How to Make Homemade Gold Jewelry Cleaner 

Making a simple homemade jewelry cleaner is extremely simple and can be done with the most basic of ingredients.

Ingredients

• 1 Cup Warm to Hot Water
• 1 Tablespoon Dish Detergent
• Old, Soft Toothbrush for Cleaning Crevices

How To Clean Jewelry

• Mix 1 tablespoon of mild soap or dish detergent with 1 cup of hot water (no need to boil, just hot water from the tap).
• Let your gold jewelry sit in the medium-hot to hot water with the detergent for 3-5 minutes to loosen up any dirt or buildup. Solid gold jewelry by itself will not be hurt by sitting in your homemade jewelry cleaner, even for extended periods.
• Use an old, soft toothbrush if necessary to gently clean inside crevices.
• Remove from water, rinse with plain hot water to get all the soap off.
• Dry with a soft cloth, such as micro-fiber cloth.

Drying Tips

• Even after drying, you may get water spots on your jewelry. You can wipe this off using a soft, gentle cloth, like a jewelry polishing cloth.
• If you are cleaning gold jewelry, one tip is to have a hair dryer handy and use the hot setting to air dry your jewelry to evaporate all the water from your jewelry, before drying it with a cloth. This is safe with solid gold jewelry alone. DO NOT USE heat or a hair-dryer on gemstones, as it can ruin your gem or cause discoloration.

DOs and DONTs

• This is intended for 10k, 14k, 18k or 22k solid gold jewelry. Do not try on plated or costume jewelry without consulting a professional. You can use the same ingredients and add 1 tablespoon of baking soda for home silver jewelry cleaner.
• We do not recommend cleaning jewelry with gemstones in this way, because gemstones can become cloudy when heat is applied and you can ruin your gemstones. Diamonds are OK, however.
• Try to use gentle detergents and stay away from detergents that have chlorine in them, especially when it comes to white gold.

While a good homemade gold jewelry cleaner recipe is recommended for most basic, jewelry cleaning, care and maintenance, we recommend professional jewelry cleaning for deeper and more thorough cleaning and for speciality items or jewelry with stones, other than diamonds, which, as they say, are pretty much indestructible.

Category: Jewelry Care, Jewelry Education