Care & Cleaning

Sterling Silver

Sterling silver tarnishes. There is no avoiding it entirely. Keeping your silver clean is much easier than trying to clean it after it has darkened. Here are some tips:

If it's a piece you don't wear all the time, keep it in the little ziploc it came in and store it in a dark place. This will help minimize the oxidization (tarnish)

If you do wear it all the time, you will need to periodically clean it. This can be done by purchasing a little pot of silver jewelry cleaner from your local drug or department jewelry counter, or by purchasing a cleaning cloth. Grocery stores also carry a product called "Silvo" that works well. There are also numerous articles on the internet with home cleaning methods that may be worth checking out.

What is gold fill? 

Gold-filled jewelry is jewelry composed of a solid layer of gold (typically constituting at least 5% of the item's total weight) mechanically bonded to a base of either sterling silver or some base metal. It does not flake or chip, and wears and lasts like gold.

Gold

Pure gold is 24 karat and generally isn’t used on its own to make jewelry because it is much too soft. Gold is mixed with other metals to form an alloy of metals. The higher the karat, the more gold it contains.

14 karat gold and 18 karat gold are good choices for jewelry

Does gold tarnish?  

Tarnish shows up as a slight discoloration on the surface of the gold. Tarnish is the result of the mixture of moisture with oxygen and sulphur compounds. Your own personal body chemistry plays a big part in whether your gold nose jewelry will tarnish. Just being in the warm, moist environment of your nose makes it more likely that it will get a small amount of tarnish and need to be cleaned from time to time.

The chemical makeup of your body, as well as what your jewelry is exposed to (chemicals, chlorine, hairsprays, etc) will determine the rate of tarnish (if it occurs at all), and how often cleaning needs to be done.

To clean your gold jewelry, most often a soak in mild dish soap and warm water, a soft cloth, and a clean rinse and dry will keep it nice. If that’s unsuccessful, you can purchase a gold jewelry dip cleaner from most department stores, jewelry counters, or online retailers.