Cleaning gold-plated jewelry
Techniques for cleaning your gold-plated jewelry
The brilliance and elegance of gold-plated jewelry is essential to complete your style. Because there are different qualities of gold-plated jewelry, here are a few tips to help you find your way around and find out if the jewelry you are buying is designed to last. After reading these few lines, you'll know how to clean gold-plated jewelry and how to choose it. Let yourself be seduced by the timeless beauty of gold plating with Nerina Bijoux.
Safety precautions
Before you start cleaning your gold-plated jewelry, there are a few things you need to remember to keep it looking its best over time:
- Avoid all chemical and corrosive products. They can have the opposite effect to what you want.
- Put away any scouring tools, such as abrasive sponges, or you risk damaging your jewelry by leaving scratches.
- Choose a time when you have time to handle and care for your jewelry to prolong its life.
Gold-plated cleaning
The question is: how do you clean gold-plated jewelry? Although gold-plated jewelry is much cheaper than its solid gold counterpart, it is still a fine piece of jewelry of much higher quality than fine gold-plated jewelry, for example. The care that goes with it is therefore just as important. Finally, caring for your gold-plated jewelry is like using the same techniques as for cleaning gold jewelry.
Gentle soap
If your jewelry is tarnished or blackened, fill a small container with warm water and a little Marseille soap and leave it to soak for an hour. Then rinse with clean water and wipe gently with a soft cloth.
Lemon
If your jewelry has a stubborn stain, use a cotton bud soaked in slightly diluted lemon juice and rub gently over the stain. Immediately after removing the stain, rinse your jewelry with a soft cloth soaked in clean water.
Warm water
To clean your gold-plated jewelry occasionally, use a little warm water. Using a soft sponge (scratching would be fatal), gently rub the jewelry under a stream of warm water, then place it on a clean cloth. To dry, a light piece of cotton muslin is all you need.
Bicarbonate of soda
Call on a natural ally: bicarbonate of soda. In a bowl, mix a small amount with warm water to form a light paste. Gently apply this paste to your jewelry using your fingers or a soft bristle brush. Scrub and rinse your jewelry thoroughly with warm water to remove the bicarbonate paste. Finally, dry them gently with a clean, soft cloth.
The chamois
For those who don't have time to wait for their jewelry to dry, a chamois cloth is the simplest and most effective way to clean it. All you have to do is rub them lightly and you're done.
Gold-plated jewelry
Manufacture of different types of gold plating
The term 'gold-plated' does not apply to all jewelry featuring this most precious of metals. On some creations, the layer of gold can be so thin that the gold quickly separates from the main structure of the jewel. This is why gold-plated jewelry of jewelry quality has a hollow hallmark to distinguish its quality. If you don't see this hallmark on your gold-plated jewelry, it's a bad sign for quality.
Pure/solid gold is called 24-carat gold and is a bright yellow color. In jewelry, we often use 18-carat (or 725/1000th) gold, which is less bright yellow and more attractive to wear. It is also more resistant to wear because pure gold is very flexible.
Beware of jewelry made of brass, gold-plated or other cheap jewelry that is not real gold-plated jewelry. This type of jewelry is likely to oxidise very quickly over time.
1 and 2 micron gold plating offers a basic first quality, but can deteriorate over time from the very first wear. Given that one micron is equivalent to one thousandth of a millimetre, you can imagine that jewelry with a gold thickness of one micron (or even less) is extremely sensitive to the wearer's slightest movements. Opt instead for 3-micron gold-plated jewelry, which has a minimum lifespan of 10 years if used correctly and with a little maintenance.
Gold-plated jewelry from Nerina Bijoux
Nerina Bijoux's gold-plated jewelry comes from French manufacturers committed to designing jewelry of the highest quality. They are 18-carat quality and 3 to 5 microns thick, depending on the model - the best possible quality in gold-plated jewelry. Our secret to pure gold brilliance? The thin layer of 24-carat fine gold applied as a finish. This touch of excellence requires careful maintenance to ensure that it shines for years to come.
These little rituals can be repeated once a month or once a year. It all depends on how often you choose to wear your jewelry. However, it's the way you look after it that will undoubtedly be more decisive than the washing itself. Remember that gold needs to be pampered, so it will prefer to wait for you in a dry little box when you're showering or swimming in the pool or sea. The same goes for sports or activities where there is a risk of impact.
Jewelry can blacken if it is not cared for, and your jewelry is subject to a number of risk factors for its brilliance. Acidity is its number one enemy. It is transmitted by sweat or by certain cosmetic products (cream, perfume, etc.) or cleaning products that you may have to handle without removing your gold-plated jewelry.
You'll see that you'll adopt these preventive measures and the right reflexes for cleaning your precious gold-plated jewelry in no time at all. They'll become automatic habits that will ensure your jewelry lasts for at least a decade.
