All jewellery needs some care and attention to be kept at its sparkling best. If you're not sure where to start, we're here to help with our top 5 top tips to quickly clean your jewellery to help you learn about how to quickly and easily clean and care for your gold, silver and gemstone jewellery.

If you have more time and to better understand the issues and risks when it comes to clean jewellery, you really should dive into our comprehensive jewellery cleaning & care guide, which will give you all the info you need.

Also if you're not sure of any of the terms we use in this article, take a look at our extensive jewellery glossary with 100+ definitions of key jewellery terms.

 

So let's get started ......

1. CHECK YOUR JEWELLERY

It can be easy to miss that your jewellery needs a clean, either because you wear it all the time and don't notice the changes or because it's put away somewhere and you don't look at it too often. You might be a bit alarmed when you realise just how grimy and dull some of your favourite pieces are.

The good news is that cleaning for most jewellery pieces is pretty easy. Read on to find out how. 

2. GIVE IT A WASH

 This is the simplest cleaning step to do, but pretty much all jewellery should benefit from it. You might find it's all you need to do for many pieces, particularly for solid gold jewellery or fashion jewellery.

Wash your jewellery with warm water and a gentle colourless and fragrance free liquid soap. Castile soap, soap for woollens or even a gentle hand soap with no moisturiser, antiseptic or harsh chemicals should work well.

Use a cloth or soft bristled brush to help get grime out of crevices. Be sure not to leave soft gems such as opals or pearls soaking in water for too long as it may affect them.

Once it's clean make sure you rinse it and dry it quickly and well

3. TRY AN ULTRASONIC CLEANER

If grime and dust isn't removed easily from intricate pieces, then look into getting a cheap ultrasonic cleaner and follow the instructions. It will do a great job of dislodging dirt and debris, even from otherwise impossible to reach places.

Note that an ultrasonic won't remove tarnish, but it will work a treat with complex pieces (exceptions below) which have lots of crevices where dirt can accumulate and stick.

Read on to learn why you shouldn't always use an ultrasonic cleaner ...

4. BUT: DON'T ALWAYS USE AN ULTRASONIC!

If your silver jewellery has blackened or patinated areas as part of the design or features soft gemstones like opals, lapis lazuli, turquoise or pearls then avoid ultrasonic cleaning to be on the safe side.

This process can damage some finishes and soft gemstones, so use it with caution.

5. REMOVE TARNISH WITH A POLISHING CLOTH

 Sterling silver in particular will tarnish over time, but other precious metals can as well, including lower carats of gold. This is a normal process with metal and the tarnish is easy enough to clean off precious metals.

If your precious metal jewellery is tarnished, use a precious metal jewellery cleaning cloth to remove it, such as the professional quality polishing cloths we have available in our online store.

Once you're happy, give the piece a rinse and carefully dry it to remove any chemical residue.