What it reads
The whole list, so you can disagree with it. Every verdict on this site comes from these words and nothing else — there is no model, no scoring, and nothing learned from anyone’s behaviour.
The field
Etsy listings carry a materials field. It is free text the seller typed, and it is
optional. What gets read is that field plus the listing title, lower-cased, with hyphens treated
as spaces.
The words
| Group | Words |
|---|---|
| Safe | sterling silver, 925 sterling silver,
925, solid gold, 14k gold, 18k gold,
gold filled, titanium, niobium,
platinum, argentium |
| Caution | surgical steel, stainless steel,
316l |
| Risky | nickel, nickel silver,
german silver, brass, bronze, copper,
silver plated, gold plated, silver tone,
gold tone, plated, alloy, base metal,
pewter, white gold |
| Claims | nickel free, hypoallergenic,
sensitive ears |
The order, which matters more than the lists
- The claim is removed before the scan. “Nickel free” contains the word “nickel”. Without taking the phrase out first, every listing that promises to be nickel free would be flagged for exactly the thing it promises not to contain. “Nickel silver” deliberately survives this — it is a copper-zinc- nickel alloy and the name is a trap.
- A named risky metal beats a nickel-free claim. If the materials say nickel free and also say brass, the verdict is not for me. Sellers very often mean the earring post is nickel free while the body of the thing is brass.
- A claim plus a named safe metal is the strongest case, and reads looks safe.
- A claim with no metal named reads probably ok, not safe. A promise with nothing behind it is a promise.
- Surgical or stainless steel reads probably ok. 316L is technically a nickel alloy, sealed, and fine for most people who react to plated jewellery — but not all, which is why it is a separate answer and a separate setting.
- Nothing recognised reads can’t tell, and an empty materials field says so specifically.
“Plated” and “tone”
Both are treated as risky whatever the surface metal is called, because both almost always sit on a base that contains nickel. Silver plated, gold tone, rose gold plated — the plating wears through, and then the base is what is touching you.
Your bar
Two settings, not a slider, because there is really only one decision to make: only looks safe, or looks safe or probably ok. The second one includes surgical steel. Nothing that reads can’t tell or not for me is ever emailed to you, whichever you pick.
The page shows the evidence
Every row quotes the seller’s own materials text with the word that decided it marked. That is deliberate. The verdict is a guess about free text somebody typed, and hiding the text behind a confident badge would be claiming more than this app knows. If a verdict looks wrong to you, the words that produced it are right there.
This is not medical advice, and it is not a chemical test. It reads what a seller typed, which can be incomplete, mistaken, or marketing. What it cannot tell you is worth reading before you trust any of it.