school. It is good to always have the standard black, black-brown, brown, and white in your make-up case.  However, some people do wear navy and eggplant to spice things up. Things have been getting really spicy in terms of eye liner colours lately. For example, I am wearing bright turquoise right now. It looks good with my eye and skin colour.

Bright eye liner was popular when I was a little kid and Mutter wouldn’t let me wear it except for dance recitals and on All Hallows Eve. Vater did when Mutter was at work though. Of course then about an hour before Mutter got home he had to scrub my face clean. I think the main problem was that I was a little kid and I didn’t know how to put it on. I actually didn’t learn to put on make-up properly until my first year of college when my friend Kevin taught me. Thanks to Kevin I have been hired to do make-up for weddings and what-have-you events, but back to bright eye liner.

The key to putting on bright eye liner, or any eye liner really, is knowing how to put it on right. Part of it is practicing on getting lines straight and the other part is getting it applied correctly for your eye shape. For example, I do not look good with winged eye liner. It makes me look funny. I also can’t pull off thick lines or ultra-thin lines. I just look odd beyond all reason. My friend Ayaka, for another example, can do winged eye liner and ultra-thin lines. She, like me, does not look good with thick eye liner. Eye shape and how the liner is applied is really important! It is also the first step in getting this look right.

Back to Kevin for a moment. Not only did Kevin teach me how to do hair and make-up, he taught me about colour when it comes to fashion. Make-up colour depend on skin colour. Eye make-up depends on that AND eye colour!!! My eyes are hazel so I can wear numerous colours well. However, my sister has blue eyes. She wears browns and pinks well. My friend Ayaka has brown eyes and wears pinks and blues well. People with green eyes wear browns and purples well. People like Kevin, whom I am incredibly jealous of, that have purple eyes wear greens and pinks well. Gray eyed people like my friend Brennivina can wear pretty much any colour they dang well please. Lucky girl. Bright colours need to follow this guide too. A helpful tool that I have found is my colour wheel. I actually bought it for my quilting, but it comes in handy for matching make-up colours as well! Rejoice fellow crafty nerds! Colour wheels may be purchased at almost any craft or fabric store. I purchased mine at a little quilting shop in Ponca City called Completely Quilted. You can click on that and visit their site and do some shopping. It is pretty awesome! I love that store!

Well, now that I have told you all about it and how to pull the look off properly, what do I think about it? I love this fashion trend! I love it to pieces and then some. Bold colours are really cute if you know how to pull it off. Lots of bright colour on one’s face is not appealing though. Keep that in mind. However, a little bit is super cute!

Until next time!

P.S. I got new charms for my Pandora Bracelet! Check it out! That dice came from Vegas! Also, that little Union Jack is actually a double decker bus. You just can't tell from the top. :P

7 Helpful Tips for Losing Weight

Hallo fantastische Neue Preußen!

I hope you all are doing quite well. My school is almost out. We have nine more days of class. I am so very excited. You all know what that means. Days out at the beach, lake, and being out and about in general. For those of you who do not know, I recently went on a diet to lose some weight. Not that I am horribly overweight, but I could drop some pounds.  One of my friends, James, has also gone on a diet and I am so proud of him! He has lost so much weight by going on a healthy diet. You know one of those ones where you do not take a bunch of diet pills and starve yourself. He is such an inspiration to me and such a great guy.  So, today I am going to share with you some tips that have helped me lose some weight.  I hope you all find these helpful!

•A friend of mine recently took a job at a hospital and a cousin of mine is just now finishing up nursing school. Both have told me that the key to any diet is this: DO NOT MAKE SUDDEN CHANGES IN YOUR DIET! By this they mean, do not suddenly stop eating or shrink your potions drastically.  This will cause your body to go into starvation mode and you will actually put on weight because it is trying to compensate for a drastic change in its calorie intake. Instead, you should slowly decrease your portion sizes to give your body time to change.  This also makes it easier on you since you are changing a part of your lifestyle. The easiest way to shrink portion sizes is to cut out a snack or choose a more filling one like a handful of unbuttered popcorn.

•Strange as this one sounds, drink coffee and not the decaf kind. The caffeine helps with metabolism.  When I say coffee I mean plane black coffee with nothing added.  Not only this, but coffee has a bunch of really good benefits for you.  It has antioxidants in it that help fight cancer. Not only that, but it is a good pick me up when you start to feel tired.

•If you already drink coffee, but insist of having sugar and creamer in it a good way to slim down is to take out the sugar and cream.  However, if you just have to have your coffee sweetened and flavoured Splenda has you covered. They have flavour packets for coffee that have sweetener in them.  They are quite tasty actually. That is how I got myself off of drinking coffee with my cream and sugar. That being said, I am actually quite fond of European coffees. They brew them so dark and rich that I am not really sure you can really call it coffee.

•If you are not fond of coffee, then drink green tea! It is really tasty and has a bunch of antioxidants as well.  A really good way of brewing this is by filling a sun tea pitcher or jug with water and two small tea bags, or one large tea bag. Take some fresh peach slices and put them in there with the tea so that as the tea brews it flavours the tea and sweetens it naturally.  After the tea is brewed you can take the slices out and eat them.  Peaches also help you slim down! You can add any fresh fruit to your tea while it brews to flavour and sweeten it.

•Eat yogurt this includes the sugar free and non-fat frozen yogurt. Not only is it tasty, but it helps with digestion and helps you slim down.  That means treat yourself to some of that delicious stuff at your local frozen yogurt bar. Keep in mind that you should not pile on all those extras to the extent of mostly having toppings. Personally, I like the espresso flavoured frozen yogurt with almonds and kiwis at Cherry Berry. You can also replace ice cream during the summer with frozen yogurt! Regular yogurt comes in so many flavours it is not even funny. I like Greek yogurts.  I find that the texture of it is better than regular yogurt. I guess that comes from being European though.

•For the gamer nerds out there, this is for you! Do not feel bad, I too am a gamer nerd. I know we love to sit there in our super comfy chairs and play, but there is a fun and easy way to lose some weight while gaming. Ready for this? Sit on one of those giant exercise balls when you are playing. For this to work make sure that you are sitting up straight and have your feet directly in front of you. This makes you work to stay up right. So, not only is it good for losing weight, but it also helps with your posture.

•This is a very easy and helpful tip that helped me a lot. Drink less soda or cut it out altogether. I gave soda up for Lent last year and lost 15 pounds! Awesome! Because people drink so much soda today, cutting it out or reducing your  soda intake will help you slim down. Do not drink diet sodas! It contains ingredients that are known to cause muscular dystrophy. That is not good and you do not want it.

I hope this is helpful to you! It has helped me quite a bit. These are very simple changes to make. This is a great way of jump starting your diet or keeping some of the weight off once you have lost it.

Until next time!