7 Ways of Cleaning Diamond Earrings

Learn about the secrets of keeping your earrings set with diamonds beautiful and sparkling at home using regular household items.
 

An Introduction

Such special earrings are meant to be treasured, kept neat and given utmost care, but one thing that cannot be avoided is getting them dirty. Through wearing them frequently, any jewel becomes dirty and as a result starts to look dull. Oil from the skin and ear get stuck to them thereby making the look dull, and the stones look lustreless. The dirtiness of the earrings is however not the end of the road. There are various ways to give these earrings their brightness and glow once again by making them clean again. Many products that can be easily used at home will do the job.
 

Consider A Jewelry Kit

Jewelry has its own special kit which contains some specially prepared solutions capable of cleaning jewelry set with diamonds by dissolving or loosening the sticky agents. You might want to consider getting one of these kits if you get them dirty frequently. This is your way of being ready to be able to adequately beautiful the earrings and any other piece of jewelry, should the need arise. Before you purchase or use any jewelry cleaning solution, make sure you read the instructions so as to be sure it is safe for them, and perhaps even more importantly if it can be hazardous in contact with the skin. These kits usually come with a set of instructions on using them, but they are by far not an absolute must. It can also be done at home with regular household ingredients if you have them.
 

    A little precaution before you start to with white gold earrings!

We do not recommend using any sort of brush when doing this! When you use any kind of brush you risk removing the Rhodium coating which is used on the highest quality white gold jewelry and will cause scratches and lack of luster. For any kind of white gold jewelry we recommend either giving it to your jeweler (clients who have purchased any item in our shop who shows a certificate of purchase may come for a free professional tune-up) or using no more than a cloth in terms of friction, so please try to avoid using a brush of any sort when rubbing your white gold diamond earrings. You can of course still use a brush if it’s not too hard if you wish to clean yellow and rose gold earrings set with diamonds in your home’s comfort.
 

    A little precaution about the proper fabrics to use for doing this with diamond earrings!

Diamond earrings will often have many diamonds set in the gold, as a small minority are solitaire earrings. The many diamonds that are set in the gold of the earrings will often catch many bits of the fabric you are using to clean them, which will cause a very unpleasant effect (thin bits of string sticking out). This is actually a very frequent occurence, and for this reason we recommend using fabrics that don’t easily rip. The average cloth for example will leave bits of string in the process. Try to use a fabric not made of many thin strings, but thicker ones.
 

With Regular Household Items At Home

In general the rule is if you have a safe solution, pour an amount of the solution into a bowl and soak them for a couple of hours, preferably overnight. Take them out and rinse with water (warm) then dry with a cloth.
Besides having a safe solution to cleaning jewelry with, it is imperative that you have the right cloth and brush to get your earrings properly spotless. A hard brush can damage your earrings so the brush to be used must have soft bristles and the cloth should be able to gently remove anything getting in the way of its beauty. In this case, a toothbrush will do. Not a wire brush or one with hard bristles but something close to a child’s toothbrush or brushes designed specifically for tackling the issue of jewelry. Worn out (but toothbrushes work are another very good option, because the bristles no longer have much of their strength left. If you want to dry them, use a microfiber piece of clothing as this is soft and can clean diamond earrings gently. Some models have very fragile setups. If your diamond earring is one of these, just don’t bother about the brush.
 

Get a flat surface like a table, so you can have room to place a bowl and towel. Also get a cup or small bowl in which you can keep them in. Make sure to create enough room to accommodate your equipment. Depending on how toxic your solution is, rubber gloves might come handy. There are other methods of getting them spotless them apart from using a solution. Some methods of cleaning them at home are outlined below;
 

I. Using Dish soap:
This method is our prefered suggestion for getting your earrings beautiful again if a special kit is not available at home and might be the best method you can use at home to bring out the sparkle of your diamonds. Regular dish soap can work very well in place of specialized jewelry tools. Dishwashing liquid contains chemicals that are useful in removing excessive oils and grease from kitchen utensils. This same dirt found on kitchen utensils can also be found on them so why not apply it to your fashion accessory also. The dish soap can easily get dirt and oils off diamond earrings. To clean them using regular dish soap, get mild dish soap (about one teaspoonful) that does not contain perfume or dye, so it does not damage them. Mix the dish soap with mildly warm water and stir until bubbles are formed. Then soak your earrings in the solution for about five minutes to loosen any oil or dirt. Brush them softly then soak for another two minutes. Remove them and rinse with clear water.
 

II. Using Windex:
Windex is another option when it comes to getting your diamond earrings spotless at home. Simply spray Windex on a brush or toothbrush then brush the earrings softly. Afterward, rinse them with water and wipe dry with a soft fabric as gently as possible. While cleaning, you should try to concentrate better on gently rubbing the inner portions of your earring than on the outer areas; this is because soaps, lotions, and other debris tend to accumulate more on those hidden areas than about the external band.
 

III. Using Ammonia:
Ammonia is one of the most common ways of getting your jewelry spotless at home. How do you get diamond earrings beautiful again with ammonia? To clean diamond earrings using ammonia, mix ammonia with lots of water. Do NOT use hot water! Soak them in the solution for twenty minutes. Make sure you wear rubber gloves for this activity. Then put the soaked earrings into warm water and add dish soap (one teaspoon). Use a soft brush to scrub them and then rinse in warm water. For those with allergies to ammonia, you could use Lestoil in its place. Lestoil works the same way as ammonia and with a little soaking and soft rubbing using a soft toothbrush, you can remove excessive dirt in no time. This is ideal for people with allergies to ammonia.
 

IV. Using Club Soda:
Club soda is quite efficient in making diamonds and other gems shine brighter if they are soaked for several hours. Put the diamond earrings in a cup of club soda and soak overnight, which should leave them shining and sparkling. An alternative is with the use of denture tablet which can be dropped into a cup of water to form a solution. Then you put the earring set into the solution for some minutes then rinse the jewelry.
 

V. Using Vodka:
You can also make use of vodka to get the job done in the comfort of your own home. Drop your earrings into vodka in a glass and soak for about two minutes. Remove them and rinse with warm water. Dry and polish them with fabric that does not contain lint. In general, any clear liquid containing a high volume of alcohol is a good way to remove stains of all sorts.
 

VI. Using Toothpaste:
Toothpaste is another item found in your home you can use to make your earrings sparkle again. Apply a little toothpaste on a soft toothbrush and clean them mildly, the residue can be wiped off with a damp cloth. This is not only efficient but also cheap.
 

VII. Consider a trip to a jeweler:
Most jewelers will professionally take care of the issue any jewel you bring to them. Depending on the jeweler, prices will be very low! If you come to our shop for example, we can clean your diamond earrings for you within 1 hour to the highest level of expertise, making them shine like new, starting at only 20 euros! If all options fail, do consider asking your local jeweler for prices regarding the cost of this service.