Colloidal Silver is an umbrella term that is used to refer to both true colloidal silver and also ionic silver, and they are not the same thing. Most commercially available "colloidal silver" is mostly made up of ionic silver. Ionic silver, whilst still effective, is not as efficient as true colloidal silver.

Most products labeled and sold as colloidal silver are, unfortunately, ionic silver. This is because it is so much easier and less costly to produce this type of silver product.

Ionic Silver: These products are made through electrolysis and the end result is dissolved silver, namely silver ions in solution. As the silver loses on electron, it goes into solution. Silver ions are not the same as silver particles. However, these products are marketed as "colloidal silver." Whilst they do contain some colloidal silver, it is usually only around 10% of the total silver content. The rest (90%) is ionic silver. Thus, if you get a colloidal silver product advertised at 20ppm, only around 2ppm will be colloidal, the rest will be ions. Some names given to this type of silver are monatomic silver and silver hydrosol.

Colloidal Silver: True colloidal silver is available commercially but because it is harder to make than ionic silver it is more expensive. It cannot be made at home unlike ionic silver which can be made using basic electrolysis equipment. A silver colloid suspension is particles of silver (not ions) which are too small to be seen, even with an ordinary microscope, suspended in water. True colloidal silver solutions are made up of at least 50% colloidal silver with the rest being silver ions. These types of solutions give the highest surface area for all the silver particles in the solution, and this makes them much more effective. The higher the surface area of the particles, the more effective the solution.

The condition known as Argyria, where the skin turns a silver, blue colour is caused by taking large dosages of ionic silver, for a prolonged period of time. Usually this is caused by people who try to make their own colloidal silver but end up producing high dosage ionic silver using non-distilled water (tap water or mineral water). True colloidal silver does not cause argyria because of the small particle size and the low concentration of silver particles.