Breast Milk Jewelry Buyer’s Guide
Though breast milk jewelry has become increasingly popular over the past decade, it’s still rare enough to feel like you’ve stumbled upon an amazing secret. It’s an exciting world of beautiful, incredibly meaningful keepsakes, and we’re so excited to help you celebrate the special bond you share with your child.
Because we at KeepsakeMom are so passionate about what we do, we still feel a thrill of excitement at sharing all the gorgeous possibilities, and how the differences in each breastmilk stone give rise to the truly unique pieces that we craft expertly by hand. Read on to discover our top tips on how to choose and design your next one-of-a-kind treasure!
A Note from Anna
Welcome to my store, and thank you for the opportunity to share my ideas on how to make the best decisions when it comes to choosing and purchasing your new jewelry!
I love knowing that the breast milk jewelry pieces I create serve as wearable reminders of the strong, trusting relationship you’re building with your little boy or girl. Having breastfed three children of my own, I’m intimately familiar with the bond that breastfeeding creates between mother and child, as well as the role that breastfeeding plays within the entire family.
At KeepsakeMom, our goal is to create unique and personal breast milk jewelry pieces that you’ll cherish for the rest of your life. Whether you’re seeking a single piece to commemorate your breastfeeding journey with your first child, or looking to celebrate multiple children and a broader breastfeeding experience, this guide is designed to help you find that perfect piece.
Back to top
Adding Inclusions and Creating Custom Jewelry
Before we jump into our different lines and products, let’s take a moment to talk about “inclusions.” They’re all the special little things that you can add to your breast milk jewelry stones to further personalize any of your pieces. And since you can add them to any necklace, ring, or bead, it makes sense to understand them first before exploring further options.
Our range of inclusions offers everything from color tints—including birth colors—to shimmers or shines, and gold, silver or opal effect flakes. You can also add your child’s name, your baby’s handprints or footprints, and a lock of your baby’s hair. Whether you combine several different inclusions or add just one, they’re the ultimate way to take your breast milk jewelry to the next level.
These inclusions are available as options on the individual pages of a wide selection of pieces, but please know that you can add them to any piece as extras.
FLAKES AND SHIMMERS
Why not accent your breastmilk stones with yellow or rose gold flakes, silver flakes, opal effect flakes, or colored flakes?
Birth colors, which celebrate your birthing experience as well as the bond of breastfeeding, are available in both flakes and shimmers.
Powder blue and blush pink are two of our most popular colored flakes, celebrating the gender of your child. In addition, combining colored flakes with metal flakes—such as pink and gold, as in our Golden Girl necklace—can be an especially dazzling reminder of the special times you’ve shared with your baby.
You can also add pearl powder to your breast milk jewelry, which, true to its name, creates a lustrous, pearlescent finish. It’s no surprise that this is an ideal inclusion for breastmilk “pearls,” which symbolize the rare and treasured relationship you share with your child.
Perhaps one of our most extraordinary inclusions is opal effect flakes, which give your breast milk a pale, opalescent appearance that’s iridescent in sunlight, like a true opal stone. Rose gold jewelry with opal effect breastmilk stones is, in our opinion, a timeless pairing—check out our Drop of Opal necklace to see it for yourself.
BABY PRINTS
Just as your breast milk is 100% unique, so are your baby’s handprints and footprints.
A signature KeepsakeMom exclusive, adding your baby’s prints to your breast milk jewelry is a specialty of ours and a precious way to capture those tiny little hands and feet. You can add any combination to either the front or the back of your breastmilk stone—or both: one hand, both hands, one foot, both feet, or even one hand and one foot.
Best of all, we keep it easy—to add your baby’s prints, all we need is a copy or picture in any standard file format such as PDF or JPG. In fact, our Angel Prints necklace line is one of our top sellers.
NAMES AND SCRIPT
For a more personalized touch, another lovely option for your breast milk jewelry is to add your little one’s name, birth date, or even a little note like “Love Forever” or “Breastfed with Love”, or any combination of these.
You can even add multiple names and choose where on the stone you would like them displayed. However, we do avoid adding names or script to our “small stone” breast milk rings, as the scaling down results in less defined or harder-to-see details.
Send us any Google font that best reflects your style, or simply pick from our drop-down menu of customer favorites. And rest assured that because we embed all our script deeply within each breastmilk stone, it is completely protected and can never be scratched or erased.
