I knew I was allergic to nickel, but I didn't have a clue it was in surgical steel.
My allergy seems to be mostly okay with surface contact, which is probably why I never noticed a correlation. I don't wear watches, and though I knew I had massive earring allergies, I somehow didn't connect that to surgical steel. I guess I assumed that my reaction was to "cheap" metals and assumed all the "hypo-allergenic" brands were actually surgical steel.
I put in a new belly ring a few days ago and have slowly developed a NASTY reaction, but since I had only recently gotten it re-stretched and had gone up a gauge, I wrote it off as a temporary reaction. Today, it finally occurred to me to google "surgical steel" and "allergy". DOH.
I now have ordered shiny new nickel-free belly jewellery from the UK, but I
just
ordered a bunch of pretty surgical steel things a few days ago. Argh. I'm hoping if they are completely unopened, I can still return them. Otherwise, Cass, they're yours.
I bet you guys have people saying, "Oh, no. You can't be allergic to that."
Oh, you bet. Because nickel is in so many "hypoallergenic" alloys, ergo I can't be reacting to that.
Necklaces are tricky too, because even if the chain is 14K gold, the clasp will most likely have nickel in it.
Is it normal to immediatly crave more and to want to go order them all right now so you can try each and every one?
Yes.
Am I going to need a 12 Step?
Yes.
Step 1. We admitted that were were powerless over Lush products and even the shipping fees wouldn't keep us from them. Because we were not allowed to do our jobs from the bathtub, our lives became unmanageable.
(Ah, the inevitable Lush crosspost)
Necklaces are tricky too, because even if the chain is 14K gold, the clasp will most likely have nickel in it.
If it's white gold, the chain and clasp will both have nickel in them, usually about 12% for 14k. Yellow gold uses copper and silver as alloys.
Thankfully, there's a move afoot (esp. in the EU) to use alternatives to nickel for white gold. (Though palladium alloyed gold is more expensive.)
Cereal to add that a lot of white gold is rhodium plated to make it whiter, and the clasp, being the part that would hit the neck the most, would probably be the first part where the plating starts to wear off, which would explain noticing a problem with clasps before chains.
I prefer my bathbombs glitter-free, because I hate cleaning the tub. And while being sparkly may be pretty, I hate having bits stuck to my skin.
I might need to track down the bath bomb recipe so I can make them to my own finicky standards.
Huh. I have no problem with white gold, but regular gold bothers me.
Huh. I have no problem with white gold, but regular gold bothers me.
You might have problems with the copper or the silver in it, then.
Well I hope you can return them because uuuurrrggggghhhh, but I will happily give them a good home if not. And, hey, they'll get plenty of fresh air and sunshine living here in California. Assuming that the rain will eventually stop.
--
I just had a good experience with tech assist from my cable company. I was on hold for ages (with excellent torchy music that did nothing to quell my rage) but once the nice lady got me off hold? All good.
I was actually yelling at the recording before. It was suggesting that I make sure the cables were all tightly connected and I was suggesting where I might jam said cables that would indeed be tight.
I have no idea what it was about her that made me instantly feel like not killing but it was good. And she said that I was nice even. Apparently some people yell at her. I think those people should be hunted down because she was nice.
t rereads
Huh, word soup. I don't even know where to begin making that into a narrative. To sum up, Cox recordings suck cox but the tech lady was nice and 24 is back on now.
