What's in yellow, rose and white gold
The color of gold jewelry comes from what it is mixed with. So do its hardness and whether it can irritate your skin.
Key points
- Yellow gold balances silver and copper, and rose gold gets its pink from extra copper.
- Most white gold is plated with rhodium, which wears through after a year or two of daily wear.
- Nickel white gold can cause a rash, so choose palladium white gold if nickel bothers your skin.
In this article
Colored gold is pure gold mixed with other metals. In 14k gold, 58.5 percent is gold and the remaining 41.5 percent decides the color. In 18k, the gold is 75 percent. That makes 18k yellow a deeper yellow, while 18k rose and white gold show their alloy color a little less.
Yellow gold
Yellow gold is gold with silver and copper in roughly balanced amounts, often with a little zinc. Silver pushes the color toward a greenish yellow and copper pushes it toward red. A balance keeps the familiar warm yellow.
Rose gold
Rose gold has more copper and less silver. A typical 18k rose gold is 75 percent gold, about 22 percent copper and a few percent silver. The copper gives the pink and makes the metal a little harder than yellow gold of the same karat. Rose gold was fashionable in Russia in the 19th century, which is why it is sometimes still called Russian gold.
White gold
White gold is gold mixed with metals that bleach its color, mainly nickel or palladium, often with some silver and copper. Neither makes it fully white. Most white gold has a faint gray or yellow tint, so it is plated with a thin layer of rhodium, a bright white metal from the platinum family.
Rhodium wears through where the metal rubs, usually on the underside of a ring, after a year or two of daily wear. A jeweler can clean and re-plate it in a day.
Nickel white gold is harder and whiter, but nickel allergy is one of the most common skin allergies, and nickel white gold can cause a rash in people who have it. Palladium white gold is softer and costs more, but contains no nickel. If cheap earrings or jeans buttons have ever made your skin itch, ask for palladium white gold.
Other colors
Green gold is gold with a large share of silver. Black and blue gold rely on surface treatments or unusual alloys and are rarely used for rings that see daily wear.
Filed under Metals · July 19, 2026