Take a look at our Little Darling Bead for a brilliant example of how your child’s name can be beautifully incorporated into the stone for your breast milk jewelry.
LOCKS OF HAIR
Celebrate another motherhood milestone—your child’s first haircut—and add a lock of your baby’s hair to your one-of-a-kind breastmilk stone. This works especially well with pendants and beads, but you can add it to rings with larger stones as well.
For this inclusion, we usually ask for roughly twenty strands of your child’s hair, measuring 1–1.5 inches in length. Ideally, however, we prefer a bit more in case we need to rework the strands to make sure your piece is perfect. Softer hair is easier to work with, and curly (soft) hair is fine, while stiffer hair isn’t always as predictable. But that’s the beauty of this and of all our breast milk jewelry, where every piece is unique.
Finally, although locks that are shorter than an inch present their own challenge, don’t worry, as we can work with your baby’s hair even if it’s short and sparse. In fact, some mothers are content just to know that their baby’s hair is embedded in the stone—even if it isn’t visible, simply having it there is special.
Back to top
Breast Milk Necklaces
While every breast milk necklace from KeepsakeMom captures the beauty of the breastfeeding experience, we love being able to offer a diverse range of choices, from classic designs to modern statement pieces.
Our incredible necklace collection spans options that are perfect for everything from daily wear to special occasions, and of course each piece is fully customizable. As the designer, you are the one who gets to create the breastmilk stone pendant that best reflects your style, taste, and personality.
PENDANT SHAPE, SIZE, AND FINISH
The shape of your breastmilk stone will depend on the type of pendant you choose. The stone can be round like a pearl, or it can be oval. It can be teardrop-shaped, which is our most popular option, or it can be formed into the shape of a 3D droplet. It can even be shaped like a crystal, a bar, or a heart.
As for the sizes of our breastmilk pendants, there are, once again, many options available. Some customers prefer dainty, pearl-sized stones of 7mm, while others go for bolder sizes, such as 25mm. Do keep in mind that the larger the stone, the easier it will be to add different inclusions.
In addition, all our pendants are finished with a special coating for shine and protection against normal wear and tear.
CHAINS
For silver pendants, you can choose a brass core plated with rhodium, which is adjustable from 18 to 20 inches—or, for an additional $10, we feature non-adjustable 20-inch chains with a lobster clasp and flat cable shape in 1.6-mm sterling silver.
For gold pendants, we offer chains in both rose gold and yellow gold. You can choose a brass core plated with gold, which is adjustable from 18 to 20 inches—or, for an additional $10, you can choose a sterling silver core plated with gold, which comes as a non-adjustable flat cable chain that’s 20 inches long.
BAILS
On any breast milk necklace, the bail is what connects the chain to the pendant, and it can come in many styles. It can be quite simple—just a thin metal loop in silver, gold, or rose gold—or it can be more playful and ornate, boasting different shapes and embellishments such as Swarovski crystals. You can even choose rhodium plated over sterling silver, which gives the metal more shine and doesn’t tarnish.
INCLUSIONS
As we discussed in more detail above, you can personalize any breastmilk pendant with your choice of unique inclusions. These include color tints, shimmers or flakes, gold, silver or opal effect flakes, a lock of your baby’s hair, and your child’s name, handprints, or footprints.
Breastmilk pendants lend themselves especially well to inclusions, as the larger stones are easier to work with and showcase each addition without feeling too crowded. As you can see here, for example, our Silver Boy breast milk necklace shows off its multiple inclusions beautifully, combining iridescent blue flakes, glitter, and real silver flakes, coupled with your child’s name and lock of hair.
While these inclusions are available as options on the individual pages of many of our breast milk necklaces, remember that you can always add them to any pendant as extras.
CUSTOM BREAST MILK NECKLACES
We recommend that you start by browsing our collection of breast milk necklaces for ideas, which may lead you to the perfect piece. Or perhaps it might simply inspire the perfect customization. For example, maybe you’re drawn to the sleek teardrop shape of The Drop of Gold, with its yellow gold pinch bail and gold flakes, but love the extra sparkle of our Golden Girl heart-shaped pendant, with its shimmery pink flakes and glitter. No problem—we can simply combine the two, adding pink flakes and glitter to The Drop of Gold to create your dream necklace.
