Frequently Asked Questions
ZODIAC AMULET | Last updated: September 29, 2026
Everything we get asked most often — sizing, materials, shipping, returns, and how to find the guardian that matches your birth year.
If your question isn’t here, email hello@zodiacamulet.com and we’ll answer it within 24–48 hours, Monday to Friday.
1. Finding Your Guardian
How do I find the guardian that matches my birth year?
In Chinese tradition every person has a birth-year guardian (本命佛, benmingfo) — one of eight figures, each watching over one or two zodiac animals:
| Your zodiac animal | Guardian |
|---|---|
| Rat | Avalokiteshvara |
| Ox, Tiger | Akasagarbha |
| Rabbit | Manjushri |
| Dragon, Snake | Samantabhadra |
| Horse | Mahasthamaprapta |
| Goat, Monkey | Vairochana |
| Rooster | Acala |
| Dog, Pig | Amitabha |
Your zodiac animal comes from the lunar year you were born in, not the calendar year.
I don’t know which zodiac animal I am
Use the Zodiac Energy calculator on our home page — enter a date of birth and it returns the zodiac animal, the guardian, and the mantra that goes with it. It handles the one tricky case: if you were born in January or early February, the lunar year had not yet turned, so the animal is the previous year’s. The calculator accounts for that; a plain year lookup often gets it wrong.
Can I order a piece that isn’t for my own birth year?
Of course. Plenty of customers order by design, by stone, or for someone else — as a gift, or simply because a motif speaks to them. The zodiac grouping is a tradition, not a restriction, and nothing about the piece changes based on who wears it.
Are the pieces unisex?
Most are designed to be worn by anyone. Two practical notes: our rings are sold in men’s sizing (US 7–11), and a few bracelets are listed specifically as women’s. The details are on each product page.
Do you offer engraving or custom characters?
No. Every piece carries a fixed motif from the design as shown — a specific deity, mantra, zodiac animal, or pattern. We don’t currently offer custom engraving, name stamping, or made-to-order characters. If you need a personalised piece, we’d rather tell you now than disappoint you later.
2. Sizing and Fit
How do I choose a ring size?
Our rings come in US sizes 7, 8, 9, 10, and 11. To find yours, wrap a strip of paper or a piece of string snugly around the base of the finger you’ll wear it on, mark where it overlaps, and measure that length in millimetres against a standard ring-size chart. Measure at the end of the day, when fingers are at their largest, and measure the finger on the hand you’ll actually wear it on — they differ.
If you’re between two sizes, choose the larger one. Wide bands in particular fit tighter than their size suggests.
Do your rings fit true to the stated size?
They’re made to the US sizes shown, and our wide-band rings are intentionally chunky — a 10 mm or 11 mm band feels snugger than a thin ring of the same size. If you’re used to thin rings, consider one size up on the wide designs. Not sure? Email us the product name and we’ll advise before you order.
What length are the necklaces?
It depends on the design — our chains run from roughly 41 cm to 70 cm, and the exact length is stated on each product page. The longer chains are intended to sit over a shirt or sweater; the shorter ones sit at the collarbone.
Are the bracelets adjustable?
The cord bracelets are adjustable, and the product page says so where it applies. Bead bracelets are made to a standard wrist. If you have a specific wrist measurement or you’re buying for someone else, email us the product name and we’ll confirm the fit before you order — that’s faster than an exchange.
3. Materials and Care
What are the pieces made of?
Each product page states the material where our supplier has confirmed it. Broadly:
- Most of our rings and several pendants are titanium steel — a durable, hard-wearing steel.
- One pendant line uses a 24K gold-plated finish over a sand-gold body.
- Our bracelets use natural obsidian, tiger’s eye, brushed and braided cord, with gold-tone charms and medallions.
Where our supplier has not specified a material — it happens on a few pieces — the product page says “not provided by supplier”. We would rather show you a gap than fill it with a guess.
Will the finish wear off?
Honestly: a plated or electroplated finish is not permanent. It wears gradually — fastest where the piece rubs against skin, and faster still with perfume, sweat, sunscreen, chlorine, and water. Expect some dulling over months of daily wear. That is true of every plated piece, at every price.
Pieces finished by engraving or brushing, with no plating, have nothing to wear through.
Can I shower or swim in it?
Please don’t. Water, soap, salt, and chlorine all shorten the life of a plated finish and can dull stone beads. Take your piece off before showering, swimming, or washing up — and put it on after perfume, lotion, or sunscreen has dried.
How should I clean and store it?
Wipe it with a soft dry cloth after wearing. Store it somewhere dry — a small pouch is ideal — and keep it away from other jewellery that could scratch it. Skip abrasive polishes and ultrasonic cleaners.
Is it safe for sensitive skin? Is it nickel-free?
Plainly: most of our rings and several pendants are titanium steel, which is generally well tolerated. Some pieces use plated or alloy finishes. We have not had independent nickel-release testing carried out on our pieces, so we can’t claim they are nickel-free or hypoallergenic.
If you have a known metal sensitivity, email us the product name before you order and we’ll tell you exactly what we know about that piece — including what we don’t know. That’s the honest answer, and it beats a returned order.
Will my piece look exactly like the photo?
Very close, but not identical — and that’s normal rather than a defect. Natural stone beads vary in colour, pattern, and veining. Hand-finishing leaves small differences in tone and texture. Screens also render colour differently from the physical piece. What you’ll receive is the same design, in the same material, to the same standard as the photos.
4. Placing an Order
Do I need an account to order?
No. Guest checkout is available, and an account is optional. If you do create one, you can see your order history and re-order more easily.
Can I change or cancel my order?
