Antoinette Bracelet

This came with me on a coastal trip in May and I never once took it off, mostly out of laziness and partly to see what would happen. It went in the ocean daily, sat in salt water while I read on the sand, got sunscreen smeared all over it, and then went into the pool every evening. I rinsed it under a beach tap and left it wet. Every stone in that row is still crystal clear and every hexagon frame around them is still bright gold with no water marks or corrosion. Since then it has been in every shower I take and through a summer of swimming. It genuinely does not care about water, which is not something I expected from a piece with this many settings.

Bracelets are the hardest test I can give a gold finish because my wrist sweats, rubs against sleeves, and sits on desks and steering wheels all day long. This one went on in mid February and it has not come off since, apart from a handful of times. The hexagonal settings are still the same warm tone as the band and the underside, which takes all the friction, has not gone coppery or dull in a single spot. There is no darkening between the stones where cleaning products and lotion collect either. I have never polished it once, and I have put it through sanitizer, sunscreen, dish soap and the gym. Five months later it still reads as fine jewelry across a table.

The inside of my wrist is where my eczema flares first, so bracelets have always been a gamble that I usually lose. Most metal leaves me with a red itchy band within a couple of hours and I have given away more bracelets than I have kept. This one has been on since the start of March and my skin has not reacted at all. No itching, no rash, no dry patch underneath, even when I sleep in it and even through sweaty summer days. The band is smooth on the inside with no rough seam or edge to irritate, and the rigid shape means it is not constantly dragging back and forth across my skin. It is the only bracelet I own that I can wear without thinking about the consequences.

Steam and sweat twice weekly since March. Every crystal is still perfectly clear.

It took twelve days to arrive, longer than the estimate suggested when I ordered. It is beautiful and the gold is warmer in daylight than the photos show. Just leave time if it is a present.

The bracelet is genuinely lovely and the stones are brilliant. It arrived in a very plain envelope though, which felt underwhelming for something this pretty.