How to clean and care for your jewelry

A lint-free microfiber cloth—the kind you use for cleaning glasses—is a jewelry care staple. Photo: Connie Park

NYTimes.com –
Zoe Vanderweide | October 31, 2022 –

Gold not so glittering? Diamonds looking dim? Lotions, household cleaners, improper storage, and everyday wear and tear can take a toll on your jewelry, leaving metals tarnished and gemstones dull. Luckily, armed with a little know-how, you can keep your baubles looking their best pretty easily. We tested a slew of expert-endorsed jewelry care techniques—along with a few popular DIYs—to discover what really works. Whether you’re looking to preserve a family heirloom or just polish up your everyday favorites, we have tips on how to clean, store, and maintain your jewelry so that it shines for years to come.

Use dish soap and warm water for most metals, gems, and crystals

“Most jewelry, whether it’s a diamond or rose quartz, can be safely cleaned with dish soap and warm water,” said McKenzie Santimer, museum manager and designer at the Gemological Institute of America.

Use a soft-bristle toothbrush to gently scrub all the nooks and crannies around your gems. Photo: Connie Park

Santimer recommends mixing one drop of Dawn dish soap with warm water in a bowl then allowing your jewelry to sit in the mixture for several minutes to cut through oils and grime. For solid gold jewelry and hard gemstones, follow up with a gentle scrub using a soft-bristle toothbrush. If you’re cleaning a stone in a pronged setting, make sure to scrub the gem from each side, working the flexible bristles into all the nooks and crannies, where sunscreen, lotion, and other enemies of sparkle tend to collect. Rinse, then dry with a microfiber cloth.

Treat plated and vermeil jewelry with extra TLC 

For gold plated and gold vermeil jewelry, swap out the toothbrush for a nonabrasive cellulose sponge (or skip the scrubbing altogether). Too much abrasion can cause plating to erode, revealing discoloration to the base metal. “With gold plated jewelry, whatever base metal is underneath may really not like water,” said Leigh Plessner, chief creative officer for the Brooklyn-based jewelry brand Catbird. In vermeil, the base metal is sterling silver, so though it isn’t too sensitive to water, you need to watch out for scratching the soft metal.

A nonabrasive cellulose sponge doesn’t scratch or erode plated and vermeil jewelry. Photo: Connie Park

If you’re wondering how to tell the difference between plated, vermeil, and solid gold, price is your first clue: Solid gold is much pricier than vermeil, which is more expensive than gold-plated jewelry. Solid gold is also stamped with its karat—such as 14 kt or 18 kt—while vermeil is stamped 925 for sterling silver.

Tackle tarnish on your silver and brass

If your silver or brass jewelry is heavily tarnished, dish soap and water may not be enough to restore its shine. Luckily, “even if your silver is totally black, it’s pretty easy to un-blacken it,” said Rony Vardi, Catbird’s founder. You can polish sterling silver and brass jewelry using specially formulated polishing cloths to gently buff away tarnish. These multiuse cloths are highly rated, though we haven’t tried them. 

What about ketchup and toothpaste? 

If the collective wisdom of the internet is to be believed, you already have effective tarnish-busters in your pantry and medicine cabinet. Ketchup is an oft-cited remedy: It’s nonabrasive, and its mild acidity reacts with oxidized surfaces to dissolve tarnish. While some experts warn against this technique, we were curious enough to try it anyway —on some of our less-precious pieces.  We were amazed by how effectively it took the tarnish out of a brass necklace. To use this method, submerge your jewelry in a small bowl of ketchup, then let it sit for 15 minutes to an hour. Wash the ketchup off in a mixture of warm water and dish soap, then rinse and buff dry with a microfiber cloth.

Toothpaste is an effective tarnish-buster, but it’s abrasive, so proceed with caution. Photo: Connie Park

We also tried toothpaste and found it equally effective. But beware: It works because it’s abrasive, so you risk scratching your silver if you’re not careful. Nevertheless, it’s an easy, readily accessible method that gets quick results—“everybody does it,” acknowledged Vardi—so you might as well do it right. Choose a low-abrasion, solid-color toothpaste with no extra whitening or tartar-control agents. Rinse your jewelry in water, then spread a thin layer of toothpaste over its surface, gently rubbing it in with a cellulose sponge or microfiber cloth. Let it sit for a few minutes, then thoroughly rinse away the toothpaste and polish with a clean cloth.

Buff pearls with a soft, damp cloth—and steer clear of chemicals 

Take care when cleaning your pearls; these temperamental beauties are porous and vulnerable to peeling and chipping. “They should only be cleaned with a microfiber cloth and a little bit of water,” Santimer told us. Never use chemical cleaners—chlorine, ammonia, hydrogen peroxide, and acetic acid (the acid in vinegar … and ketchup) are particularly damaging—and don’t submerge your pearls in water, as this can deteriorate the silk thread on which they are strung.

Never submerge or scrub your pearls. A damp microfiber cloth can remove dirt and oils. Photo: Connie Park

An ounce of caution is also wise when handling pearls because of their sensitivity to chemicals in perfumes and cosmetics. All of our experts cited the maxim, “last on, first off”: Pearls should be the last item you put on before going out and the first you take off before getting ready for bed at night.