Creole Earrings

Creole earrings are hoops that are thicker at the bottom than the top, or elongated in shape rather than perfectly round. That taper is what separates a creole from a plain hoop — weight and presence at the base, lighter at the ear. The name gets used for everything from small sleeper-sized hoops right up to bold statement pieces.

You can find this and other earring styles explained in our earring styles glossary.

A creole is a type of hoop, so every creole is a hoop but not every hoop is a creole. The difference is the shape: a standard hoop is the same thickness the whole way round, while a creole is thicker at the bottom than the top, or elongated into an oval rather than a circle. In everyday use the two words often get used interchangeably.

Our creoles run from 11mm up to 36mm. As a rough guide, 11–15mm sits close to the lobe and works for everyday wear or a second piercing, 16–22mm is the classic mid-size hoop, and 25mm and above reads as a statement. Chunky and thick styles look larger than their diameter suggests, so if you are between sizes and want something subtle, size down.

Sterling silver, gold and rose gold. Solid 9ct gold and 9ct rose gold pieces carry the colour all the way through. Our plated styles use sterling silver as the base metal with gold or rose gold over the top, rather than base metal.

Browse sterling silver, gold or rose gold creole earrings.

All our gold items are hallmarked if they weigh over 1g, and our silver items over 7.78g, in compliance with British standards. Hallmarks are a guarantee of the metal's purity and authenticity. Learn more about what these marks mean on our hallmarking page.

It can, over time — tarnishing is a natural reaction between silver and the air, not a sign of poor quality. How quickly it happens depends on how you store and wear your pieces. Perfume, moisturiser, chlorine and salt water can all speed things up. The good news is that tarnishing is easy to reverse — a quick buff with a silver polishing cloth will bring your jewellery straight back to life.

Read more about why silver jewellery turns black.

Store your pieces in a sealed bag or jewellery box when you're not wearing them — exposure to air is what causes tarnishing. Put jewellery on after applying perfume and hand cream, not before. Remove pieces before swimming, cleaning, or exercising. A gentle wipe with a soft cloth after wearing goes a long way, and a silver polishing cloth will handle anything that's already darkened.

Read more in our jewellery cleaning guide.

Of course, we offer 30 days returns on all our products, with the only exception being personalised or engraved items.

As these are custom and we're unable to sell them after they've been customised, we cannot accept returns of personalised or engraved items unless they are proved to be faulty

Please see our returns policy for details