Jewellery Care
Vu's top tips on how to care for your jewellery
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Whether you’ve treated yourself to a new piece of jewellery or been spoilt with an amazing gift you’ll want your new necklace, ring, earrings or bracelet to remain looking beautiful for many years to come. Here at Vu Jewellers we created high quality jewellery from solid precious metals and high quality diamonds and gemstones so with a little love and care from you, your jewellery should last a lifetime. Here’s our recommendations on how to care for your jewellery.
Taking off your jewellery
We know a lot of people live in their jewellery and sometimes never take it off, even to sleep. There are some situations we’d recommend taking jewellery off to help maintain the look and life span of your precious pieces.
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Sleeping – wearing necklaces and earrings while you sleep can stretch out and bend the delicate parts of your jewellery. Necklace chains do stretch over time due to general wear and tear but wearing them to sleep in makes this happen in a much shorter time. While you sleep your fingers tend to swell especially in a warmer environment. Wearing a ring that is already a snug fit while you sleep can become uncomfortably tight as you sleep and your body’s natural defenses will cause your finger to swell, become painful and can result in rings having to be cut off! We see this situation more often than you’d realise. Here at Vu we can remove and mend the ring but it’s a lot easier and less stressful just popping it on your night stand each night.
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Showering – Lots of showering products leave behind moisturising oils and residue. If you wear jewellery containing stones, textures, claws or holes the residue builds up causing the metal and stones to tarnish, dull and look dirty. You will need to clean your jewellery more frequently and be more likely to require a professional full clean and polish to bring it back to new. If you have sensitive skin you may find it gets irritated and inflamed from getting the moisture under the ring, make sure your hands are dry before putting your rings back on and try and take them off when getting your hands wet.
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Sports – we’re not saying to take your jewellery every time you do anything remotely active but if you’re into certain sports like mountain biking, tennis, horse riding, or martial arts etc. where your jewellery is likely to come under high strain or get pulled or caught it’s best to remove it. Wearing rings when your hands are working hard can cause the rings to deform over time and will wear out the metal more quickly. Plus you don’t want anything getting crushed and then needing to be removed.
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Baking and cooking – not all types of cooking need you to get your hands dirty but if you’re getting stuck in to kneading dough or squishing burger patties into shape then pop your rings somewhere safe while you do it. You’ll end up with food residue, grease and all sorts where it shouldn’t be.
In general if you’re doing something where you notice your jewellery may get damaged or overly dirty then it’s a good idea to pop it somewhere safe.
Cleaning jewellery
It’s pretty quick and easy to give your jewellery a clean and polish at home. The method is the same for rings, necklaces, earrings and bracelets alike. Get a bowl of warm soapy water (dish soap is fine) and a soft toothbrush and give your ring/pendant/earrings a gentle scrub. We don’t recommend doing this in a sink just in case you knock the plug eeek! Make sure you dry it well using a soft towel and you can even use a hair drier on the low setting. For silver and gold jewellery you can brighten it up with a polishing cloth. If your diamonds and gemstones still need a little more sparkle try cleaning them with a soft toothbrush in some soda water, the bubbles help loosen the trapped dirt and debris from the settings.
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Cleaning pearls
Pearls are very delicate and you'll need to take extra care when giving them a clean. Because pearls have a porous surface they can easily lose their luster and a gentle clean can bring it back. Some rules for cleaning your pearls -
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Don't soak your pearls, this can weaken the string and cause it to break.
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Use a soft makeup brush or soft cloth with a little warm water and shampoo, go over each pearl and then rinse with a clean slightly damp cloth. Lie the strand of pears flat while drying to prevent the string from stretching.
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Do not use an ultra sonic cleaner or any jewellery cleaning products on your pearls.
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If you’ve got some jewellery with some dirt that seems to have settled in for the long haul and it’s just not shifting or if you don't fancy cleaning it yourself then bring it into Vu Jewellers and we can give it a full clean and polish using our professional jewellery cleaning equipment. We’ll have it looking like new. Bringing your jewellery in for a clean also allows our jeweller to check over stone settings to ensure your stones are safe and not about to fall out.