Caring for Your Precious Jewelry

You bought a new piece! Hooray! Hooray!

For the first few weeks, you are showing off your new shiny bauble to everyone who crosses your path. Sadly, after a while, it becomes dull and boring, almost as if it was lifeless…

Don’t despair!  We are here to help you protect & maintain the beauty of your jewelry in 2 easy steps.

Protect!

We know you really love it, but try not to wear your pieces (gold or sterling silver) during activities that include: chlorine, salt, sunscreen, sweat, direct sunlight for long period of time, bug spray, lotion, oils, dirt and pebbles (like gardening).

And that's why:

• Salt water, chlorine and other bleaching chemical strip off the polish of metal and gemstones, making them look flat and lifeless. So avoid cleaning chemicals and swimming with your jewelry.
• Sunscreen, lotion, oils, bug spray & other sprays get into the crevices of chains & prongs, and create a film on your jewelry, making it dull and dingy.
• Dirt and small rocks are abrasive, scratching both metals and gemstone, making your pieces look scratched up, dirty and abused. Scratched gemstone could lead to breakage.
• Direct sun for long period of times can ‘bleach’ gemstones and cause them to color change. We often see it in untreated natural stones, and especially with color enhanced stones (like type C jades or colored quartz). This will make certain stones look faded

Organic material like pearls, shells, coral, ivory, wood and bone are very sensitive material and will be ‘eaten up’ by all the above.

Maintain!

The hard part…

• Storing: Don’t toss your pieces in one big pile, prevent scratching and tarnishing by storing each piece in a dry jewelry box, pouch, or zip-top bag. For those who live in a high humidity climate, we recommend storing sterling silver in a zip-top bag with a small anti-tarnish strip to avoid oxidation of the metal.
• Cleaning: Wore your nice pearls to a fancy party? wipe them clean before storing them for a long period of time. You are always wearing your hard gemstone: occasionally clean them with an unused toothbrush, warm water, and dish detergent soap. Gently get under the stone, in cavities and all over.
• Polishing: For your gold and silver, buff out tiny surface scratches and restore luster by using recommended polishing cloths.
• Visit our jewelers: for loved pieces, make sure to come for a yearly check up with our jewelers, we will check the stone setting, clasps, weak links, stone cracks and more. If all is good and well, we’ll professionally clean your pieces for a brilliant shine. If the piece was bought from us, we’ll do it for free!!!

We hope this will help you enjoy your jewelry for years to come. We know weird and unusual things can happen, so be mindful about your precious pieces and always keep them in a safe place and insured.

Please see suggestions of cleaning and maintaining individual pieces on their product page.