Jewelry Care

Do you know that feeling when you have in mind perfect jewelry with your outfit and finally found it but sadly it got darken over times and needed it now? 

Many woman can relate this feeling but I will tell you how to take care of your treasured jewelry so they would stay longer beautiful and useful at any time you need them.

Firstly, let´s talk about why jewelry get darken so easily. 

Did you know that darken is result of many factors? You may think what factors but when you think your day as a view of jewelry, you probably get the idea what I´m talking about. 

So let´s play little. Imagine that you are necklace. 

Someone hang you in their neck. You hang there all day long. Firstly you get skin oils, perfumes and other cosmetics. Then you heading out without any coat. You get traffic pollution and pollen from trees and flowers. All stick to you. Where ever you go, every smells and dusts can stick to you. Then after day, you hanged back in place to rest. So no wonder, you get darken.

Many probably think that I´m too busy to take care every jewelry that I have but actually jewelry care do not require a lot of time, it only require regular and consistent routine.

I´m so called silver-girl because I love to wear silver jewelry. 

I have jewelry trees where I have earrings and necklaces. They expose all the time in dust, food smells and moisture when I have done laundry or weather is rainy. My jewelry gets darken easily and I don´t wear them as often as I would like to. I´m happy that I have found a way to clean all my beautiful jewelry in once and it doesn´t require my time much. 

In order to clean your silver jewelry, you will need few simple things that you may have already in home or get from grocery store easily.

You will need:

• Bowl that is resistant to boiling water (like glass bowl, washed ice cream box).
• Tin foil roll 
• Baking soda
• Soft towel   

Instructions:

• Place the tin foil in the box so that mirror side is up and covers the bottom of the box what you are going to use. You can folded the tin foil if necessary.

• Boil the water and place the jewelry in the box what you need to clean. Do not filled the box with huge amount / pile jewelry because they won´t necessarily get cleaned at once. Preferably keep cleaned jewelry loosely on the bottom of the bowl
• Sprinkle baking soda on top of the jewelry so they will lightly cover and pour the boiling water so that all jewelry will cover 

• Let the jewelry soak in the water until the water is cool down

• Pour the excess water and rinse your jewelry one by one. 

• Leave them dry with soft towel or leave them to dry on the towel open place

This method cleans your jewelry gently way and you can pour excess water in the drain unlike silver polish substance that is not allowed to pour in the drains.

Please note that this may not good way to clean your jewelry if your jewelry contains following:

• Rhinestones (they may come off during process)
• Seashell pearls & beads (pearls and beads may have laminated coat that may peel off)
• Dyed freshwater pearls and beads (the color may peel off)
• Hematite pearls and beads (hematite may rust)

I´ve used old ice cream box because it´s boiling water resistant. If you have several jewelry that needs to clean at the same time, pour plenty baking soda so that every jewelry have "white coat". The tin foil and boiling water create chemical react and don´t mind the hissing water, it´s suppose to do that when you use baking soda. It´s kind of bath bomb for the jewelry.

So, what to do rest of the jewelry if you are not silver-girl like me? Well, there´s so many method´s out there but I will show you one way - it´s sometimes the only way you need 😉

One way to clean gold or gold plated jewelry is to use beer for that but your husband or boyfriend won´t probably be happy if you use his beer to clean your jewelry and beer scent jewelry aren´t so inviting to use so you need to wash them some good scent soap afterwards.

My friend love to use golden plated and rose gold jewelry. Unfortunately, they also darkens over time and color isn´t as good as new. So how can you clean your precious jewelry in home?

Method 1:

This method works any kind jewelry that is not so dirty in order to restore it´s original beauty. 

Take a bowl, add few drops of dish wash and warm water (not hot) and let your jewelry soak there 2-3 minutes.

Use soft brush to brush gently the jewelry, rinse it well and dry it with soft towel. 

TIP: I love to use soft tooth brush for babies because it´s soft and gently. The brush do not scratch jewelry´s surface.

First pic is uncleaned jewelry and second
pic is cleaned jewelry

What to do if your jewelry is darken badly? Above method do not restore it´s original beauty but will clean most of dirty.

I tried couple ways to clean gold plated and rose gold jewelry but best result I got when I use following ingredients:

• Bowl
• Hot water (as hot as you can get from faucet)
• Baking soda
• Lemon juice 

Place the jewelry in the bowl and sprinkle plenty baking soda and lemon juice (I buy this from grocery store). 

Add hot water and let it soak 2-3 minutes.

Rinse jewelry and dry it with soft towel.

If you have copper or bronze jewelry, these won´t darken so easily over time like silver ones. These kind jewelry are tricky to clean in home method but some recommend to use ketchup or tabasco in order to restore copper jewelry`s original color. I haven´t try any these so be careful not to ruin your jewelry completely. Tested it always in jewelry that doesn´t matter if you ruined it. Never test home cleaning jewelry method on jewelry that are valuable or have sentimental value to you.

In shortly, jewelry can be cleaned also with polishing cloth, toothpaste or ultrasound machine which is more expensive way but promise to clean gently your jewelry. I haven´t try ultrasound machine to clean my jewelry so can´t really recommend it.

If you jewelry is valuable or have a lot of sentimental value, I highly recommend to take your jewelry to goldsmith who can clean your jewelry in professional way. Ask for estimated price before leaving your jewelry. 

Finally, remember to storage your jewelry in jewelry boxes or wrap it in tissue paper (buy it on bookstore or craft stores) to protect them from sunlight, dust, makeups, skin oils, perfumes, lotions, hairsprays etc. 

~ Minna