How to keep your gold plated jewellery happy
All LOTTE jewellery is treated with an anti-tarnish coating to help protect against tarnishing, yet it is still important for you to follow my care instructions. Your jewellery can tarnish over time when exposed to the open air but you can help maintain your jewellery by following these useful tips:
I recommend that customers remove jewellery before going to bed or participating in physical activity. Exposure to certain harsh chemicals or environments will result in compromising the integrity of your jewellery. This includes, but is not limited to the following: perspiration, perfumes, cleaning agents, chlorine, salt water, and silver polish.
Gold-plated jewelry has a thin layer of gold over sterling silver, so when that layer wears down, the base metal is revealed. Below you can find a few suggestions to extend the life of your gold plating.
- Keep gold-plated jewelry away from hard surfaces. Bumps and scratches will cause the gold layer to wear away faster.
- Wash your hands before putting on or taking off plated jewelry.
- Put on gold plated earrings after you’ve applied your perfume.
- Put on your plated jewelry after you have applied lotion or put on makeup.
- Don’t swim wearing your plated jewelry.
- Don’t wear your plated jewelry when you’ll be sweating profusely. Covered later.
Cleaning your jewellery
Pour a small amount of mild soap into lukewarm water and use a small, soft toothbrush to clean your jewellery. Toothbrushes are ideal for cleaning jewellery with intricate details, which can otherwise be difficult to clean. If the dirt is hard to remove, soak the jewelry in clean water. IMPORTANT: Gold plated jewelry requires more care. Using your toothbrush very intensely may cause the gold plating to fade away, therefore it is very important that you do this process very carefully to avoid the gold plating from wearing away.
If your sterling silver jewellery has become dull, a silver-polishing cloth is a great tool to make it shine again. However, it will not remove scratches.
How to store your jewellery
Jewellery should be stored away from direct sunlight and heat, in a protective (lined) jewellery box or a tarnish-resistant pouch. Do not store your jewelry in the bathroom or any other humid places.
Please note that our LOTTE boxes are not made for long-term storage as they are not airtight and tarnishing will occur over time.
***Important note
Gold plated pieces are, by default, more fragile and liable to lose their colour over time. The speed at which the gold plating fades will depend on multiple variables from chemical products used for skincare, level of perspiration or even your natural skin PH. For this reason, it is particularly important to take special care of your gold plated jewelry.
