Maintaining and cleaning jewellery at home

Maintaining and cleaning jewellery at home is easier than you think. Here are a few tips to ensure the longevity of your jewellery.

Maintaining jewellery at home

Just like you would maintain and service your luxury car, so too should you maintain and service your luxury jewellery, depending on how often you wear and how hard you are on the pieces. For engagement rings and wedding bands, we recommend they be cleaned and polished and, in the case of white gold and rose gold, plated one a year to once every two years. By doing this, we can check the diamond(s) are safe and secure, besides keeping your jewellery sparkly and clean. Contact us or submit an enquiry to get a quote on replating your jewellery.

It is standard practise that white gold is rhodium plated to get that brilliant colour. This is because gold is naturally a yellow element – to get white gold you have to alloy it with platinum and or palladium, which means it still has a light yellowish tint to the metal. By adding a layer of rhodium to it by means of electroplating, the finished item is a clear crisp colour. This plating can wear over time to display a faint yellowish tinge beneath. This is quite normal and simply means it’s time to have your ring plating again. It’s a quick and inexpensive process and will make your ring look brand new. In some cases when a client wants an intense shade of rose, we apply the same process to rose gold. To prolong the life of your plating, avoid exposing harsh chemicals and perfumes to your jewellery.

We also recommend taking off your jewellery when in contact with other metals like weights at the gym, cycling, etc. This will avoid heavy scratches and dents.

Cleaning jewellery at home

Although there are jewellery cleaners on the market, you can easily clean your gold or platinum jewellery at home with basic and inexpensive household products. The first is an old soft toothbrush – otherwise, buy yourself an infant toothbrush. The key is to have soft bristles that won’t scratch the metal.

Then simply pop on the kettle (enjoy a cup of tea while you clean) and once the water is boiled, pour some in a small bowl with a squirt of dishwashing liquid. Let the water cool just a bit then pop in your jewellery and let it soak in the soapy water, along with your toothbrush (to further soften the bristles). Once the water is at room temperature, take the piece of jewellery and lightly brush with the toothbrush, getting the bristles under the stones if possible and in between all the nooks and crannies. Then rinse and wipe with a lint-free cloth or paper towel and voila! Your piece of jewellery will be sparkly again.

For very stubborn dirt or oil, add a dash of ammonia to the soapy water.

For silver jewellery that has tarnished, if you don’t have a silver polish at home, let the piece sit in some lemon juice or Coca-Cola for a few minutes to remove the tarnishing. Then clean as above. Watch this video to see how it works.

For pearls, wipe with a lint-free cloth.