Since we handcraft each piece, we can do virtually anything, so don’t be afraid to ask! If you know what you want, you can design your piece from scratch, selecting the shape of your breastmilk stone pendant and adding just the right bail, chain, and combination of inclusions. If you’d prefer a bit of a head start, however, you can choose one of our lovingly designed necklaces and simply select additional options from the drop-down menu before including any extras.
Remember that you can always describe your preferences in the customer notes as well. And rest assured that whichever path you choose, you’ll be sure to end up with a special, one-of-a-kind breast milk necklace that we’ve handcrafted just for you.
BREAST MILK NECKLACE PROCESSING TIME
The standard processing time for our breast milk necklaces is six weeks from the date we receive your breast milk. However, we do offer a rush service for breast milk necklaces, for a fee. By adding Rush Turnaround to your purchase, we prioritize your order and guarantee that we will dispatch your finished jewelry First-Class Mail within 3 weeks from the date we receive your breast milk.
Back to top
Breast Milk Rings
There is just something so special about a ring, and here at KeepsakeMom, we’re proud to carry a wide variety of breast milk rings in our ever-expanding collection.
Just as with gemstones, the breastmilk stones we set in our breast milk rings come in different shapes and sizes, and they can be paired with different metals to best set off their beauty and fit your personal style. In addition, each breastmilk stone itself can be either created with a more natural look or customized with inclusions.
Since we aren’t goldsmiths, we do not make the rings themselves. Rather, our specialty as “breastmilk-smiths” lies in crafting each individual breastmilk stone by hand. Of course, we’re also the ones who set the stones into the rings, which we source from carefully selected third-party suppliers.
BAND AND SETTING
When it comes to our breast milk rings, we offer several options for the bands and settings: sterling silver, gold (yellow, white, or rose) plated over sterling silver, silver or gold plated over brass, and gold-filled, which provides a slightly thicker coating than gold-plated.
Some rings can be beautifully simple, with just a thin band and a round or oval stone such as our Bundle of Joy, while others can look more like elegant engagement bands, accented with sparkling diamond-shaped stones such as the Milky Brilliance.
The design of the bands themselves can be customized as well, giving you the choice of smooth, flat smooth, twisted rope, or hammered. We encourage you to look through our ring pages to figure out which styles you like best.
STONE SHAPE, SIZE, AND FINISH
The stone for your breast milk ring can be oval, round, teardrop-shaped, or diamond-shaped—whichever suits your taste and preference. The stones can also be crafted in a variety of sizes, ranging from small (7 mm) to medium (10 mm) to large (18 mm) statement pieces.
When thinking about choosing a stone, consider the size of your hand, the size of any other rings you wear regularly, and of course your personal style. Remember, too, that the larger the stone, the easier it will be to add different inclusions for further customization.
Just like with our necklaces, all the stones for our breast milk rings are finished with a special coating for shine and protection against normal wear and tear.
INCLUSIONS
As with pendants, you can personalize the stone for any breast milk ring with one or more inclusions to add yet another layer of significance. These include color tints, shimmers or flakes, and gold, silver or opal effect flakes, as well as your child’s name. You can even add a lock of your baby’s hair to make your piece that much more meaningful.
When it comes to rings, keep in mind that the size of the stone is relevant for adding inclusions. Flakes and shimmers are easy to add to any stone regardless of size, and they all always look amazing. But adding your child’s name or hair to smaller stones is more challenging, and may require scaling down the size of the script or print, resulting in less defined or harder-to-see details.
Just like with our other pieces, these inclusions are available as options for a wide selection of rings on our breast milk ring page. Even if they aren’t, however, you can always add them as extras to any ring of your choice.
RING SIZING
The surest way to determine your ring size is to have a jeweler measure your finger. But we understand that this isn’t always possible, so you can also download and use our helpful Ring Sizing Guide.
Please be aware that you will be able to change your ring size within one week of placing your order free of charge. But beginning on day 8, there will be a $25 charge for resizing, as we will have to purchase a second ring from our supplier in order to fulfill your order.
BREAST MILK RING PROCESSING TIME
The standard processing time for our breastmilk rings is six to ten weeks from the date we receive your breast milk. Not only do we craft your breastmilk stone by hand, but we also custom order each band individually from our suppliers, so our turnaround time is in part driven by theirs.
