Avril Bracelet

I wore this for a week at the coast and never once took it off, which was originally an accident and then became a test. It was in salt water every morning, covered in sunscreen, buried in sand, and then in the hotel pool most evenings. I rinsed it under a tap and left it wet on my wrist to dry. Every colored stone still has exactly the same depth of color it had in the listing photos, and the gold settings show no corrosion or water marks. The sliding clasp did not seize up from the salt either, which was my main worry. Months of showers and swimming later it is still the piece I never think twice about wearing into water.

A thin gold chain with a sliding clasp is about the harshest test I can think of for plating, because every link rubs against the next one and the slider drags along the cord constantly. This has been on my wrist since mid February with only a handful of days off. It has been through hand sanitizer at work, dish soap, lotion, sunscreen, and daily showers. The chain is still the same warm gold along its whole length, including the section that runs through the slider where I fully expected wear to show. The gold frames around the colored stones have not gone coppery either. I have never cleaned it beyond rinsing, and after five months it still looks like it did in the box.

I have a nickel allergy and thin chains are usually the worst thing for me, because the links sit right in the crease of my wrist where I sweat most. Every cheap bracelet I have owned has left a red itchy line within a day. This one went on at the start of March and there has been nothing at all, not once. No itching, no rash, no marks when I take it off, even after sleeping in it or wearing it through a hot day at the gym. The slider means I can wear it slightly loose so it is never pressing into my skin either. I have worn it continuously for months in the kind of summer heat that normally sets my skin off, and my wrist has stayed completely calm.

A full coastal week with sunscreen on my wrists daily. Rinsed it off and the colors look exactly the same.

Showers, sleep and a full beach day without taking it off once. Nothing rubbed and nothing needed readjusting.

Boat days and lake swims since May. Not a bit of dulling on the chain or the colored settings.