Gold Vermeil- Why We’re Adding it to Candace Stribling Jewelry collections.

With an already successful brand, why did we decide to take Candace Stribling Jewelry up a notch with gold vermeil? In a nutshell we wanted to bring you, our customers, more LUXURY and distinction at an affordable investment!

Can you blame us? 

Candace Stribling Jewelry has brought unique, quality-crafted sterling silver jewelry to many strong and empowered women over the years. We’ve built a loyal following of incredibly talented and beautiful women and we want to deliver even more of what you love! 

Many of you have asked, ‘when will you be adding gold to your designs’? So, we’ve decided that the time is right now! Enter gold vermeil! 

So… what s gold vermeil?

 If you had to Google ‘vermeil’, don’t worry! Many jewelry lovers aren’t sure what it is or even how to pronounce it. 

Gold vermeil (pronounced ver-may) is essentially gold over sterling silver. Or, more specifically, it’s a piece of jewelry with a sterling silver base layer with a solid gold electroplated layer on top. 

Can the gold layer be any thickness?         

 Not exactly. In the U.S., for a piece of jewelry to be marked as gold vermeil, it must meet these requirements: 

• The base material must be sterling silver. Sterling silver is a metal alloy made of 92.5% pure silver and 7.5% other metals. It’s a commonly used precious metal for jewelry, and often you’ll see it’s stamped with the identifier .925.
• The gold-plated layer on the sterling silver must be at least 10k gold but can also be anywhere between 14k to 24k gold.
• The gold plating must be a minimum of 2.5 microns thick (one micron equals 1/1000th of a millimeter). 

Candace Stribling's gold vermeil designs exceed U.S. standards, something we’re incredibly proud of.  

Our jewelry is plated with 3 microns of 14K or 18K gold by a reputable, well-respected plating company in the U.S. Every piece is tested to meet or exceed the base standards. When you purchase gold vermeil jewelry from CSJ, your pieces must be as described and of the highest quality. Our mission is to bring you the luxurious look of gold without the hefty investment. 

Why we chose Gold Vermeil instead of Gold Plated or Gold Filled? 

Gold vermeil is an affordable way to grow your collection of gold pieces.  While gold plated jewelry uses a cheaper base metal and is more likely to fade, gold vermeil is less likely to tarnish, fade or wear away like gold plated. 

More reasons we chose gold vermeil over gold plated: 

• Gold vermeil is hypoallergenic
• Gold vermeil is widely considered to be high quality
• Gold vermeil adheres to industry standards 

We also considered offering gold-filled jewelry. The most significant difference between gold vermeil and gold-filled is in the manufacturing process. Gold vermeil is made by electro-plating gold over sterling silver, while gold-filled is made using a heat and pressure bonding process.   

Or to look at the difference another way: 

• Gold vermeil jewelry begins with a sterling silver base, and then the gold is 'painted' on, or in some cases, 'flash dipped,' depending on the desired thickness of the gold material. 

• Gold-filled jewelry has a brass or sterling silver base. The gold is 'melted' to the surface in a large oven for several hours until it becomes bonded to the base layer through heat and pressure. 

Some may consider gold-filled to be slightly sturdier because of the bonding process, but it also comes with a higher price tag. 

Gold vermeil and gold-filled are virtually indistinguishable to the naked eye, and both are equally beautiful and elegant, so we chose gold vermeil to expand on our collections. 

It’s great to have choices, right? 

We’re already adding gold vermeil starting with our  best-selling Mobius Collection,  and next, we anticipate elevating our Ripples Collection to include gold vermeil.   Other collections and new collections will be get a touch of gold soon..  

Don’t worry though; you’ll always be able to get these signature pieces in all three finishes: polished sterling silver, darkened sterling silver, and gold vermeil.  In the near future, CSJ will also be introducing sterling silver with 14K solid gold, and 14K gold jewelry.   

We’d love to know what you think about the new pieces! Connect with us on Instagram or email us HERE and tell us what you want more of!