Many women have all sorts of jewelry in their collection, unfortunately, most of them have no idea how to care for them. Below are simple tips or a guide on how to maintain your jewelry.

Pearls

• never place pearls with jewelry which have metal, even if the metals are precious

• do not leave in water when storing, only store pearls in cool and dry areas

• when cleaning, just wipe the pearls with moistened cloth to remove dust, do not use any cleansers

• store the pearls in a container which is lined with soft and non-abrasive cloth to avoid scratches

Diamonds

• When cleaning diamonds, make sure that you only use soapy water. You can use hand soap or glycerine based soap. Soak in warm soapy solution to loosen the dirt and then gently brush with soft bristle brush. Rinse thoroughly with cool, clear water until all soap residues are removed. Repeat process if there is still some dirt remaining. Polish off with soft cloth.

Gold

• Many people make the mistake of having their gold ‘dipped’ so that the precious metal would look like new. Never do this. Bring to a jewelry shop and ask them to super clean it instead and they will do it, for a price, but the metal will come out looking new without destroying the original metal. Dipping usually involves using low quality gold and most probably it would not even be the same color. For home maintenance, follow the same directions as when cleaning diamonds. No toothpaste, no harsh abrasives, and definitely do not use metal polish.

Don’ts in the care of jewelry:

• Never swim with jewelry on. If swimming in a pool, the chlorinated water can damage the precious metal, most especially gold.

• Never spray on perfume or cologne over any form of jewelry for the chemicals in the fragrances can damage any kind of jewelry, especially gold and pearls.

• Never make the mistake of using toothpaste when cleaning jewelry. The fluoride and the chemicals in the toothpaste can eat into the metal and pearls.

When it comes to jewelry, it is important to remember that these should be maintained with utmost care and the precious metals, pearls and gemstones can get damaged by synthetic chemicals. So only use the most natural products which are non-acidic. But the best way is to just keep it constantly clean and to wipe them with soft cloth for polishing, and nothing else.