What's brass?

Basically, all our gold-plated jewellery is made of brass, an alloy of copper and zinc. We use this alloy for several reasons: it is malleable, hypoallergenic and resistant (most important for us). Finally, it is one of the metals that best supports plating. 

Most people call "gold plating" any metal that has a gold coating on it, no matter how thick it is. However, there is a definition and legislation concerning gold plating.

Brass is coated by electrolysis (also called electroplating) with a layer of 14, 16 or 18 carat gold, 3 microns thick. Legislation requires a minimum thickness of 3 microns to qualify for the appellation gold-plated on jewellery in France.

The gold used on brass can be mixed with other metals in order to offer different plating colours (it can therefore be more or less yellow, pink... depending on the brand). Gold plating is much more resistant than brass gilded with fine gold where the gold layer applied is almost 10 times thinner (between 0.3 and 1 microns).