Gothic Cross Necklace

I wore this every single day of a two week coastal trip in June and never once took it off. It was in the ocean each morning, then dried in the sun with salt still on it, then in the pool in the evenings, with sunscreen layered over my neck and chest the entire time. Salt sat in the carved sections of the cross for days and I only ever rinsed it under a tap. Nothing corroded, nothing clouded, and the little stones are all still sparkling. It has been in every shower I have taken since February as well. I no longer own a piece of jewelry I trust in water more than this one.

Ornate pieces are the ones I trust least, because tarnish always begins in the carved recesses where a cloth cannot reach and after that the whole thing looks tired. I bought the gold one in mid February specifically as a test and it has been on my neck almost every day since. Hairspray each morning, perfume, sunscreen all summer, sweat from the gym, and hot showers nightly. The raised edges of the cross are still bright and the deep carved sections have not gone brown or dull. The back of the pendant, which sits against my skin and never gets air, is still perfectly clean gold. I have never polished it and after five months of that treatment it still looks like something out of an antique jeweler's case.

Necklaces have always ended badly for me. Anything that is not solid gold leaves a red itchy line around my neck within a few hours, and a pendant sitting on my chest all day usually means a rash by evening. I ordered the silver one in March fully prepared to return it. Instead it has become the piece I wear most, and my skin has not reacted a single time. No itching under the chain, no redness where the cross rests, no dry irritated patch even after sleeping in it for weeks on end. I have worn it through sweaty workouts and a humid summer, which are the exact conditions that normally set me off. The back of the pendant is polished smooth and the chain has no rough links, and that seems to make all the difference.

The packaging was very basic for something I bought as a graduation present. I moved it into a proper box and it looked worth several times the price. No complaints about the necklace at all.

I have the gold and the silver and I alternate them. Four months and neither has faded, spotted or lost a stone.

It has not left my neck in about six weeks including bed and the shower. Nothing pulls, nothing digs in when I lie on my side.