Starfish Earrings

I wore these on a beach week in May and made no effort at all to protect them. Ocean swims every single morning, sand rubbed all over my ears, sunscreen twice a day, then a rinse in the outdoor shower and back into the hotel pool that evening. I never dried them and I never took them out, not even to sleep. The textured surface is the part I worried about because salt loves to sit in tiny grooves, but a rinse under the tap and they came back perfect every time. Months later they have been through every shower and swim since and they still look like the day they arrived, with no cloudiness and no water damage around the posts.

Textured gold is a tarnish trap in my experience, because the low points of the pattern are impossible to polish and that is exactly where it always starts. I bought these in mid February planning to keep them for special occasions and instead they have been in my ears nearly every day since. Hairspray each morning, dry shampoo, sunscreen through the summer, hot showers every night. The little raised dots are still bright and the recesses between them are still gold rather than brown. The flat backs, which get all my sweat, have not gone coppery either. Five months of daily abuse with no polishing at all and they still catch light exactly like new.

My lobes are the reason I have owned three pairs of earrings in ten years. Anything that is not titanium leaves them red, hot and itchy inside a day, and I have thrown away a lot of pretty things because of it. These went in at the beginning of March as an experiment and they have basically not come out since. No itch, no swelling, no weeping, no soreness when I finally do take them out to clean. I have swum in them, slept in them, and worn them through humid summer weather when my skin is at its worst. The posts are smooth and the flat back sits against my lobe without pressing at all. Being able to wear something this pretty every day without consequences is not something I take for granted.

Lovely earrings with a gorgeous finish and I get compliments on them. They do sit larger on the ear than I imagined from the photos, which is worth knowing if you prefer small studs.

Boat days all summer, lake water and sunscreen. Not one bit of dulling on the textured surface.

Long retail shifts and my lobes usually feel raw by closing. Wearing these there is nothing, no heat, no itching, no soreness.