Far less expensive than diamonds and solid gold items, gold plated jewelry could be affordable and beautiful. If you are just like us, have gold plated jewelry in your collection, it is necessary to know how to clean them, care them properly and keep them look new and shiny as long as possible.
Knowing how to clean gold plated jewelry is as important as knowing how to clean solid gold jewelry. As if wrong solutions applied, they could tarnish or its color could fade.
What Do You Need to Clean Gold Plated Jewelry?
Cleaning gold plated jewelry could be very easy, and here are the items that you should prepare:
- Jewelry cloth or soft cloth
- Warm water
- A small bowl
- Mild dish soap
- Soft toothbrush
How to Clean Gold Plated Jewelry?
1, Soak the jewelry for 10-15 minutes. Put some warm water and few drops of mild dish soap in a small bowl, mix them till create some subs. Soak the jewelry in the water for 10-15 minutes.
2, Gently rub the jewelry with soft toothbrush. The surface of jewelry could buildup much oil or dirt if we wear them often. Gently use soft toothbrush to clean the surface or where dirt are easily collected. Then rinse them under running warm water thoroughly.
3, Air-dry the jewelry thoroughly. Use a soft cloth to gently wipe the jewelry and let them air-dry thoroughly.
Gold Plated Jewelry vs Solid Gold Jewelry
There is no pure gold jewelry in this world, as pure gold is pretty soft which means its shape can be changed easily and it is very easily scratched. So to make it stronger, pure gold must be mixed with metal alloys. Then we have different percentage of gold, like 10k, 14k, 18k and 24k.
Gold plated jewelry is a layer of gold (10k, 14k, 18k.. ) wrapped on a base metal, and the base metal usually are stainless steel, brass, sterling silver, or copper. They look like as solid gold jewelry but the gold layer is pretty thin, so sooner or later, gold plated items will lose its color or tarnish. But if you care for your jewelry properly, they also could last for years.
How often should you clean your gold plated jewelry?
It depends on how often you wear your jewelry. Clean it at least once a week if you wear them often.
How Do You Care for Gold Plated Jewelry?
1, Avoid chemicals. Lotion, perfume, hair-spray and makeup could do harm to the gold plating. So to keep the jewelry from tarnishing or losing the shine, remove them before applying any chemical products.
2, Keep them away from beach or pool. The chlorine and other chemicals in the pool can tarnish your jewelry and make them lose shines. Salt water and sand at the beach all do harms to your jewelry.
3, Remove them before workout. Sweat will tarnish your gold plated jewelry.
4, Store them properly. Get a jewelry box, or wrap them in a soft cloth. Put them in a sealed plastic bag if your jewelry is made of gold plated sterling silver.
How to Clean Gold Plated Jewelry with Gemstones?
Here is an article introducing how to clean gemstone jewelry.