Summary of the entry

• Pure gold is yellow. But it's too soft for jewelry, so it's mixed with harder metals.
• There is no single color that is better than another. The color of gold is a personal preference, and different cultures have different preferences.
• Yellow gold used in jewelry is a mixture of gold, copper, and silver.
• White gold is achieved by mixing pure gold with palladium and silver.
• Caret Right Rose gold is a mixture of pure gold, copper, and silver. Adding more copper makes the gold redder.
• Palladium and silver whiten gold. Copper reddens gold.
• The purity of gold and its color have nothing to do with each other. 18k gold can be yellow, pink, red, or white.
• Caret Right White gold is generally more expensive than yellow, rose, or red gold. This is because white gold contains palladium, a metal that is as expensive as gold.

White gold, rose gold, red gold and yellow gold

Pure gold is yellow. But by mixing gold with other metals such as palladium, silver, and copper, the natural color can be varied, creating white gold, rose gold, or red gold.

Before explaining the differences, we must answer the main question: Which is better: white, rose, red, and yellow gold? In reality, there is no such thing as better or worse; the color of gold is a matter of personal preference. In the Andean region of Peru, such as Cusco, the preference is generally rose gold, followed by yellow and white gold. However, on the coast and in the capital, Lima, yellow gold is preferred.

Ring with three colors of gold: yellow, white, and pink

The color of gold doesn't directly relate to the quality of the gold. For example, a piece labeled "three golds" means it's made of white gold, rose gold, and yellow gold. But that doesn't indicate the purity of the gold because purity is measured in karats.

In reality, 18k gold jewelry can come in white, rose, yellow, or red. By law, 18k gold means the piece is 75% pure gold and 25% other metals. The other metals are what affect the final color of the piece. In contrast, 24k gold will always be yellow because it is pure gold.

In this article, I will explain the difference between the colors of gold.

To understand more about how gold purity is measured, I suggest opening this link to read the entry on gold karats: What Is 24K, 18K, 14K Gold and Other Karat Measurements .

Exemplary 18k yellow gold ring. Click on the image for details.

The chemical difference between the colors of gold

Pure gold, also known as 24-karat or 24k gold, is too soft to be used in jewelry. Gold must be mixed with other metals to harden it.

The difference between the colors depends on the proportion of other metals in the mixture. To maintain the yellow color, silver and copper are mixed with these two metals in the same proportions. To redden the gold, more copper and less silver are added. To whiten the gold, palladium and silver are added.

To understand more about all the metals used in jewelry, I suggest reading this post: Precious and Non-precious Metals in Jewelry .

So there's a whole continuum of colors from white to yellow to red. And these colors can be achieved by using different proportions of copper, silver, and palladium with gold.

Exemplary 18k rose gold ring. Click on the image for details.

In fact, there are other experimental colors, such as green gold, purple gold, blue gold, and black gold. But they aren't very common in jewelry because they're difficult to produce and have certain undesirable characteristics. For example, purple gold is brittle. And certain green gold recipes contain the metal cadmium, which is unhealthy for humans.

Below I give the formulas I use to mix the gold.

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The formulas for the different colors of gold

In this article, I'm producing tables showing the percentage of gold and other metals for different colors of gold. For example, 22k yellow gold is 91.7% pure gold, 4.15% silver, and 4.15% copper.

From a legal perspective, the most important thing is that 22k gold is 91.7% pure gold by weight, and 18k gold is 75% pure gold. Generally, there are no laws that dictate the proportions of other metals, such as silver and copper, in the mix. If you mix equal amounts of copper and silver, the gold will maintain its yellow color. However, varying the proportion of silver to copper will change the color of the gold.

All tables are by weight. Let's say you're buying or making an 18k yellow gold ring that weighs 4 grams. Following the table below, the amount of pure gold is 4 x 0.75 = 3.0 grams. The amount of pure silver would be 4 x 0.125 = 0.5 grams. And there would be 4 x 0.125 = 0.5 grams of pure copper as well.

Yellow gold

Purity of gold	% pure gold	% pure silver	% pure copper
22k	91.7	4.15	4.15
18k	75	12.5	12.5

To create a more pink or rose-colored color, you need to mix more copper than silver. What doesn't change is the amount of pure gold. 22k gold always has 91.7% pure gold. The color of the gold will shift toward red with increasing copper content.

Light rose gold

Purity of gold	% pure gold	% pure silver	% pure copper
22k	91.7	1.67	6.63
18k	75	5	20

Rose gold red

Purity of gold	% pure gold	% pure silver	% pure copper
22k	91.7	0.9	7.4
18k	75	2.75	22.25

Red gold

Purity of gold	% pure gold	% pure silver	% pure copper
22k	91.7	0	8.3
18k	75	0	25

Keep in mind that there isn't necessarily an exact formula for obtaining the different colors. It depends largely on the taste of the jeweler or the client. What must be maintained is the percentage of pure gold, because the carat is regulated worldwide.

Another thing to keep in mind is that 22k gold will always appear more yellow than 18k gold. So in the formulas I gave for red gold, 22k red gold will appear more pinkish compared to 18k red gold.

Finally, there's white gold. There are several ways to create white gold. You can add metals like nickel, silver, and palladium, among others. I personally only use pure gold with palladium and silver. I avoid nickel because a large portion of the population is allergic to it. Palladium is a precious metal that competes with platinum and gold in terms of price.

This is my personal white gold formula:

White gold

Purity of gold	% pure gold	% pure palladium	% pure silver
22k	91.7	5.3	3
18k	75	16	9

Exemplary 18k white gold ring. Click on the image for details.

For me and my clients, this formula produces a pleasing white color. However, the silver-palladium mix can be varied. I want to emphasize again that the percentage of pure gold in the piece must remain at 91.7% for 22k gold and 75% for 18k gold. The percentages are by weight.

Additionally, some jewelry stores plated white gold with a metal called rhodium. This leaves the piece with an even whiter color, but the plating wears off over time. I don't plated jewelry unless someone specifically requests it.

14k and 12k colored gold

I don't work with 14k or 12k gold. But by varying the proportions of silver, palladium, and copper, you can achieve almost any color between white, yellow, and red. However, the fact that 14k and 12k gold contain less gold means the final piece will look less yellow.

The only rule is that 14k gold requires 58.4% pure gold by weight. And 12k gold requires 50% pure gold by weight. Varying the percentage of other metals will yield different results.

Thanks for reading, and greetings from Peru. If you enjoyed this post, please subscribe to my newsletter by following this link: subscribe to the newsletter . You'll receive updates on new blog posts, and I'll send you a guide to precious and semiprecious stones.

– Edgar Tica