Compositions, metals, plating and coatings. What is all that, and why does it matter in the design of jewelry? Below we'll get into detail about what it means and why our jewelry is carefully designed with true quality and longevity in mind.

The Jewelry that Koréil Stands Behind

While there's a lot of jewelry on the market only claiming to be of high quality, we can confidently back ours up by the use of only the best materials and compositions.

We mainly focus on gold jewelry, even-though we have a few silver pieces. Below we've outlined the different types of materials and compositions that make up our collection, and why they can be trusted to last.

18K Gold PVD Coated Jewelry ✨ 💎

Koréil's gold jewelry consists of 316L Stainless Steel as a base metal, PVD coated with a layer of 18K pure gold. This is a high-end combination far superior to most commonly found gold jewelry on the market.

This composition is considered waterproof, tarnish-free, without discolouring, extremely durable and hypoallergenic.

• Wear and corrosion resistant
• Low maintenance
• Long lifetime
• Clean composition

>> Shop our 18K Gold Jewelry pieces here

Base metal

The base we use is 316L Stainless Steel - surgical grade & low-carbon. It's practically the best type of base material for jewelry thanks to its many strong qualities.

• Superior durability for everyday wear
• Extreme corrosion resistance
• Hypoallergenic thanks to its pure compositions 
• Non-reactive to bodily oils and sweat

Compared to brass, which has problems with all of the above, our 316L Stainless Steel is made to keep the jewelry stand up strong against everyday use, and to enable the owners of Koréil jewelry pieces to feel confident in the quality and lifetime of their collections.

Gold Coating

We use a coating technique called PVD (Physical Vapor Deposition) that results in an exquisite brilliance. This process coats the base metal with a precious metal - in our case 316L Stainless Steel and 18K Gold - during a vacuum process, closing out any form of exterior contamination.

Koréil pieces have a coating layer of about 1.5-2 microns, which is about four times as thick compared to a lot of other common jewelry on the market. You will never have to worry about the base metal peeking through.

With the combination of 316L Stainless Steel with 18K gold PVD coating, this composition translates into an extremely durable and shiny end result for our gold pieces.

Compared to electroplating, which is another commonly used form of binding a precious metal to a base metal, PVD coating offers a few benefits:

• Higher durability
• Higher corrosion resistance
• Higher gold brilliance

>> Read our jewelry care guide here

18K Gold Vermeil Jewelry ✨ 💎

Thanks to gold vermeil being standardized for quality purposes, it has to adhere to a minimum set of rules. Otherwise it's not allowed to call your jewelry gold vermeil at all. This ensures our pieces meet and even go beyond this standard, and is the next best thing to pure gold pieces.

As such, gold vermeil is a very premium composition and reserved for our finest designs.

This composition is considered water resistant, tarnish resistant, highly durable and hypoallergenic.

• Premium look and feel
• Standardized Quality
• Second only to pure gold
• Clean composition

>> Shop our 18K Gold Vermeil Jewelry pieces here

Base metal

The first rule is S925 Sterling Silver as the base metal, which is exactly what we use. While pure silver is a relatively soft and malleable metal, Sterling silver - an alloy consisting of 92.5 % pure silver - improves on this with increased hardness & strength making it more suitable for jewelry use.

• High quality
• High polish
• Good durability

Gold Plating

The other two rules are the use of a minimum thickness to the gold plating, and at least 10K gold. Koréil uses a 2.5-3 micron thick layer of 18K pure gold - well beyond the requirements.

• Thickest layer of gold
• Minimum standard
• Affordable quality

>> Read our jewelry care guide here

A word on metals and water

When we say something is proof, it means it's designed for everyday use and to resist outer impact to the highest resonable degree. When we say something is resistant, it means it's designed for careful handling while still being fully usable for most lifestyles.

Bear in mind that all types of wear and exposure to foreign elements will impact the jewelry over time. Physics & chemistry will unfortunately have it no other way.

316L Stainless Steel & 18K Gold PVD Coated jewelry

Fortunately, we can confidently stand behind our these pieces being used in the shower, when swimming or sweating away at the gym. They are waterproof and tarnish-free, but do regularly clean them so they can shine as bright as you do for many years to come.

Gold Vermeil and Sterling silver jewelry

However, we would recommend taking additional care of these premium pieces around water. Silver simply isn't as tough as stainless steel in these settings, so it needs a little extra TLC. They are water resistant and resistant to tarnishing, but do give them the love they deserve and they'll return it tenfold.

Without proper care, any item will show signs of degradation over time. This is why it's imperative to properly care for your precious jewelry and minimize any exposure to foreign substances when possible.

Fine jewelry deserves fine care. Read our jewelry care guide here