Back to top
Breast Milk Beads and Bracelets
We have to admit that we absolutely love our handmade breast milk beads—and not just because they’re beautiful. They’re also incredibly versatile, as they can be worn either as a standalone bead on a Pandora-style bracelet, or as a series of themed beads to honor one or more children.
You can also order just the beads themselves, or have them threaded on an adjustable bracelet of dark brown waxed cord 2 mm thick. Either way, our exclusive breastmilk bead designs are fully customizable, allowing you to select from gold, rose gold, or silver bead cores, and to add inclusions to create truly one-of-a-kind beads that reflect your style, personality, and situation.
BEAD SHAPE, SIZE, AND FINISH
At KeepsakeMom, we offer three different bead shapes and sizes. Two of them fit the Pandora-style bracelets, while the third is smaller, with a narrower core and more delicate look overall.
The two larger sizes are incredibly popular, with 5-mm bead cores that fit perfectly onto Pandora and similar-sized bracelets. Of these two options, the narrower bead, which measures 16 mm x 8 mm, is the more traditional Pandora size. This bead works especially well in groupings of three or more—for example, as a set of three beads to celebrate three children, as profiled in our Three Little Angels Bracelet.
The wider Pandora-style bead, which measures 16 mm x 10 mm, is the perfect standalone or statement bead but also looks great when doubled up, as in our Two Little Darlings “Chubby” Bead Bracelet.
If you find yourself more drawn to our petite bead, check out our Simple Pearl Bead Bracelet, where the bead is a simple breastmilk pearl measuring 9 mm in diameter and featuring a bead core of just 2 mm. And rest assured that whatever the size, all our beads are finished with a special coating for shine and protection against normal wear and tear.
BEAD CORES
Cast in 925 sterling silver, our bead cores are available in sterling silver and yellow or rose gold plating, enabling you to choose the color that best coordinates with your preferred jewelry style.
INCLUSIONS
Breast milk beads are an excellent choice for inclusions, as there are really no restrictions. Select from color tints, shimmers or flakes, and gold, silver or opal effect flakes, then incorporate your child’s name and/or lock of hair.
As with our other pieces, these inclusions are often available as options on our individual breastmilk bead and bracelet pages, but remember that you can add them to any particular bead as extras.
MULTIPLE BEADS
Another wonderful aspect of our breast milk beads is the option to incorporate different inclusions on multiple beads. You might choose one bead to showcase your baby’s birth month color, for example, then pair it with another bead featuring your child’s name and a third bead encasing a lock of your baby’s hair. You can see this exact trio at work in our deservedly popular Treasured One Bracelet.
Of course, multiple beads also work well to celebrate two or more children—as in our Celebration Bracelet, Two Children, where each bead represents one child and contains that child’s name, birth color, and lock of hair.
BRACELETS
If you’d prefer to order a finished bracelet, we can thread each of your personalized breast milk beads onto an adjustable bracelet of dark brown waxed cord that’s 2 mm thick (or 1 mm thick for the Simple Pearl Bead Bracelet). In terms of sizing, a perfect fit is when there’s no more than a thumb’s width of space between your wrist and the bracelet, so we recommend first measuring your wrist, then adding 1-2 cm.
Depending on the measurements of your wrist, we can style up to five Pandora-sized beads on each individual bracelet.
BREAST MILK BEAD AND BRACELET PROCESSING TIME
The standard processing time for our breast milk beads and bracelets is six weeks from the date we receive your breast milk. However, we do offer a rush service for our beads and bracelets, for a fee. By adding Rush Turnaround to your purchase, we prioritize your order and guarantee that we will dispatch your finished jewelry First-Class Mail within 3 weeks from the date we receive your breast milk.
Back to top
Breast Milk Earrings
Not only are our breast milk earrings lovely by themselves, but they’re also the perfect complement to a coordinating necklace or ring.
STONE SHAPE, SIZE, AND FINISH
When it comes to earrings, we offer two basic breastmilk stone shapes— pearls and drops. We then pair those stones with different settings and metal finishes to create a gorgeous selection that will fit your individual taste and style.
