Actually, the title of this page should probably read, "Jewelry Care," period. Honestly, for the most part it doesn't take a complicated owner's manual to keep your jewelry looking good for a lifetime. All it really takes is a bit of common sense. Because this is a site that sells rings, and because rings are the pieces of jewelry that tend to bear the brunt of abuse, we'll be talking specifically about caring for rings but the ideas here readily apply to any and all jewelry that you care about.
With the exception of opals, emeralds and pearls, which require a little extra care and consideration (discussed later in this page), all you really need to do to take care of your rings is to treat them with a little respect:
Everyday Use
Take your rings off if you're going to be doing hard physical labor or if you'll be using chemicals of any kind. Much in the same way you wouldn't put on your good suit or an evening gown to mow the lawn or scrub the tub, don't wear your nice rings when you do these activities either.
This goes for your wedding ring too! For you newlyweds out there: The earth will not open up and swallow you whole if you take off your wedding ring to do chores. Nothing horrible will happen and you aren't condemning your marriage by taking care of your ring the way it deserves, and 'the way it deserves' includes keeping it out of harm's way. If you'd rather use rubber gloves while you deal with household dirt and grime with scouring powder, glass cleaners and such, that's fine too. But if your chores are going to involve intense pressure or jarring - picture pushing a lawn mower, moving furniture or tightly clutching hedge trimmers, for example - take the rings off. Sterling silver becomes misshapen very easily with intense pressure and it's even possible to actually break a gold ring.
Keeping your rings on while you do more routine tasks like washing dishes is just fine. Dishwashing liquid, warm water and an ultrasoft toothbrush, as a matter of fact, is an easy, low cost way of giving your jewelry a routine cleaning. Just bear in mind that wet, soapy hands are an invitation to having your ring slide off your finger without notice. Go ahead and wash those dishes, just be mindful of your rings. Some women get into the habit of taking their rings off automatically prior to washing dishes and that's good too.
Chemicals
Keep all your jewelry away from chemicals. This not only means harsh detergents and ammonia but such mundane grooming supplies as hair spray, makeup and perfumes too. Let your rings and other jewelry be the last thing you put on before you head out the door. Exposure to chemicals runs the risk of discoloring and damaging your jewelry. At the very minimum, you're running the risk of gummy, dull-looking jewelry. At most, you could find yourself with a nice string of dissolving pearls.
Cleaning
We don't recommend ultrasonic cleaning machines and yes, we know many people swear by them. As mentioned before, a routine cleaning with warm water, a soft toothbrush and mild dish soap is sufficient to keep your gemstones sparkling. Rather than rehash the potential risks involved with ultrasonic cleaners, we'll briefly go over the gemstones that absolutely should not, ever, be cleaned ultrasonically.
Natural opals. Ultrasonic cleaning can cause natural, solid opals to crack and break. If your jewelry uses an opal doublet or opal triplet, it can compromise the adhesion between the natural opal material and its base material or transparent top material. Synthetic opals do not have such vulnerability.
Emeralds are highly included gemstones and so are not good candidates for ultrasonic cleaning because nearly all emeralds (both natural and lab-created/synthetic) are 'oiled' - meaning they have been infused with either a natural oil or man-made epoxy or resin to enhance clarity. Emeralds are naturally filled with tiny little fissures and ultrasonic cleaning can both damage the filler used in the fissures and intensify these tiny natural fissures.
Likewise, any gemstone that tends to be heavily included (rubies and tourmaline are among these) should never be placed in an ultrasonic cleaner.
Pave settings, while gorgeous, are more prone to losing stones than other settings because the gemstones in a pave setting are held in by tiny indentations in the setting metal itself along with tiny prongs or beads of metal placed in such a way as to show only the smallest amount of the metal setting - giving the effect of a ring 'paved' with gemstones but also making the gemstones more vulnerable to fall out because pave settings aren't as secure as standard size prong settings.
Pearls and Mother-of-Pearl. Both are very delicate and easily scratched and damaged. Ultrasonic cleaning can cause pearls to crack and can strip away the outer nacre surface.
Storage
Store your gemstone rings in such a manner that they don't bang up against each other. Diamond rates a 10 on the Mohs scale of gemstone hardness and that makes it the 'bully' of gemstones, able to scratch and mar up all the gemstones that rate less than a 10. That includes all other gemstones. And diamond will scratch your Sterling silver and gold, too.
Sapphires and rubies (which are nothing but red-colored sapphires), are a 9 on the Mohs scale and thus are able to beat up on all the topaz varieties and all quartz (including smokey quartz, citrine, amethyst and rose quartz). If you're interested in seeing where your gemstone ring rates on the Mohs scale, we have a more detailed breakdown in our Gemstone Jewelry Lover's Guide to the Mohs Scale.
Store your natural opal jewelry in a tightly closed plastic bag with a damp piece of cotton if you live in a dry climate. Natural opals have a high water content and are brittle and will dry out in a severely dry environment. Natural opals will also crack or shatter if exposed to sudden, drastic temperature changes. Synthetic/lab-created opals have no water content and will do fine in a dry climate without special storage requirements.
As mentioned previously, pearl jewelry is very easily scratched. Ideal storage would be in a soft cloth jewelry bag or separate, soft sided jewel box, entirely separate from your other jewelry.
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Treat your jewelry as though it's loved, valuable to you and costly to replace - and we know it's all three - and you'll have a lovely jewelry wardrobe that will last you a lifetime and one that you will be proud to pass on to a loved one when the time is right.