Only before it ships — we dispatch within 1–3 business days. Email hello@zodiacamulet.com with your order number as soon as you can, and if it hasn’t left us we’ll change or cancel it. Once it’s dispatched, the order is treated as a return under our Refund and Returns Policy.
Which payment methods do you accept?
Major credit and debit cards (Visa, Mastercard, American Express) and PayPal. Card details are handled by our payment provider and are never stored on our site.
Do you add sales tax?
Prices are listed in US dollars and no sales tax is added at checkout. Import duties and taxes are covered by us — see the one exception for the European Union in our Shipping Policy.
Is your checkout secure?
Yes. Payment details are processed by a third-party payment provider over an encrypted connection; we don’t see or store your full card number. What we do hold — your name, address, email, and order history — is set out in our Privacy Policy.
5. Shipping and Delivery
Where do you ship?
United States, Canada, United Kingdom, all 27 EU member states, Australia, New Zealand, Japan, and Singapore. We’re adding destinations regularly — if your country isn’t listed, email us and we’ll often arrange it.
We don’t ship to freight-forwarding addresses, or to countries and regions under international trade sanctions.
How much does shipping cost?
Free — everywhere, with no minimum spend and no handling fees. The single exception is the European Union, where a €3 customs duty (charged as $3.50) is added to your order at checkout and collected on your behalf.
Will I be charged customs or VAT when the parcel arrives?
No. We ship on a DDP (Delivered Duty Paid) basis: import duties, VAT, and customs clearance are settled by us. The amount shown at checkout is the final amount you pay, and nothing is due when the courier arrives.
The one exception is the EU’s flat €3 duty on low-value imports (shown as $3.50 in your cart), which is charged at checkout rather than on delivery. If you’re ever asked to pay anything beyond that — by a courier, a postal service, or a customs office — don’t pay it. Email us a photo of the request with your order number and we’ll resolve it with the carrier.
How long will my order take?
| Destination | Typical total time |
|---|---|
| United States | 8–18 business days |
| Canada | 9–21 business days |
| United Kingdom & EU | 9–21 business days |
| Australia & New Zealand | 8–18 business days |
| Japan & Singapore | 6–15 business days |
That includes 1–3 business days of processing. Peak seasons and carrier disruptions can push it longer — these are estimates, not guarantees. Full detail is in our Shipping Policy.
How do I track my order?
We email you a tracking number as soon as your order is dispatched. Tracking can take 24–72 hours to go live after dispatch, and international tracking sometimes pauses during customs clearance — that pause is normal and doesn’t mean the parcel has stopped moving.
If tracking hasn’t moved for more than 10 business days, email us and we’ll open an inquiry with the carrier.
My tracking hasn’t updated in a long time. Is my order lost?
Not necessarily — international tracking goes quiet at handover points and during customs. If there’s been no movement for 10 business days, contact us and we’ll chase the carrier. If it’s confirmed lost, we’ll reship or refund you in full — your choice.
What if I entered the wrong address?
Email us immediately — we can only correct an address before dispatch. If a parcel comes back to us because the address was wrong or incomplete, or because delivery was refused, we’ll contact you to arrange a reshipment; additional shipping costs for a resend are the customer’s responsibility.
6. Returns and Refunds
What’s your return window?
30 days from the date of delivery. Email hello@zodiacamulet.com with your order number to start a return. See our Refund and Returns Policy for the full terms.
What can’t be returned?
Pieces that were customised or engraved to order, and earrings for hygiene reasons — neither applies to our standard pieces, which aren’t customised and don’t include earrings. Change-of-mind returns are also subject to the item arriving back unworn and in its original condition, with return postage paid by the customer.
My item arrived damaged or wrong. What now?
Email us photos of both the item and the packaging within 30 days of delivery. We’ll replace it free of charge or refund you in full — your choice. For low-value pieces we often won’t ask you to ship the faulty item back, because the return postage would cost more than the piece.
How long does a refund take?
We process refunds as soon as the return is received, back to your original payment method. Banks typically take 5–10 business days to show it, depending on the provider.
Can I exchange instead of refunding?
Yes — email us and tell us what you’d like instead. If the piece you’re exchanging to costs more, we’ll send a payment link for the difference.
7. Craft and Authenticity
Where are your pieces made?
They’re produced by specialist jewellery workshops in China and shipped to you directly from there — which is how we keep shipping free to eight regions. Each order is checked before it’s packed, and every parcel has a tracking number.
Are these religious items? Do they come blessed?
They’re decorative jewellery that carries traditional symbolism. We tell you what each motif means — the guardian, the mantra, the zodiac animal — because that’s genuinely why we chose the designs, and the meaning is the point for many of our customers.
What we don’t do is make claims about outcomes. Our pieces aren’t sold as religious articles, and we make no promises about what wearing one will do for you. If you’re buying for devotional use, they’re made for personal wear like any other piece of jewellery.
Is each piece handmade?
Our cord and bead bracelets are braided and knotted by hand — you can see the knots in the photos. Our metal pieces are produced to our specifications by specialist workshops, then inspected by us before dispatch.
Why is a piece I saw earlier no longer available?
We work in small batches. When a batch sells through, the design may be unavailable until the next run, and some designs are limited to what the workshop can produce by hand. If something has sold out and you’d like it, email us — we’ll tell you honestly whether another run is coming.
8. Still Need Help?
ZODIAC AMULET
Email: hello@zodiacamulet.com — we reply within 24–48 hours, Monday to Friday.
For shipping questions, see the Shipping Policy. For returns, see the Refund and Returns Policy. For how we handle your data, see the Privacy Policy. For everything else, see our Terms of Service.