How to keep it looking like the day you got it
Lab-grown diamonds are as hard as mined ones — nothing here is fragile. What dulls fine jewelry is film: hand cream, sunscreen, hair serum and skin oil settling behind the stone where light enters. Five minutes a week fixes that. The rest of this page is what changes by category.
The weekly five minutes
One bowl, warm water, one drop of plain dish soap. This is the only cleaning method that is safe for every piece we sell.
Body temperature is enough. Heat loosens the glue in set stones and shocks emerald and opal.
Let the soap lift the film so you barely have to scrub. Pearls, opal and turquoise skip the soak entirely.
A baby-soft toothbrush, angled at the back of the setting. Light enters through the bottom of a stone — that is the surface that matters.
Never over an open drain. Pat with a lint-free cloth, then air-dry ten minutes before it goes back in the box.
Rings
Solitaires · halos · eternity bandsThe piece you never take off, which means it takes every knock your hands do. Rings almost never fail at the stone — they fail at a prong that has been bent slightly and nobody noticed.
- Weekly soap soak, brushing the underside of the setting
- Run a fingernail over each prong tip — a catch means a loose prong
- Slide it off before hand cream, then put it back on
- Weights and pull-up bars — a bar bends a band out of round
- Pools and hot tubs; chlorine attacks the alloys in gold, not the diamond
- Gardening, dough, cleaning sprays, spray tan
Earrings
Hoops · drops · huggiesEarrings live in the splash zone of everything you put on your hair. The metal survives it; the hinge does not.
- Last on, first off: after hair and makeup, before undressing
- Wipe post and hinge with a dry lint-free cloth after each wear
- Clean hinges with a damp cotton bud rather than a full soak
- Store the pair flat, in two separate pouches
- A hinge that opens under its own weight — re-tension it
- Drops catching on knitwear and scarf fringe
- Hairspray dried inside a huggie hinge
Studs
0.25ct – 2ct pairsStuds are lost, not broken. A butterfly back is a wear part — treat backs as consumable and you will never lose a stud.
- Weekly: hold the stone, give the back a gentle twist — it should resist
- Replace butterfly backs once a year
- Over 1ct: switch to screw-backs or locking backs
- Clean behind the basket, where oil hides
- Sleep in them — a pillow bends the post and thins the shaft
- Squeeze a loose butterfly with pliers to fix it
- Change them over an open sink
Pendants
Bezels · journeys · lariatsLook after the chain, not the pendant. Every pendant hangs on one jump ring and one bail, and those two tiny surfaces rub together thousands of times a day.
- Perfume first, jewelry second — never spray onto the chain
- Hang it or lay it flat in a long pouch
- Check the bail and jump ring twice a year for flat spots
- Layering? Vary lengths by at least 5cm
- Sleep in a fine chain — this is how most breaks happen
- Shower in it; wet chain under a collar abrades
- Pull a knot tight to undo it
Bracelets
Tennis · bangles · chainsThe highest-impact piece you own. Tennis bracelets rarely lose a stone because a setting was bad — they lose one because a link stretched.
- Always close the safety catch, even for five minutes
- Wipe the skin side after wearing
- Fasten it before handling bags and coats
- Lay it flat, not coiled
- It drapes looser than it used to — links have stretched
- A faint rattle when you shake it gently
- A bangle gone slightly oval wears thin at two points
What it's made of changes the rules
Find your metal and your stone. If either one says “no ultrasonic”, that overrides everything else on this page.
Six things that cause real damage
Almost every piece that arrives at our bench damaged met one of these six. None of them are accidents — they are all well-meant shortcuts.
Both are abrasives. They leave a haze of micro-scratches on gold that only a re-polish removes.
They eat the alloy metals inside gold. A pool habit ends in a band that cracks years early.
Fine for a bare diamond. It will shatter an emerald's oil fill and lift pavé that is already loose.
Dips strip coatings. One use on rhodium-plated white gold and the plating is gone for good.
Wood fibre is harder than a polished finish. Lint-free cotton or microfibre, nothing else.
Diamonds scratch gold, and gold scratches silver. Separate pouches or compartments, always.
Cotton pouch or a lined compartment, out of direct sun, away from a bathroom's humidity. A silica sachet does more for silver than any polish.
Thread chains through a drinking straw to stop knots. Photograph each piece before you go — it makes any claim trivial.
Your IGI or SGL report is the document an insurer wants. Store it away from the jewelry itself.