Cleaning Your Jewelry at Home-Toothpaste,Vodka or Soap?

Jewelry, whether worn and enjoyed everyday or sitting apparently safe in a jewelry box or pouch, will appear to lose it's shine and sparkle over time. Now its not the actual gemstones or gold that are becoming dull. The culprits are natural oils from our skin,lotions,soap and sometimes actual dust or dirt.

All gemstones and in particularly Diamonds are a magnet for these things and will get covered in them pretty quick. Even if the top of a diamond or gemstone is clean but the underneath isn't, there will a noticeable decrease in sparkle as the dirt interferes with the light passing though the gemstone.

So now that we know how easy it is to get these guys dirty, what can we do about it? It's not always convenient or even necessary to run over to the closest jewelry store whenever you need your jewelry cleaned. That's like going to the dentist whenever you need to brush your teeth.

So what works best? Toothpaste-Vodka or Soap?? 

None of the above. Toothpaste can dry out and chemically affect a lot of gemstones in a bad way. Don't waste your alcohol cause vodka can be even more harsh on your gemstones as well as your gold. If you read above you will actually see that soap is part of the problem of what gets your jewelry dirty in the first place. It leaves behind a residue that is pretty hard to get rid off, especially underneath your gemstones and in the settings. Now all these three cleaning myths won't harm a diamond, but they definitely won't do it any good either.

 So here is your HOME solution. This is recommended for all jewelry except for Silver Jewelry which needs a special tarnish remover solution.This works best for Diamond & Gold Jewelry.

Take a cup of 3/4th full warm water and add 1/4th of regular ammonia. If you don't have ammonia or don't care for the smell you can substitute for Windex. Soak jewelry in solution for 10 minutes and the remove and scrub gently with an old soft toothbrush. Try to brush underneath gemstones and in the groves of the setting where possible.Put jewelry back in solution for 10 minutes then take out and rinse thoroughly with cold water. That's it! Your jewelry should be nice and sparkly again!!

Also with sensitive gemstones such as Emerald/Opals/Etc it's best not to let sit in solution but to dip then work with toothbrush then dip again and rinse.

It is recommended to have all your prong settings and jewelry checked by a professional every once in a while depending on how often you wear and how hard you are on your jewelry. There are gold buffing machines and sonic machines which will clean and polish your jewelry professionally which is not something you can easily accomplish at home.