Materials
This page is here so you can check us, not so we can sell to you. Everything below is how the jewelry trade actually works. Read it and you'll be able to judge any silver piece on any website, including ours.
What 925 means, and where to find it
Sterling silver is 92.5% pure silver. The rest is usually copper, because pure silver is too soft to hold a stone or survive a day of wear. That ratio is why you see 925 stamped into the metal.
On a ring, look on the inside of the band. On earrings, look on the post or the back of the fitting. On a pendant, look on the bail — the loop the chain runs through — or on the back of the setting. The stamp is small, and on a curved surface you may need to tilt it to the light.
In the United States that mark is a legal claim about what the metal is. It is not a maker's signature and it is not proof of who made something — plenty of stamped imports have no traceable maker behind them. What it does tell you is the metal content being claimed.
Every Charizzma piece carries it. If a piece anywhere has no stamp at all, that isn't proof of anything by itself — small and handmade work is sometimes unstamped — but it's worth asking why before you buy.
Solid or plated: three ways to tell
This is the single most common way people overpay online. A plated piece is base metal — brass, copper, nickel — with a skin of silver on top. That skin can be thinner than half a micron, roughly one two-hundredth the thickness of a sheet of paper. In a photograph the two are identical.
- The stamp. Plated items are often marked differently or not at all. Marks that indicate plating rather than solid silver include 925-plated, silver-plated, or similar wording.
- The weight. Solid silver is dense and feels heavier than it looks. This is why we think gram weight belongs on a product page, and why most sellers of plated jewelry never publish it.
- The edges. On a plated piece that has been worn, the high points go first — the edge of a band, the rim of a setting — and a yellower or greyer metal starts to show through. Solid silver doesn't do this, because there is nothing underneath.
Tarnish is not wear
People confuse these two constantly, and the difference matters.
Tarnish is a surface reaction between silver and the air. It darkens the metal, it comes off with a polishing cloth, and then it comes back. That is maintenance, and it happens to every solid silver piece ever made, including expensive ones. Pieces you wear often tarnish less, because the friction of wear keeps them bright.
Plating wearing through is the opposite. It doesn't come back, because there's nothing underneath but base metal. One is a chore. The other is a countdown.
Natural, treated, lab-grown, simulated
Four different things, and the words get used loosely by people who'd rather you didn't look closely.
- Natural — the stone formed in the earth.
- Treated — a natural stone that has been heated, irradiated, dyed or stabilised to improve or change its color or durability. Still a natural stone. Treatment is normal and extremely common across the trade.
- Lab-grown — the same chemistry and crystal structure as the natural stone, grown in a laboratory rather than in the ground. A real stone, not a fake, but not a natural one.
- Simulated — something that looks like the stone but is a different material entirely. Glass and cubic zirconia are the usual ones.
Charizzma sells natural gemstones and cultured pearls. We do not use simulated stones.
Why treatment is not a dirty word
Here is an example worth knowing, because it applies to one of the most popular stones in any silver collection.
Almost all blue topaz on the market — ours included — is irradiated and then heated to produce its blue. Topaz in its natural state is usually near-colorless, and genuinely natural blue topaz is rare enough that you would not find it at these prices. The treatment is standard throughout the jewelry trade and the resulting color is stable in normal wear.
We tell you this because you should know what you own. A seller who hides it is the one worth worrying about.
Treatment is common in other stones too — citrine on the market is usually heat-treated quartz, black onyx is commonly dyed, turquoise is commonly stabilised. Others, like garnet and peridot, are usually left alone.
If you want to know about a specific piece, write to us and ask. We would rather answer the question than have you guess.
Looking after it
- Put jewelry on last, after perfume, hairspray and lotion.
- Take it off before swimming. Chlorine is hard on silver and on some settings.
- Store pieces separately — silver scratches silver — and somewhere dry. A closed box or pouch slows tarnish considerably.
- Clean with a soft polishing cloth. Avoid dips and harsh chemical cleaners, especially on porous or treated stones like turquoise, opal and pearl.
- Pearls want the least chemistry of anything here. Wipe them with a soft damp cloth and nothing else.
Our terms, stated plainly
- Free insured US shipping on every order, with no minimum. Orders go out in 1–2 business days, tracked.
- 30 days to return or exchange any piece, with no restocking fee. Return shipping is yours.
- Every stone is named on its product page. Not "gemstone" — amethyst, garnet, peridot, blue topaz, iolite, black onyx, pearl.
- Questions get a human. Write to us and a person answers.