You don’t need fancy jewellery cleaner to get your gold to gleam, your silver to sparkle and your gemstones to shine. All of us have different types of necklaces, earrings, and bracelets and it’s important to know how to care for them. Here are a few fab jewellery cleaning tips that will help your platinum, silver and gold pieces as well as gems shine and look like brand new.
1. Use clean 100% cotton cloths
Make sure you use clean cotton cloths when you clean your jewellery. Experts recommend using a new one every time, but having to buy a new cloth each time your numerous pieces of jewellery get dirty can be pretty pricey. I advise you to use paper towels! This tip always works great for me!
2. Don’t use toothpaste
Many people use toothpaste to clean their jewellery, and I’ve used it too, but the results were far from satisfying. Professional jewelers say that using toothpaste to clean your jewellery is a big mistake because toothpaste contains tiny but abrasive micro granules that can scratch and damage metals and stones.
3. Cleaning pearls and natural stones
Pearls and natural stones are very sensitive and those traditional cleaning liquids will greatly damage them. One of the best ways to clean natural stones is to use very soft toothbrush and water. Soak your stones in water, brush a little and leave them to dry naturally. To clean pearls use a mild detergent but don’t soak them. Use a wet cloth and your pearls will be as good as new!
More: 10 Jewellery Essentials
4. Cleaning gold and silver
All gold or silver jewellery can be cleaned using the standard store bought cleaners. Whatever silver or gold cleanser you choose, make sure you don’t use the brush since it can cause scratches. Just let your jewellery soak in the mixture and then rinse and polish.
5. Cleaning diamonds
Although diamonds are one of the hardest elements, it doesn’t mean that you don’t have to care for them. If your diamond ring is not as sparkly as it used to be, clean it using this easy recipe: just mix ¼ of a cup of ammonia with one cup of warm water and let your ring soak in it for at least 20 minutes. Then use the soft toothbrush to remove the remaining dirt!
6. Cleaning emeralds
Due to their soft, brittle nature, emeralds cannot be cleaned using the diamond cleaning method I’ve described above. If you don’t want your emeralds to crack, use only mild water. This cleaning method works great for all other gems.
Do you have any other jewellery cleaning tips? Share them, please!