There’s nothing complicated about cleaning your jewelry and there is nothing dangerous about brushing your stones – it all depends on the type of gem of course. If you want your jewels to shine, you simply need to clean them regularly as it should be an automatic process just like washing your hands.
I’m always a little surprised, even appalled, when I see how the jewelry of my friends, clients, even people who work in jewelry look like. No one ever thinks about cleaning their jewelry. It’s a rather simple process, it’s quick and it costs less than a beer. But most importantly, if you want your jewelry to sparkle you have no other option.
Regularly, I observe the time that people-customers-friends-buyers-sellers spend looking at the stones from all angles, with the naked eye or a magnifying glass, always on the lookout for the slightest dust or imperfection. I see the way they manipulate so gently their potential future purchase with articulate gestures as if it was made of broken glass.
Rest assured, this little ceremony, sometimes unnecessary or out of bounds, only lasts for a short time, a very, very short time. I have come to realize that once the jewel has been bought, it’s the highway for misbehavior: you have no problem knocking your piece, leaving hand moisturizer dry inside out, you leave it on a table, put it back on or even throw it in a travel pouch in between other gems.
How hard it is to just take care of it! This will save you from going to a store with that weepy look on your face realizing that you have lost a diamond on your setting blaming it on the quality of the brand or claiming you’ve been robbed considering the price you have paid for a stone that looks so dull… I can keep going on and on !
So before you get into that kind of consideration, take 10 minutes of your time, 7 of which you can use to scroll down your instragam feed. For those of you who don’t have an ultrasonic cleaner or a special cleaning jewelry kit, you just need to do this:
1. Take a small bowl of lukewarm water and add a small amount of dish soap.
2. Use your finger to create a light lather mixing the soap to the water, and dip your jewelry in*.
3. Leave to soak for 5 minutes, then using an old soft-bristle toothbrush that you don’t and won’t use anymore, rub your jewelry either by putting it in the palm of your hand with a little soapy water or between the edge of the water and the rim of your bowl.
4. Insist on the stones, the breech (the underside of your stone) and the setting to remove dust, dry cream and other!
5. Dry your jewelry with a clean cloth ideally in cotton and you will see, they will shine as if they were brand new!
*Avoid jewelry that is not made of gold or platinum. Avoid jewelry set with hard stones such as opals, turquoise, lapis… but also with emeralds or pearls – you risk to damage them.
**For silver jewelry, you can easily find cloths that are made specially for that metal that tends to oxidize and therefore blackens over time.
