As some of you may know, we offer a free clean and polish service every two years for your wedding and engagement rings. However, many clients ask me how best to look after their rings on a daily basis – so I thought I would share with everyone my trade secrets for cleaning and caring for your precious jewellery.
Firstly, it’s important to remember that although gold and diamonds are pretty tough as materials go, they are still prone to wear and tear. So, you know, if you are rock climbing, building a house, mining, hand to hand fighting – take your rings off! A good rule of thumb to keep your rings looking as beautiful as possible for as long as possible is – they should be the first things you take off in the evening and the last thing you put on in the morning (after perfume, moisturisers etc)
A simple and cheap trick to cleaning your jewellery is to rub a small amount of toothpaste on and clean the ring gently with a toothbrush. Another technique is to get a fine paintbrush, dollop on some dishwashing detergent and clean under warm running water. It’s important to clean behind the gems too to keep them sparkling. Then dry with a hair dryer if it’s handy..
For diamonds, sapphires, rubies and other non porous precious gems, cloudy ammonia will bring back their sparkle. Just get a cup full of warm water and add a cap full of cloudy ammonia. Dip the ring in the cup of water a couple of times and then gently scrub with a toothbrush. Beware not to use cloudy ammonia with porous gems like pearls, topaz, tanzanite, turquoise, simulants etc. Also, beware not to put a green gem in very hot water – they don’t like it!
Unfortunately to get the dents and scratches out you will need to take the ring to a jeweller to have it professionally repolished – luckily for my clients that’s free!