TikToker claims popular $1300 bottega earrings are made with less gold than $10 Amazon dupes – an expert weighs in

Brooke Schofield, one half of the “Cancelled” podcast, recently shared a story about an interaction she had in which someone allegedly belittled her for having a dupe of a Bottega Veneta purse and earrings.

Schofield explained how a woman asked about where the earrings she was wearing were from. After she said they were from Amazon, the woman questioned her about it — to which Schofield was not a fan.

“You need to get your s*** together. You cannot f******* say that to people,” she said. “Who the f*** cares if your earrings are from Amazon?”

TikToker Allie (@allie.ir), who is a jewelry concierge, stitched that post in order to break down the types of metals used between Amazon earrings and certain designer brands, showing the difference isn’t all that big.

She used a chart that showed four types of gold jewelry: Solid gold, heavy gold, gold filled and gold plated. According to the chart, solid gold is the highest quality. It is made completely of gold and is low maintenance, strong and hypoallergenic. Meanwhile, gold plated is the lowest quality because the base metal is a combination of several materials with a thin layer of gold on the outside.

Andrew Lokenauth, a gold investment expert, supported Allie’s claim and gave insight to other forms of gold there are in jewelry.

“Gold vermeil consists of a solid sterling silver base that is plated with a thick layer of karat gold. It is good quality and more durable than other types of gold plating,” he told In The Know by Yahoo. “Gold filled jewelry contains a layer of gold mechanically bonded to a base metal core. The gold layer makes up 5% or more of the total weight.”

After explaining the different levels of gold, Allie then showed that the Bottega earring dupes, which cost $9.99 on Amazon were gold plated. Then, she showed the authentic Bottega earrings, which cost $1,350.

“These are the Bottega earrings that everyone loves so much. They are 18 carat, gold finish, which means it’s actually even less gold than a gold-plated jewelry piece,” Allie said.

Her viewers felt similar to Allie and didn’t understand all the hype around designer products.

“It’s the same with more expensive clothing! Still made of polyester for hundreds of dollars more,” commented @casclovesyou.

“Gold filled is 100% the way to go on Etsy there are so many good sellers for so cheap & never tarnish,” replied @bamantha1738.

She acknowledged that it was finished over sterling silver, which makes it higher quality than a normal gold-plated piece, but Allie still didn’t agree with the value.

These levels of quality also apply to silver, which Venu Jeyakumaran, CEO of Venu J Collection, explained in a TikTok of her own.

According to her chart, pure silver — the highest quality — is 99.99% silver, while sterling silver (which the Bottega earrings were made from) is 92.5% silver and 7.5% other metals.

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The post TikToker claims popular $1300 bottega earrings are made with less gold than $10 Amazon dupes – an expert weighs in appeared first on In The Know.

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