The Top 5 Ways You’re Ruining Your Jewelry

You’ve noticed your jewelry looks dull and dirty, now what? If you’re like me, you’ll google how to fix it only to realize your jewelry is tarnished and probably needs a good cleaning. There are many ways to accomplish getting your jewelry back to its original shiny and sparkling state but let’s talk about what’s gotten you there in the first place. Here are 5 jewelry mistakes to avoid:
 

1. Wearing your jewelry while showering. 

Ever forget to take your rings off before hopping in the shower? Moisture speeds up tarnishing even on gold pieces! By removing your jewelry before you shower, you’ll avoid speeding up the oxidation process which looks different for different types of metal. Tarnished silver becomes dark and dirty while gold becomes dull and depending on the karats can also turn darker over time. By taking off your jewelry before you shower you can avoid accelerating this.

2. Putting your jewelry on before you’re finished getting ready. 

Like moisture, lotions, perfumes, and hair sprays all contribute to oxidation and corrosion. By putting your jewelry on after you’ve completed your routine, you can avoid speeding these up. 

3. Not maintaining your jewelry regularly, including a regular cleaning. 

Like a car, jewelry needs regular maintenance to be at its optimal state. Chemicals cause corrosion and wear and tear also contribute to metals becoming worn. By having your jewelry regularly maintained, you can avoid losing gemstones, pieces becoming dull and grungy looking, and surface scratches and dings. 

4. Wearing your jewelry when you’re doing dishes. 

Wearing jewelry while doing the dishes can be a two-fold problem. Chemicals in cleaners cause corrosion in metals while moisture can accelerate oxidation. While noble metals, aka pure gold and silver, are resistant to corrosion, they’re also too soft in their pure form to be turned into jewelry. Gold is mixed with various alloys to give it strength while silver is typically mixed with copper. Chemicals can corrode these other types of metals, which essentially means they will deteriorate over time.

5. Storing your jewelry in a box or organizer. 

Most of us keep our jewelry grouped together and oftentimes this means some type of jewelry box or organizer. This definitely isn’t an ideal way to store jewelry for two reasons. By storing jewelry together in a way that they’re mixing, gemstones and metals can scratch and damage one another. The other reason is oxidation. Sulfur in the air causes tarnishing over time so removing jewelry’s exposure to oxygen can help avoid this. 

How many of these do you find yourself doing? To keep jewelry in its best state at home, use a polishing cloth which can help remove tarnish and help buff out surface scratches. By eliminating these mistakes, you’ll extend your jewelry’s life as well as its shine.