Silver jewellery needs looking after, and Pandora is no exception. If not properly cared for, silver will tarnish. This post offers you a tutorial on how you can keep your jewellery looking nice and shiny.
Before I start, however, I will warn you: never, ever ever use chemical liquid silver cleaners to clean your Pandora jewellery. These will ruin it. Chemical cleaners are too harsh, and will remove all of the oxidisation that enhance the detail on your charms. It’s a no-go.
Prevention is better than the cure
There are things you can do to slow down the tarnishing process. Tarnishing will happen much more quickly if you let your jewellery come into contact with agents such as perfume, salty air, sulphur, skin creams, hairspray and chlorine. For example, you should never go swimming with your jewellery on. Furthermore, the pH of your own skin can affect how quickly your jewellery tarnishes: if your skin is more acidic, the jewellery will tarnish quicker. Unfortunately, there’s not an awful lot you can do, if that is the case.
Cleaning your Jewellery
1) The Pandora store
Most Pandora stores have a sonic cleaning machine called the tumbler. Pandora stores as a rule will offer a complimentary cleaning service – just take in your bracelet and ask in store.
2) Warm water and dish soap/washing up liquid
This is an easy method to do from home if you want to just give your jewellery a quick clean – and it’s recommended by Pandora themselves. Firstly, get a bowl of warm water and add a couple of drops of mild washing up liquid (or dish soap). Then, once it’s bubbly, pop your jewellery into the bowl. Note: don’t put your pearl, cameo, wood or leather items into the bowl: the water will damage them! Let them sit for a couple of minutes.
Now what you need is a soft-bristled toothbrush. Using the toothbrush, gently scrub your charms until you are satisfied that they’re clean and shiny.
Dry your charms off carefully using a soft towel. Note: Dry them individually, else you’ll scratch them!
Et voila. You are done 🙂
3) Polishing cloth
A polishing cloth is a great method to keep your items looking sparkling. Simply rub the silver parts of your jewellery with the cloth – you should see dark marks on the cloth where the tarnish is rubbing right off the piece.
If you’re in the US, then Pandora have proper polishing cloths available to buy for $5 – lucky you!
However, if you live in other regions, the little polishing cloths that Pandora give out free just won’t do the job. They’re pretty ineffectual. They are much smaller than the US version, and have the little Pandora ‘O’ all over them. You won’t be able to see much tarnish rubbing off on them when you use them.
What you need to do is find a proper silver polishing cloth from elsewhere. If you’re in the UK, then Town Talk do a great silver polishing cloth. It’s available from Amazon for around £2, so it’s very cheap.
Storing Your Jewellery
The first thing to say here is NOT to store your jewellery in the Pandora presentation box that it comes with. These are not anti-tarnish, and keeping the jewellery in the box can actually cause it to tarnish faster! Also, while it may seem obvious, you should not store your jewellery anywhere humid, such as the bathroom. Moisture will increase the speed with which the silver tarnishes.
Instead, you could opt for:
- an anti-tarnish jewellery box or jewellery pouch. Pandora don’t currently offer either of these, so you would have to locate your own.
- a zip-lock bag. These make a perfectly good solution to storing your jewellery, as they are airtight. However, you should store your pieces in their own individual bags, to prevent scratching.
- a regular jewellery box with an anti-tarnish strip or silica gel packet placed inside it.
That concludes the basics of caring for your jewellery. If you follow these basic guidelines, then your jewellery should be looking lovely and shiny for a long time to come.
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