Earrings have a way of losing their shine over the years. It happens. Debris, grime, and time gradually wear down any bauble. For earrings, fortunately, there are ways to remove the collection of grease, dirt, sweat, and skincare products that build up on them.
Diamond Earrings
If you want to clean earrings at home and they’re diamonds, use mild dish soap. Here is a quick three-step plan to help you restore your diamond earrings so that they sparkle just like they once did.
- Fill a bowl with some dish soap and water. Mix it together. Put in your diamond earrings and let them soak for roughly thirty minutes.
- Remove the earrings after a half-hour and brush them with a soft-bristle toothbrush. Be gentle.
- When done, rinse them with water. Let them air-dry.
Coincidentally, this is the same approach to take for gold earrings. The major difference in cleaning gold earrings is that you want to gently dry them with a lint-free cloth afterward as opposed to air-drying.
If the grime, oils, and dirt aren’t quite coming off your gold earrings, try soaking them in rubbing alcohol for a few minutes. Be careful, however, if there are stone pieces on your gold. Rubbing alcohol can melt the adhesive.
Silver Earrings
Silver is prone to oxidation and discoloring over time. To clean your favourite silver earrings, you will need some baking soda, a soft brush, boiling water, and tinfoil. Do not use this method on gemstones like pearls, opals, or amber as it could damage them. Here are the steps to take.
- Line a glass dish with tinfoil.
- Coat your silver earrings with a generous amount of baking soda.
- Put water in a pot and bring it to a boil.
- When the water is boiling, turn off the burner. Pour the boiling water over the jewelry. Ideally, use just enough to create a paste. No more.
- Take a soft-bristle brush and gently scrub the jewelry. This will loosen the oxides and debris.
- Repeat the baking-soda-to-boiling-water-and-scrub step until your silver jewelry looks like new.
- Lastly, rinse them with hot water and dry them with a cotton cloth.
Pearl Earrings
Pearl earrings make for some stunning jewelry pieces but they are very fragile.
To clean pearl jewelry at home, use a damp soft cotton cloth to wipe them. There’s not much else you really want to do as so much can damage pearls.
You may notice there are ultrasonic cleaners and jewelry cleaners that often have a lot of chemicals in them. Though they may work well with gold and silver jewelry, those aren’t for pearl earrings.
How To Maintain Earrings After Every Use
There are a lot of ways to maintain earrings use to use. When you aren’t wearing them, keep earrings in an airtight bag. This will prevent air from oxidizing the metal which protects against discoloration.
Jewelry polishing cloths can also be used on silver, gold, and platinum earrings to quickly get rid of any debris. They work relatively well but never use them on plated jewelry as this will damage them.
Do not go swimming with earrings on, do not go working out with them, and don’t wear them while working with cleaning chemicals. These are activities that can disintegrate the alloy, adversely affect the metal, and cause discoloration.
Remember, even the most luxury earrings can still get dirty. Before putting them on, take an alcohol swab to the post and/or hook. This will help remove some of the buildup and prevent pierced ears from getting infected.