For pearls, some customers prefer our smaller, more delicate size of 6 to 7 mm, which is ideally suited for classic studs, while others prefer our larger, bolder options of 8 to 9 mm.
With our drop earrings, we use the same breastmilk stones as in our The Original, Petite necklace—timeless 18 × 13 mm teardrop stones with flat, finished backs. They’re the ideal shape and size for elegant dangle earrings that show off your unique breastmilk stones while providing the perfect finishing touch to any outfit. And of course, the stones for all our earrings are finished with a special coating for shine and protection against normal wear and tear.
SETTINGS
For our classic stud earrings, we mount your personalized breastmilk pearls onto posts with the bezel setting of your choice in order to create the specific look you’re going for. For example, we use a small, simple cup bezel setting with our traditional She’s a Pearl earrings, while a larger, floral cup bezel setting pairs beautifully with our Pearls of Wisdom and their more prominent, stylized flair.
We also use breastmilk pearls with select dangle settings, including some with cubic zirconia inlays, to create a select offering of beautiful pearl dangle earrings. And we use dangles for our drops as well, using simple hooks with modest loop bails in order to focus all the attention on your breastmilk stones—as pictured in our Drop of Rose Gold Dangle Earrings.
METAL FINISHES
In keeping with our necklaces and rings, the settings for many of our earrings are available in different metal finishes to suit a wide variety of styles. These include 925 sterling silver, as well as gold plating and rose gold plating over 925 sterling silver.
INCLUSIONS
As with all our breastmilk jewelry, you can personalize and lend even more meaning to your earrings by incorporating inclusions. These include color tints, shimmers or flakes, and gold, silver or opal effect flakes, as well as your child’s name and lock of hair. Of course, pearl powder is an ideal choice for breastmilk pearls, lending the stones a magnificent luster and evoking the timeless beauty of natural pearls.
While these inclusions are usually available as options on our individual breast milk earring pages, they can always be added to any specific pair of earrings as extras.
BREAST MILK EARRING PROCESSING TIME
The standard processing time for our breast milk earrings is six weeks from the date we receive your breast milk. And we do offer a rush service for our earrings, for a fee. By adding Rush Turnaround to your purchase, we prioritize your order and guarantee that we will dispatch your finished jewelry First-Class Mail within 3 weeks from the date we receive your breast milk.
Back to top
Breast Milk Jewelry Sets and Pairings
When designing breast milk jewelry, it makes sense to pair your initial piece with other coordinating items in order to create a beautiful set.
With our four categories of breast milk jewelry—necklaces, rings, beads and bracelets, and earrings—there are almost infinite possibilities to mix and match. Depending on your style, you can coordinate your pieces by the shape and size of the breastmilk stones, by the type of inclusions, or even by the color and finish of the metal.
If you like teardrop-shaped stones, for example, we recommend The Original Set, which pairs our bestselling The Original necklace with The Original Dangle Earrings to make a stunning statement. Choose from gold with gold flakes, rose gold with rose gold or opal effect flakes, or silver with silver flakes to set off a classic 24 × 15 mm stone.
For a slightly more subtle look, you can always scale down to our petite 18 × 12 mm stone instead. Then add The Original Ring, with its dramatic 18 × 13 mm teardrop-shaped jewel, to create an entire collection that celebrates the joyous bond you share with your baby.
If you’re drawn to pearls or stones with a rounder, softer shape, we recommend pairing our Precious One or Sweet Pea necklace with simple stud earrings. Our Pearls of Wisdom earrings, for instance, boast larger pearls of 9 mm, while our daintier She’s a Pearl earrings showcase slightly smaller stones of 8 mm.
If you’d like to add a ring to this set, we recommend the elegant Forever Mine, which features a round, 7-mm breastmilk stone accented with sparkling cubic zirconia and set in yellow, rose, or white gold plating over 925 sterling silver.
Keep in mind that inclusions—like gold or silver flakes, opal effect flakes, or even colored flakes—can tie several pieces together nicely as well. For example, if you decide on a heart-shaped pendant with pink or blue flakes to celebrate your little girl or boy, we can add those same flakes to your earrings or ring in order to create a matching set.
The metal finish of your breastmilk jewelry is yet another element that can serve to unite a group of individual pieces. If you’re drawn to rose gold, for instance, you might opt for our beautiful Rose Gold Brilliance Set, which uses opal effect flakes to give the oval-shaped stones in its necklace and earrings a pale, iridescent appearance.
