How to clean jewellery

Jewellery comes in all sorts of styles, sizes and price ranges. However, whatever your preferred taste or budget there is one simple trick to making your jewellery elevate your look even further.

That trick is to clean your jewellery in the right way to reclaim that quality and stylish effect that first caught your eye when you decided to buy it.

Most jewellery lovers have a vast collection of items, from watches to necklaces and rings to bracelets. As you read this article, you are probably well aware of that draw or jewellery box in your home that is bursting with your favourite and forgotten styles.

Having that much choice to pair with any outfit and for any occasion is vital, but it also means that many of those old pieces you have not worn for a while might need a little TLC.

There might even be some pieces that you used to love wearing that is now looking worse for ware and now remains in your home.

It is important to remember though that no item of jewellery is ever ruined beyond repair. With a little effort your tarnished ring or necklace could be sparkling once again.

You never know, if you follow the advice in this piece, you could have that forgotten item of jewellery making it right back to the top of your wardrobe considerations!

So, here are our top tips for how you can clean your different items of jewellery:

How to clean gold jewellery

A major positive about gold jewellery is that it will not tarnish as easily as silver jewellery can do. However, there will be some loss of shine and fading over time, especially for gold jewellery that you wear frequently.

There is hope though that you can restore your favourite gold piece of jewellery back to its former sale room glory.

A simple trick to achieve this is to just soak your gold pieces in boiling water, and you can add a small amount of neutral detergent to the boiling water if your gold items are looking a little tarnished.

It is though vital that you keep in mind that it can do more harm than good to soak gold jewellery for too long. So, remember if trying this method to keep an eye on your items and don’t soak them for much longer than five minutes.

If this method seems a little too DIY for your taste, then you can always take it to an expert to get their opinion and advice on how to clean your gold jewellery.

How to clean silver jewellery

Unlike gold jewellery, silver jewellery can tarnish quite a lot over time in some instances. The levels to which your items could be tarnished will be determined by how often you wear them and how long it has been since they were last cleaned.

However, there is something you can do to reverse the tarnish on your silver jewellery and get it to sparkle once again the way it did in the store before you bought it.

Making a baking soda bath is a good method for cleaning silver jewellery.

That might sound like a strange idea, but all it involves is putting your silver items onto some aluminium foil inside a bowl and then add boiling water and baking soda.

In terms of timings, leaving the silver jewellery in the baking soda bath for around half an hour tends to produce the best results. That is because that will give the aluminium and baking soda enough time to react and work their jewellery cleaning magic!

How to clean copper/brass jewellery

So, we have so far learnt that silver jewellery is much more likely to tarnish and be spoilt in terms of appearance than gold jewellery.

Well, copper or brass jewellery can lose its shine and sparkle even easier than silver.

That is because over time it is likely that copper and or brass will tarnish and even potentially start to turn that horrible greenish colour.

Don’t be alarmed though, there is no need to throw out your favourite old copper or brass piece in your jewellery box! There is a simple solution to help restore your copper items.

Simply use a neutral type of soap and some warm water to give your copper and brass jewellery some care and watch as it transforms back to its former self.

What if I need a quick way to clean jewellery?

In this article so far, we have broken down some of the best ways that you can get that signature sparkle back into your old jewellery pieces.

However, you might be thinking – that is all well and good, but I don’t have half an hour or so to clean all my gold, silver, copper or platinum items.

If that is the case, then there is a simpler solution for you. Simply use a polishing cloth alongside some polishing creams and sprays to try and reclaim that sparkle back from your pieces.

Rub your gold, silver, copper or platinum jewellery with the cloth until you see that shine start to return.