Jewelry care and storage tips

The best way to care for your jewelry is not to dirty it in the first place. To help to keep your jewelry clean and to protect your jewlery from unnecessary scratches and chipped or cracked gemstones.

It is best not to wear diamond, gemstone, platinum, gold and silver jewelry when:

	Bathing, showering or washing your hands - the soap will cause a film to form over the jewelry.
	Swimming and doing domestic chores e.g. washing dishes, laundry, cleaning - the chlorine present in the pool water and in the household chemicals can damage and discolor the mounting. It may also bleach the colored oils used to "seal" certain gemstones.
	Gardening or working with hand tools - even a diamond will crack if it receives a blow from a hard object.
	Applying make up, deodorant, hair spray - these damage pearls very easily.
	Baking and cooking - apart from the oils present in cooking, the intense heat from contact with a hot plate may cause a stone to discolor.
	When sunbathing - A very few colored gemstones, such as kunzite, may fade when worn in sunlight or in a tanning booth.
	Anything that will cause a layer of dust, oil, grease or chemical to be deposited on the jewelry piece.

But...

No matter how careful you are, jewelry worn on the body will become dull and dirty. Over a period of time the jewelry pieces will become covered in a layer of natural body oils and dead skin cells mixed with bits of worn metal. Rings in particular tend to collect dirt behind the stone.

How you clean your diamond, gemstone, platinum, gold and silver jewlery will depend on the metal and gemstones used to make the piece.

By far the safest way to clean your jewelry is to take it to your local jeweler and get them to do it, but if you want to clean your own jewelry here are a few tips:

	Diamonds, rubies and sapphires, and other single-crystal gems can be cleaned by simply soaking them in water with a touch of soap and then scrub them using a soft toothbrush (a touch of ammonia in water will help to remove the oily and greasy films). Then transfer them to a wire tea strainer and rinse them under running water. Pat dry with a soft lint less cloth.
	Never use soap or ammonia for cleaning such opaque gemstones like lapis, malachite, turquoise, onyx, amber, coral, emerald, jade, kunzite, lapis lazuli, opal or pearl. They should just be wiped clean gently with a moist chamois or flannel cloth. These gemstones can be porous and may absorb chemicals, even soap, which could build up inside the stone and discolor it.
	Opals also require special care. Never use ammonia or soap, and avoid heat and strong light which can dry out the water in opals.
	Organic gems like pearls, coral, and amber should be wiped with a soft moist chamois or flannel cloth after each wearing to remove your skin's oils and salts. Due to their organic nature, these gems are both soft and porous.
	Don't rub precious metals with anything other than a fine piece of felt or polishing cloth. Precious metals can be scratched by the use of towels or tissue because of small pieces of dust and grit which become trapped between the cloth or tissue fibers. Prolonged cleaning with towels or tissue will cause undue wear.
	Don't use ultrasonic cleaners for jewelry containing gemstones because the intense vibrations could loosen the stones in their mountings or at worst, crack the gemstone along the line that the inclusions (present in all gemstones) lie.
	Never use ultrasonic cleaners for different metals at the same time, silver can tarnish gold if cleaned together.
	Only use a polishing cloth for rubies (red), diamonds (white) and sapphires (blue). Some gemstones can have their facets/angles damaged or rubbed out by hard polishing. Any polishing of tanzanite, for example, can rub out or dull its brilliance.
	Store each piece of gemstone jewelry separately so that harder stones don't scratch softer ones. Almost every gemstone is much harder than the metal it is set in. Diamonds and gemstones can scratch the finish on your platinum, gold or silver if you just throw your jewelry together in a heap.
	Ideally diamond, gemstone, platinum, gold and silver jewelry pieces should be stored separately in the individual compartments of a fabric-lined jewel case or a box.