How to clean jewellery at home, and what actually damages it
A pearl is not a stone. It is calcium carbonate, laid down in layers by a living animal, which is why Professional Jeweller's guidance on pearl care, published 10 July 2020 and written by Sam Lewis, is blunt about it: never submerge a pearl necklace in water, and never put pearls in an ultrasonic cleaner. The machine a jeweller runs a gold chain through will take the surface off a pearl, and it does not come back.
That is what most people get wrong about jewellery care. There is no single method, only what each material will tolerate.
I have made jewellery by hand in London for 22 years, from a stall on Portobello Road to the counters at Liberty, Selfridges, Harvey Nichols and Harrods. A good part of that has been spent at the bench with pieces that came back, which is a useful education in what wears jewellery out.
What actually damages jewellery
Almost none of it is wear. It is these 6 things, all avoidable.
- Perfume, hairspray and suncream. Oils and alcohol settle on plating and dull it, and suncream is designed to stay put. Jewellery on last, jewellery off first.
- Chlorine and salt water. Both attack the alloys sitting alongside the silver and gold. Take it off before the pool, not after.
- Sleeping in a fine chain. It does not break that night. It kinks, and the kink is where it breaks 8 months later.
- Household cleaners. Bleach is the worst thing sterling silver will meet. Washing up with a ring on is a slower version of it.
- The wrong cleaner for the material. An ultrasonic bath is fine for solid gold and diamonds, wrong for pearls, opals and emeralds, which are porous or naturally fractured.
- Storage. Chains loose in a dish tangle, and untangling scratches both. Small pouches solve it.
How to clean jewellery at home, properly
Warm water, 1 drop of washing up liquid, a soft baby toothbrush. Work gently round the settings and the back of the piece, rinse, pat dry, then leave it to air fully before putting it away. Damp put away in a pouch is how a piece goes dull.
Sterling silver that has gone grey wants a polishing cloth rather than a liquid dip. Dips strip the darkening out of engraving and oxidised detail, often the part you liked.
Gold vermeil is where good intentions do real damage. Vermeil is 18kt gold over sterling silver, so when you polish it hard you are polishing the gold off. Wipe it. Do not scrub it.
The piece that tests all of this
It is the one you never take off. The Sun hoop charm huggie earrings are £85 in either 0.925 sterling silver or 18kt gold plated sterling silver, handmade to order here in London. Huggies sit tight to the lobe, which is exactly why people shower in them, sleep in them and forget they have them on.
I notice it when a pair comes back. The front is bright and the back, the part against the skin, is dull. That is not wear. That is a year of shampoo and body lotion in the one place a cloth never reaches.
For something lighter to start with, the hoop earrings with star charm are £40 in sterling silver or gold vermeil. At the other end, the Lotus Earrings are £175 in sterling silver, £195 in gold vermeil and £925 in 14kt solid gold, 4cm across, and worth a pouch of their own.
Chains want their own thought. The Gemstone Charm Necklace is £45 in sterling silver or gold vermeil on a box chain, which is more forgiving than a fine cable chain. If you are not sure what length you keep reaching for, the chain guide has the measurements.
The material that asks almost nothing of you is solid gold. It does not tarnish, it does not wear through to another metal, and it can be repaired over and over. For a piece meant to be worn daily for decades, the 9kt solid gold collection is where to look.
The pieces that are past cleaning
There is a second category, and almost everybody has one. Not dirty. Past cleaning. The inherited ring worn thin at the back, the chain that snapped and went into a drawer, the single earring whose pair is gone, the Victorian brooch nobody wears.
That is what Second Life Jewellery is for. I lift the stones out and remake the piece by hand in the London studio. The stones stay, the gold stays, the shape changes. Send a photo and the estimate is free, with no obligation. A cracked Art Deco setting, a pair of odd earrings, 3 unworn pieces that could be 1 you would wear tomorrow.
If a piece really is finished, with no stone worth resetting, the gold in it still has value. Recycling your jewellery covers what happens then.
A clean is 10 minutes at the kitchen sink. The piece you have stopped wearing needs a different answer, and usually a better one. The second life is the real one.
Everything handmade in the workshop is in the earrings collection, and if something is sitting in a drawer you would like looked at, send me a photo through Second Life Jewellery or email anna@annalouoflondon.com and I will tell you honestly what can be done with it. Anna Lou x
Questions I get asked
How do I clean silver jewellery at home?
Warm water, 1 drop of washing up liquid and a soft baby toothbrush, then rinse, pat dry and leave it to air before putting it away. For sterling silver that has darkened, use a silver polishing cloth rather than a liquid dip, because a dip lifts the darkening out of engraving too. Use neither on gold vermeil pieces: wipe those with a soft cloth, or you will polish the gold layer away.
Can I wear my jewellery in the shower or swimming?
The shower will not ruin a piece, but soap and shampoo build up behind settings and on the backs of earrings, which is what makes jewellery look dull long before it is worn. Swimming is the real problem, because chlorine and salt water both attack the alloys in silver and plated pieces. If you want something you can genuinely forget about, solid gold copes with all of it.
What can I do with an inherited piece that is broken or that I never wear?
More than most people think. Stones can be lifted out of a worn or broken setting and reset into something you would actually put on, and several unworn pieces can become 1. That is the Second Life Jewellery service, and the estimate is free from a photograph, so it costs nothing to find out. If a ring is the answer and you do not know the size, the ring size guide is here.