Cleaning & Checking Your Jewels
We’re washing our hands and cleaning our spaces more than ever before. But what about our jewelry? How do we make sure our jewelry is clean and germ free? And even more, how do we make sure the chemicals we’re constantly using don’t harm our jewelry or worse, get caught underneath our jewels and irritate our skin?
I’m here to offer you a few tips and tricks.
Let me start by saying I hope everyone reading this is healthy and well in these unprecedented times.
Professional Jewelry Cleaning
Cleaning your jewelry is always a great idea. If you’re in the Boulder/Denver area and want to come to Hurdle’s Jewelry, we’ll be there to check and properly clean your jewels for free any time you want. The benefit in having a professional jeweler clean your jewelry is that they have the ability to check your diamonds and/or gemstones under magnification along with your prongs to ensure everything is in place. This is something we recommend doing every 6 months at a minimum.
Ways to remember it’s time to clean your jewelry by a professional:
Every time you go to the dentist
Every time the clocks change
But what happens when the world comes to a halt and we’re all under quarantine in our homes?? This should not be a time where we give up, keep those jewels sparkly! If anything it’ll give us a little glimmer of inspiration and happiness in our days right?
Cleaning Your Jewelry at Home
You could definitely buy one of those ultrasonic machines on amazon to clean your jewelry, but please keep in mind you’re missing two key things if you choose this option.
Having a set of professional eyes look at your jewelry under a microscope to ensure nothing will fall out when it’s shaken around in an ultrasonic cleaner. (Example: Say your side diamonds have become loose for any number of reasons, but they’re actually staying put in your ring just fine because lotion and other gunk are so lodged in there that it’s holding them in. Then you pop that ring into an at-home ultrasonic cleaner that knocks out the gunk leaving your diamonds either falling out in the ultrasonic or a week later when you accidentally bump your ring against something they fall out then because they’ve become loose in your setting.) That’s a worse-case scenario example, but I’ve seen it happen!
Steam! We use a industry grade steamer once we’ve checked and cleaned jewelry. This gives it that sparkle that is so tricky to get anywhere else.
My recommendation, leave the ultrasonic machines to the professionals. When you’re at home and need a quick sparkle do this:
Buy a cheap toothbrush
Fill a small bowl of water with soap (I usually tell people to use dish soap, but under the current circumstances using an antibacterial hand soap will provide you the added value of removing bacteria. Most dish soaps don’t actually have antibacterial ingredients in them. You can also use over-the-counter jewelry cleaner as well, but alike to dish soap, it may not have the antibacterial ingredients)
Put your jewelry in the bowl and begin to use the soapy toothbrush to gently brush around your jewelry.
Rinse thoroughly. This is VERY important, if you don’t get all of the soap off, it can irritate your skin around where your jewelry sits (most commonly seen in rings.)
I recommend using an extra bowl of water to thoroughly rinse, or rinse in a sink where there is no risk to losing your precious valuables down the drain!
Lay on a towel or paper towel to dry. This will help absorb the moisture leftover. If you have the time, It’s important to let them dry before putting them back on because that moisture can still cause irritation to your skin.
The Harm in Not Cleaning Your Jewelry Right Now
We often see clients come in with rashes or irritation underneath their rings. On occasion, they’ve developed a nickel allergy and their jewelry is 14k or 18k white gold (often these materials will have nickel within them). Most often, we see clients who just need their jewelry to get good clean and in turn also, need to let their skin heal.
Right now we’re using harsh chemicals to kill bacteria like a mother f&*er am I right? But what happens when all those chemicals get caught underneath our rings and start irritating our skin? It’s very important to rinse/clean your jewelry, or better yet, take it off before you start wiping down with Lysol. And if you start to notice irritation underneath your rings, give your hands a break. Take your rings off (in a safe place) for a day or two and let your hands heal before putting them back on.
Side note: If you have a hot tub at home…take your jewelry off before jumping in! I’ve seen so much damage to metal from the chemicals in a hot tub.
A Few Extra Things to Keep in Mind:
Be cautious of using harsh chemicals on gemstones. Diamonds are known to be one of the hardest materials on earth, this can’t be said for all gemstones. Some can be extremely porous, where chemicals can actually soak into the gems causing damage.
Gemstones to absolutely avoid using chemicals around: Opal, Pearl, Lapis and Turquoise.
Gemstones that you may want a professional to clean instead: Emerald (Beryl), Tourmaline, Tanzanite and Peridot.
Safe to Clean: Diamond, Ruby, Sapphire.
Beware of plated metals. I would stick to pure metals for the above cleaning recommendations (i.e. Gold, White Gold & Platinum).
Would love to hear your feedback on this blog post! Was it helpful? Always feel free to drop a line in my email: nicole@roserocksandretailtherapy.com or message me on Instagram: @Nichurdle