With its brilliant rose gold-plated settings and cubic zirconia inlays, the entire set truly shines—especially when paired with our Forever Love ring or bestselling Milky Brilliance ring in a matching rose gold finish.
But there are no rules, and you can feel free to mix and match your metals for a more modern, eclectic look. Some customers request silver jewelry with yellow gold flakes added to their stones, which really pops. Layering several pieces finished in different metals is very on trend as well. In the end, the right choice is simply whatever reflects you and your personality best.
Back to top
Celebrating Your Baby Girl or Boy
What better way to recognize your baby girl or boy than with breastmilk stones in pink or blue?
These classic baby colors are incredibly popular in pieces like our heart-shaped Golden Girl and Silver Girl necklaces, with their iridescent pink flakes and glitter accented with gold and silver flakes, respectively, and our Golden Boy and Silver Boy pendants, which combine baby blue flakes and glitter with gold and silver flakes, respectively.
If you’d like to design a piece on your own, you can also add pink or blue flakes and shimmer to any pendant, bead, ring, or set of earrings. We can even dye your actual breast milk pink or blue upon request.
And if you want to celebrate both a boy and a girl with a single breastmilk stone, we can mix pink and blue flakes and shimmer together, or put pink on one side of the stone and blue on the other. Because we craft each of our pieces by hand, your options are essentially limitless.
Back to top
Celebrating Two or More Children
If you have more than one child that you’d like to celebrate with your breast milk jewelry, there are once again plenty of choices, so it really depends on what you have in mind.
One option is to double up and pick a different piece of jewelry to represent each child. You could add your first child’s name and lock of hair to the stone in a pendant, for instance, then add your second child’s name and lock of hair to the stone in a different necklace—or perhaps a ring.
Another great option is to use inclusions to incorporate elements of two or more children into a single breastmilk stone. For example, we can add two children’s names to any stone—whether for a pendant, bead, ring, or earrings—and we have the flexibility to place the names together on one side, or to break them up and place one on the front and one on the back. With the option to add extras, you can even include three or more names on one stone as long as it’s large enough to keep each name legible.
We can also do the same with locks of hair, though with more than three separate locks, we might have to start mixing them together. The good news is that just as with names, locks of hair can be placed on either the front or back of any stone. In the case of beads, they can even be placed diagonally so that multiple locks crisscross in a uniquely beautiful pattern.
Keep in mind that these types of personalized combinations work with other inclusions as well. In fact, one of our most popular breastmilk necklaces is our Angel Prints pendant, which allows you to add your baby’s handprints or footprints. And, as always, you have the power to decide—you can choose a single handprint or a single footprint, or you can include both handprints or both footprints. You can even pair one handprint with one little footprint.
What’s more, you can celebrate two children with the same stone by displaying one child’s prints on one side and the other child’s prints on the other. This bestselling Angel Prints necklace is also a great option for incorporating the prints, names, and locks of hair of two children into one truly irreplaceable stone.
Of course, the easiest way to celebrate two or more children with a single piece of jewelry might be to include multiple beads on a breast milk bracelet. With every bead representing a single child, it couldn’t be simpler to add two, three, four, or even five Pandora-style beads to one of our adjustable bracelets. And as you now know, you can always further customize your beads with any inclusion you’d like.
One of our favorites for celebrating multiple children is the Celebration Bracelet, Two Beads, where each bead contains a single child’s name, lock of hair, and birth color. Celebrating three children instead? No problem—simply add a third bead.
Another favorite is our Three Little Angels Bracelet, where you can include a child’s name and lock of hair with each of three beads—and even add a fourth bead if you’d like!
Back to top
Let’s Get Started
We know that with so many choices, designing your own breast milk jewelry might seem overwhelming. But we hope that by breaking everything down and walking you through each option, we’ve helped you to start dreaming up the perfect piece.
Because breastfeeding is such a personal journey, it deserves to be commemorated with a keepsake that’s just as beautiful and unique. We love giving our customers the chance to personalize every detail, but we also love designing pieces for those who prefer to simply browse and be inspired.
In short, all of us here at KeepsakeMom feel lucky to be doing what we do, and we can’t wait to help you celebrate as you bring your vision to life!
