Is it time to give your jewellery a spring clean?
Do you wonder how to keep your silver lovely and shiny? And do you know the best way to bring its sparkle back? With spring in full swing and some sunshine I want to have a spring clean and freshen everything up. This includes my jewellery box! Here are my hints and tips on helping you show your jewellery some love!
How to keep your lovely jewellery sparkly, even rings set with genstones
How you wear it makes a difference!
When silver dulls and goes black that is it tarnishing. This is a reaction between the air and the silver, which can be made worse when you get your silver into contact with creams, sprays and perfumes. This can speed up tarnishing but also coat it in a layer of gunk - absolutely a technical term! And if there is a gemstone then this catches all that gunk behind it. So simply waiting until you’ve applied your morning body cream and perfume then putting on your necklace, earrings or rings can make a big difference.
You should always take off jewellery before bathing, going for a swim in the sea or a pool. The chemicals in a swimming pool or the salty sea water will react with the silver and it may well come out of the pool looking very tarnished. You can clean it - but prevention is always the best option!
Storing your jewellery correctly is also important. I am as guilty as anyone of not following my own advice! Small jewellery bags or boxes to keep your pieces in will help them away from the air and looking their best. Keeping individual items, especially necklaces, separate helps stop them getting all tangled up and damaged - advice I wish I’d followed before! You can buy anti-tarnish strips to pop in with your treasures as well which really help keep them shiny. I’ve also heard that a piece of chalk kept in with with your jewellery will do the same thing by wicking the moisture aware from it. Worth a try! Taking your jewellery off at night before you go to sleep will also help prevent damage and tarnish.
My Jewellery is already tarnished - help!
Even if you take care of it your silver jewellery will eventually tarnish. Don’t fear though! It can be restored to its lovely sparkly self! I’m going to focus on silver in this blog because that’s what I wear most. However if like me you love gemstones and a bit of gold mixed into the silver that will affect the way you clean your jewellery. When you look online it can be hard to know what is best to use and how. I’ll explore a few of my favourites and some homemade hacks that should help you.
What Products do I recommend?
Town Talk Silver Polishing Cloth
When it comes to giving your necklaces, earrings or rings a quick polish I don’t think you can beat the Silver Polishing Cloth from Town Talk. These pink soft cloths come in small or large and are impregnated with some lovely things which not only help shine things up but give a bit of anti-tarnish protection. Every piece of jewellery I send out ends with a polish from one of these cloths to give it a final clean and help it stay that way. It’s great as well for a quick shine for lightly tarnished pieces before heading out!
Polishing liquids and dips
You can buy silver cleaning dips and liquids that can take the hard work out of cleaning your silver treasures. All you do with these is immerse your piece in the liquid, agitate with the brush that comes with it, take it out, let it dry then rub gently with a soft cloth to bring out the shine. Town Talk do a good one - I am not affiliated with them - I just like their products! These work well but be aware that some are designed for silver and some for gold and not all of them are suitable for gemstones. Choose the one right for your jewellery and follow the instructions and you’ll be left with lovely sparkly jewellery.
Town Talk Silver Polishing Cloth
Homemade Solutions!
I’m a fan of using homemade household non-toxic items in my house and its the same for cleaning my jewellery. You may have heard that you can use toothpaste for cleaning your precious pieces. But beware! Many toothpastes have polishers in which can end up leaving micro scratches in your silver and many gemstones. Micro scratches will leave your jewellery potentially more prone to tarnishing. So while this sounds like an easy solution its probably best to avoid!
So what do I recommend? There are a couple of simple solutions you could try:
Aluminium Foil and Washing up liquid - Line a bowl (ceramic or glass) with aluminium foil. Fill with hot water and squeeze in some washing up liquid and mix. Pop in your jewellery and leave for a minute to soak. Grab them out with kitchen tongs, rinse and leave to dry on some cloth or paper towel. This should remove tarnish but you may need to repeat. A gentle rub with a soft cloth should also help bring up the shine.
Cornflour and Water - Mix some cornflour with water until you have a thick paste. Cover your tarnished pieces and let them dry out. You then simply rub away with a soft cloth and hey presto - you have sparkly silver. This one may be best to avoid on items set with gemstones as it could be difficult to remove from behind them.
Bicarbonate of soda and white distilled vinegar - This one isn’t suitable for antique silver and care should be taken not to rub items as the soda may cause micro scratches. It is however great to restore the shine! Pop your jewellery in a glass bowl. Add 4 tablespoons of baking soda and cover with a cup of white distilled vinegar. Just leave it to stand for an hour, take out, rinse and leave to dry. Rub over with a soft cloth to bring out the shine.
Hopefully this helps you with keeping your lovely silver jewellery in tip top shape. I’d love to hear any other tips for storing or cleaning silver jewellery - especially ones I can make at home. Just let me know in the comments below!
Naomi x
