Everything about gold and silver jewelry care

Proper care is of interest to every owner who looks after his jewelry. Everybody wants his jewelry to look impressive and charming, but in this world nothing lasts forever. Even the most perfect creation, made of the best materials, can lose its original look over time. 

Is it worth being upset with that fact? Not at all. Some care, accurate wearing and cleaning of Your jewelry will retain its primary charm for many years.

When is it better to take Your ring off?

• Before going to bed, You should always take off Your ring so that Your skin breathes and Your fingers won’t swell. Rings of simple shape (plain, without inserts and embossed surface). 
• Take off Your ring before swimming. As You know, fingers have the ability to narrow in cold water, which can cause jewelry to fall off.
• Avoid contact with sand. It easily scratches metal because it is harder than precious alloys.
• Bathing in hot springs with silver jewelry is not a good idea.  Due to the sulfur content in thermal waters, the jewelry will get cloudy.
• You'd better avoid wearing rings while doing sports or other activities that cause metal to hit or rub against various surfaces. 
• Take off Your ring before  any cosmetic procedures to avoid cosmetics clogging in the hard to reach places. If You wash Your hands with a ring on, rinse the jewelry well. 
• Remove the ring before cleaning up or other actions that will expose the jewelry to contact with aggressive chemicals.

Metal and scratches

If You remove the ring in the above-listed situations, its beauty will last longer. However, in everyday life it is difficult to avoid the influence of the environment on jewelry. We conducted several experiments that confirmed how easy it is to scratch a ring while being at home.

Although, it is worth mentioning that not all metals are easily scratched.

Silver jewelry, for example, may have deeper scratches due to their softness rather than gold alloy jewelry 

Take care of Your ring

We recommend storing the jewelry in a particular place so You won't panic every time when looking for it. However, choose that place considerably. Additionally, it’s better to avoid leaving jewelry in a bathroom due to high level of humidity. To protect the jewelry from possible external influences, store it in a jewelry box.

Special storing boxes for jewelry are common, but there is a number of specific requirements to it:

1. Soft lining.

2. Keeping the jewelry separately. Do not throw products in one pile.  Metals hitting against one another may cause scratches and dents. This is especially common for diamond rings, which are easily damaged due to the hardness of the stone. 

Why jewelry gets cloudy?

1. Rings of silver and low-fineness gold (less than 14K) can get cloudy when stored constantly in the open air. 

2. This effect appears rapidly in a humid environment.  

3. Hot tubs and hightesy springs contain sulfur in its waters, which leads to clouding of the jewelry. 

4. Keep in mind that some skin care products contain sulfur. Avoid its contact with jewelry as well.

Cloudiness is a thin layer of oxide on the surface of metals. It can be easily removed with a soft polishing cloth for jewelry. If You wear a ring every day, cloudiness won’t develop quickly, as the friction of the metal against skin and clothes will preserve its shining. 

Cases when jewelry of higher fineness get cloudy, like gold (18K), platinum, palladium, occur less often.  These precious metals do not dim under normal conditions. The higher their content in the alloy, the less likely it is to react under the influence of external factors.

Cleaning jewelry at home

When it comes to home cleaning techniques, there is usually a bunch of hazardous methods, which may make restoring the jewelry impossible. Using warm water and dishwashing detergent (with no phosphates and lemon) is a quite safe way to clean the product from dirt. 

Before You begin with any cleaning, pay attention to the surface.

Conducting the cleaning procedure on a hard surface, i.e. granite table top or kitchen sink is a dangerous idea

A slick jewelry may easily slip off and hit the surface. For this reason, do the cleaning over a towel. 

Once You prepared everything needed,  You may get to work:

1. Rinse the jewelry.

2. Take a soft toothbrush (better a baby one) and apply some detergent. 

3. Start cleaning the jewelry with delicate movements.

4. Finally, rinse and wipe it dry with a soft lint-free cloth.

5. If a ring contains stones like emerald, opal, pearl, turquoise, it is better to entrust the work to a jeweler. It's worth remembering to never use toothpaste for cleaning, because its abrasive effect may cause scratches on any precious metal and even some precious stone. 

Below You may find a table, showing the parameters of some precious stones and cleaning methods.

Hardness and toughness are not directly related, as shown in the table. Hardness is characterised by resistance to scratches, the property of metal to resist abrasion.  Toughness is a measure of mineral’s property to absorb energy, as well as a scale 

Ring maintenance

1. Clean a ring at least once a week, so that it shines as on the day when You first wore it. 

2. Give Your ring to a jeweler at least twice a year to check the reliability of its peg setting. 

We hope that after reading this article, You will take a more careful and responsible care of Your jewelry.  But not too much.  After all, every scratch or some small defect makes a story of a jewelry that will never happen again.