Jewellery cleaning

When cleaning jewellery at home, the simplest method with the least amount of ingredients is always the safest. However, there are more specific ways you can clean your jewellery, depending on its qualities. Since gold jewellery is so popular, let’s review how to clean gold jewellery in between visits to your jeweller.

Properties of Gold Jewellery

Pure gold is always 24 carat gold. If your piece is less than 24 carats, this indicates it’s mixed with other metals – called alloys – to increase its hardness and durability. This is not necessarily a bad thing. The more active your lifestyle, the less pure gold you’ll want in your jewellery. Gold is a soft metal and is prone to scratching, so mixing it with 10 or more parts alloy will increase its longevity.

How to Clean Gold Jewellery

A jewellery cleaning solution specifically created for gold is a safe and effective way to keep your gold in tip-top shape. Just make sure it indicates gold as an intended use!

Without any commercial products, you can clean your gold jewellery at home following these simple steps:

  1. Mix a bit of dish washing detergent in warm, not hot, water.
  2. Add a few drops of ammonia.
  3. Carefully brush with a new, baby-size soft toothbrush.
  4. Place in lukewarm water to rinse.
  5. Air dry or carefully towel-dry with paper towel or regular cloth.

Remember: gold is a soft metal. Be gentle during the brushing and drying processes.

Hazards to Avoid When Cleaning Gold Jewellery

Because of gold jewellery’s high chance of tarnish*, there are a couple specific substances to avoid:

Soaps – Steer clear of any soap with unknown ingredients. Remove your gold jewellery before showering or washing your hands to avoid accumulating a film from other body washes.

Chlorine – Chlorine, especially at high temperatures like in a hot tub, can permanently damage or discolour your gold jewellery. Remember to remove it when cleaning with chlorine bleach, too!

*While pure gold does not tarnish, almost all gold jewellery is an alloy, as mentioned above. Depending on the percentage of other metals mixed with the gold, there is chance for tarnish. Better safe than sorry!

Gold Jewellery with Coloured Gemstones

Due to the characteristics of many coloured gemstones, we advise checking with us or your own jeweller about the safest at-home cleaning method for any pieces with stones other than pure diamonds. Many natural gemstones are treated or enhanced after extraction, impacting how you should clean your jewellery.

Visiting Your Jeweller

While the method described above is the best way to clean your gold jewellery at home, there’s no substitute for visiting your jeweller for a professional cleaning.

Your jeweller will know the proper procedures depending on the specific type of gemstone and metal, as well as check your item over for any damage. We always recommend a semi-annual clean.

Cleaning with us at Artisan jewellery

What we do to clean a Diamond

Diamonds will always shine, even with a bit of dirt on them, but they will look even more brilliant when professionally cleaned. We use ultrasonic cleaners with high frequency sound waves and chemicals, which create bubbles that latch on to the dirt on the diamond. The high frequency sound waves pull the dirt away from the stone and bring them up to the surface. When the whole piece of jewellery is being cleaned at once, the jeweller usually puts it under a strong blast of steam in order to wash off the dirt and grime and bring back the jewellery’s shine.


Metal Cleaning

Cleaning gold or platinum is a lot simpler than cleaning a diamond and can even be done at home. For optimal results, it is suggested that a piece of jewellery, regardless of its metal type, be professionally cleaned, preferably at least once a year. If it is a white gold piece, you might find after some time that the gold is not as shiny, or it looks a little less white and a little more yellow. This is because white gold is a combination of metals (including yellow gold) and is covered with a coating of rhodium. In order to keep it looking as shiny and as flawless as can be, have it professionally coated and polished when it starts to lose its lustre.

With all out cleaning jobs we also do a complete inspection to make sure everything is secure.
If any fault are found we will advise you of the required repairs or options.